I have still yet to be disappointed by la Vuelta. I will admit that it does follow the typical Grand Tour format, it is a Grand Tour. The attack happens early, forms a break, the leader's team does the work keeping the gap down, sprinter's teams take over for the catch and bada bing bada boom we have a stage in the books.
Sure sounds great on paper, now throw in a cat 2 climb and soften up those sprinter's legs. Only climbers, rouleurs and hard men can make that kind of climb and still have the legs to sprint it out after 151k. OK, scratch the climbers on the sprinting, but at least they are still there in the end.
Now that we know what kind/type of rider is going to be at the finish we can now take auditions for the finish. Cavo, Tyler sorry not your kind of day...have a seat in the autobus. Alright, who is left? Oh yeah we have Pozzato, Thor, Bennati, Gilbert, and some others. Mix these guys together and you have a classic, Fabian was in the autobus with the sprinters (who's wanting some rainbow stripes this year?).
After the catch was made it was a free-for-all, with the sprinters MIA there were no trains leaving the station today. It was "a stage hunting we will go." Gilbert had a lead out of one, and he put on a good show, but with Thor et al on your wheel you are pretty much doomed to no-podium. Thor took full advantage of the lead out and scorched the field. Thor may not be the straight-up sprinter of Cavo and Tyler, but he is a classics guy who can light it up in the sprint. Head to head Cavo can take Thor, but if Cavo is 12min back it is no contest. I was pretty harsh on Thor in le Tour, so I have to give him credit where credit is due. Impressive
So here is something to "talk amongst yourselves": Best sprinter...is it the guy who is most consistent, or is it the one with the most wins? Consistency is taking points in intermediate sprints and finishing in the top 5. Most wins, hope you can figure that one out on your own. So which is it going to be?
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