Vuelta a Espana on terrestrial UK telly

[chipper]

That final climb looked brutal. Any reason other than pride and a few hundred grams why nobody pitchs up with a triple chainset for such stages?

Simple answer,The extra width between the pedals which is required with a triple chainset ,although fairly small, can cause serious knee problems for a pro.They get round this by using 53/34 front chainrings.

 

[David B]

That final climb looked brutal. Any reason other than pride and a few hundred grams why nobody pitchs up with a triple chainset for such stages?

Simple answer,The extra width between the pedals which is required with a triple chainset ,although fairly small, can cause serious knee problems for a pro.They get round this by using 53/34 front chainrings.

Triples have been tried out for the Angliru in the past, but amongst climbs it's the exception than the rule.
Not sure if Wiggins was over-geared yesterday or just plain on the limit. Still can't rule him or Froome out for the overall honours though.

David

 

[Kerplunk]

Haven't seen all the highlights but apparantly Wiggins had dropped his chain on the previous descent and had to work hard to get back to the front. So may have been on the limit having been pushing it before the climb. With only one more summit finish I'm not sure either Froome or Wiggins can make back the time. Its not like they'll be allowed to break away on the flat stages. Cobo does have teammates like Menchov to help him on climbs.

 

[Kerplunk]

Excellent stage again today. Froome has been immense (as has Cobo), just a shame they ballsed the stage 1 TTT. Would love to see Sky try and get him into position to nick a few of the intermediate sprints over the next couple of days.

 

[Old Ned]

Cracking effort by Froome. Perhaps he should have waited just a bit and gone later, might have maintained the gap. Not seen the 2 top contenders fighting it out like this in a Grand Tour for years, classic stuff

Intermediate sprints could be interesting from now on.

 

[Kerplunk]

Not sure he could've waited much longer, his plan was to give it an almighty dig where it was steepest and could be most effective. I think the only slight mistake he may have made was looking over his right shoulder when Cobo was beginning to come back at him. Cobo was just coming round the left hand bend and I'm not sure Froome saw him. If he had I think he'd have gone again at that point and not thought he had 10secs or so.
17 man breakaway have nearly 10min lead at the moment so intermediate sprints likely to be swept up by them. Do Sky have enough depth and I guess goodwill in the peleton to let them try and TTT it in the last 20km of a stage? Only Geox have a reason to chase them other than teams with a sprinter still looking for something.