Good talk from Vinokourov
What a Vuelta! Yesterday Vinokourov attacked repeatedly trying to shake Valverde but to no avail. He even had Sastre dropped at one point but then refused to cooperate with Valverde. When Valverde asked him to work so that they could gain time on everyone else Vinokourov refused afterwards saying, "Valverde asked me to make the pace, but I said to him that I would not and that I was only interested in attacking him." That's good shit, no riding for second only for the win.
Today was one of the better races I can recall seeing. The final mountain top crested some 18k from the finish, too far to really shake up the GC. That is, unless the favorites threw caution to the wind and attacked the piss out of one another. Sastre fired the first salvo, Valverde even went on the offensive, but it was Kashechkin and Marchante who escaped. In the closing kms of the climb Vinokourov was finally able to land a body shot and get away from Valverde to join his teammate and the Spanaird in their escape. Valverde wasn't tailed off by too much and made a great descent on the upper technical slopes of the mountain. Just as he was about to rejoin the 3 escapees however Vinokourov went away, or at least Kashechkin opened a gap and let him ride away. No worries, they were on big wide roads now, going downhill, how much time could Vino gain? How about over a minute and half to take the Gold jersey. Unreal! Somehow Vino was cranking out so much power he was gaining 5-10 seconds per kilometre going 50-70 kph downhill. No skill involved just pure power riding downhill. Seemingly inexplicably Marchante refused to help Valverde in the chase until it was too late. I'm sure the Spanish press are going to rip him a new asshole tonight.
It didn't help Valverde's cause when Vinokourov caught Danielson who had been in the day-long break and Danielson cooperated, ensuring his first big stage win in Europe as Vino didn't contest the finish. Finally the last two stages Danielson has shown that he can play his part in big time European races. Valverde looked knackered at the end and was sucking down what looked like Spanish Red Bull after the finish. Now only 9 seconds separate the killer V's with one big mountain top finish tomorrow and a short TT on Saturday to decide the winner.
Today was one of the better races I can recall seeing. The final mountain top crested some 18k from the finish, too far to really shake up the GC. That is, unless the favorites threw caution to the wind and attacked the piss out of one another. Sastre fired the first salvo, Valverde even went on the offensive, but it was Kashechkin and Marchante who escaped. In the closing kms of the climb Vinokourov was finally able to land a body shot and get away from Valverde to join his teammate and the Spanaird in their escape. Valverde wasn't tailed off by too much and made a great descent on the upper technical slopes of the mountain. Just as he was about to rejoin the 3 escapees however Vinokourov went away, or at least Kashechkin opened a gap and let him ride away. No worries, they were on big wide roads now, going downhill, how much time could Vino gain? How about over a minute and half to take the Gold jersey. Unreal! Somehow Vino was cranking out so much power he was gaining 5-10 seconds per kilometre going 50-70 kph downhill. No skill involved just pure power riding downhill. Seemingly inexplicably Marchante refused to help Valverde in the chase until it was too late. I'm sure the Spanish press are going to rip him a new asshole tonight.
It didn't help Valverde's cause when Vinokourov caught Danielson who had been in the day-long break and Danielson cooperated, ensuring his first big stage win in Europe as Vino didn't contest the finish. Finally the last two stages Danielson has shown that he can play his part in big time European races. Valverde looked knackered at the end and was sucking down what looked like Spanish Red Bull after the finish. Now only 9 seconds separate the killer V's with one big mountain top finish tomorrow and a short TT on Saturday to decide the winner.
posted by Venga, Venga, Venga! at 12:09 PM
1 Comments:
Hey I want to earn some money too! Oh... that's right, I have a JOB to earn money.
Damn Wayne, I've got to get cycling TV. We had a good DCCofD practce last night. Wes and Dan were in another world. I wonder what color the sky is there.
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