Subject: Vuelta a España 2011

if froome can't keep up wiggo wil take over ;)

Nah. Fuglsang will keep up with Wiggins and the other guys :p

It's a hard situation for Sky. The helper took the jersey and seems to be stronger than Wiggins. Anyway Nibali is the favourite, from the top 10 he is the only man who has already won a Grand Tour. However I hope Mollema will beat all his GC rivals. In PCM 2009 I won the 2011 Vuelta with him. :)

Well, situation in the Sky team is rather similar (the only -but maybe very important- difference is in general ranking) as in Europcar during the Tour. And I think that also their strategy will be quite same. So Wiggins -still- for overall with Froome able to stay with him during the hardest climbs (since even Wiggins isn´t pure climber like e. g. Nibali) and try to win some stage if Wiggo allows him..
I fear a bit that Nibali will win this Vuelta by just following attacks. Rodriguez and Van den Broeck have to ride really hard, especially on Angliru, and then it can be very interesting.. ;)

Nibali can implode on the steep flanks of el angliru. I'd say the vuelta is still veyr much open

Sky just have to control the race and don't have to attack
They have the (2) best time trialist of the GC riders
if one has a bad day, they will choose the card from the other rider ;)

Is it silly to predict that with real mountain stages, both Froome and Wiggins will loose some minutes?
Likely Nibali should be on top then ?
Fuglsang follow all the way...JvdB is not the same form as in TdF ...he was heavily hurt....
I will support Wiggins anyway, but I am not sure if he can do it.....:)
for the dutch ; mollema is excellent and kruiswijck can still come in the higher mountains.

Great you support Wiggo

FORZA TEAM SKY !

Viva Nibali :D

C'mon Kessiakoff!

No :o

C´mon Sagan and Velits :D

korsakoff? oh no kessiakov.... it is a big surprise...bt will he hold on?
Yesterday wiggy was superb....an to be honest, Nibali looked almost like leipheimer....just holding on...but for sure he already counted on next three days...
Froome was actually very good, as e had to do lot of work for Wiggins and only lost few secs.

Today a mountain stage, Sarria - Ponferrada 158.2 km (98.3 mi).

Live
lavuelta.com - See the dynamic route summary
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Saturday and Sunday 2 really nice mountain stages.
(edited)

today a large group will get over and finish together if not whole pack.
Tomorrow the sub classifieds will have a chance to get ahead early(ish) and inish bfore the real deal. This way one or two riders from 10-30 place will get in top 5 positions.
Sunday should be cracking...the favorits all play "safe" untill then.....

prediction after sunday; 1. Wiggy 2.Mollema.3.Scarponi.4.Nibali5.VdBroeck

My favorite for next two stages is definitely Rodriguez. I don´t think he will take GC lead but he can win both stages. It will be very hard test for Cobo, Kessiakoff, Mollema, Fuglsang, Monfort and Zubeldia. And I guess Froome (and Wiggo too?) will blow on Angliru, maybe even like Kreuziger on Monte Zoncolan during this year´s Giro. Also don´t believe too much in Nibali but he is currently in great position..
So what about this: 1, Nibali 2, Kessiakoff 3, Rodriguez 4, Wiggo 5, Cobo ? ;)