Page 7 - 2004 La Vuelta a Espana

12-09.-2004, 03:11 AM	#91
Virenque Registered User Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Ljubljana, Slovenia Posts: 1,213	Re: 2004 La Vuelta a Espana Postals are so good in TTs! It must be a different training method in USPS as in others... Uff, I tomorrow it will be exciting! Its very hard to say who is the best in mountains! Last year there were about 10 riders, comming together in every mountain stage and it was a little bit boring..

12-09.-2004, 06:31 AM	#92
gntlmn Registered User Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Anchorage, Alaska, USA Posts: 1,672	Re: 2004 La Vuelta a Espana If you all haven't heard yet, Tyler smoked the Time Trial, averaging 31.6 mph on the mostly flat 40.1 km course. Landis took the overall lead, being a better time trialer than Beltran. But Beltran is only 10 sec back now on the overall. So the difference is not much. Hamilton worked his way all the way up to third, 32 sec back from the lead. Tomorrow is going to be a gut busting mountainous stage, and we'll see the overall standings begin to take the look of a grand tour. There are 3 cat 2's, 3 cat 3's and a 162 km course starting at 130 m and ending at 1510 m. It's a mountaintop finish at Alto de Aitana. Clearly, this stage favors the climbers. This will be very interesting. The crowd is going to be huge I think.

12-09.-2004, 06:37 AM	#93
Virenque Registered User Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Ljubljana, Slovenia Posts: 1,213	Re: 2004 La Vuelta a Espana You forgot to write that mountain top finnish is horse category.. And Im afraid youre wrong about the crowds! You can see huge crowds in Giro and Tour on big climbs, but in Vuelta is diferent! In most of mountain stages there are not a lot of crowds, just at the end there are some, but still nothing comparing with Giro and Tour..

12-09.-2004, 06:38 AM

#94

philoakley

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Location: London

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Re: 2004 La Vuelta a Espana

Quote:

Originally Posted by gntlmn

If you all haven't heard yet, Tyler smoked the Time Trial, averaging 31.6 mph on the mostly flat 40.1 km course. Landis took the overall lead, being a better time trialer than Beltran. But Beltran is only 10 sec back now on the overall. So the difference is not much. Hamilton worked his way all the way up to third, 32 sec back from the lead.

Tomorrow is going to be a gut busting mountainous stage, and we'll see the overall standings begin to take the look of a grand tour. There are 3 cat 2's, 3 cat 3's and a 162 km course starting at 130 m and ending at 1510 m. It's a mountaintop finish at Alto de Aitana. Clearly, this stage favors the climbers. This will be very interesting. The crowd is going to be huge I think.

Beltran did a great ride today as did Mancebo. It's now down to Heras, Valverde and Mancebo to drop Hamilton and the USP's in the mountains.It looks that this race is very finely poised. If Beltran can replicate his climbing from from last year's TDF then he will be hard to beat. Anyway, I thnk that the next two weeks will be very entertaining.

12-09.-2004, 06:48 AM

#95

gntlmn

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Re: 2004 La Vuelta a Espana

Quote:

Originally Posted by Virenque

You forgot to write that mountain top finnish is horse category..
And Im afraid youre wrong about the crowds! You can see huge crowds in Giro and Tour on big climbs, but in Vuelta is diferent! In most of mountain stages there are not a lot of crowds, just at the end there are some, but still nothing comparing with Giro and Tour..

Thanks for pointing out this information. I cannot tell how the official website designates hors category climbs on the profile. I see the cat 2's and cat 3's labelled clearly, but I was beginning to wonder why I wasn't seeing the expected hors categories. It's the labelling that I still don't follow.

As for the crowds, I see now that this official description is a bit misleading, and I quote from the official website:

We reach one of the stages that has set a new record as regard the number of followers watching the riders passing by. In La Vuelta 2001, we got to Aitana from Valencia and all the surrounding roads were collapsed because of the huge number of people who came to watch the stage. Möller, Simoni and Sastre were the best riders, and Sevilla was leader overall. This time the stage will be very hard again with seven tops to reach. Three of them will be of a third category, and other three of second category.

End of quote.

I see now that this description is a matter of degrees. This is a big crowd for the Vuelta, as it says, but the fact that it doesn't come close to the Tour de France for viewership is a point well made, and you won't see them rubbing this in too much in Spain. It's easy to get misled by the hype on this official website.

12-09.-2004, 06:51 AM

#96

gntlmn

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Re: 2004 La Vuelta a Espana

Quote:

Originally Posted by philoakley

I'm very curious about Heras. Perhaps he was really using the Tour de France to prepare for the Vuelta this year, but we shall see. Beltran is also an unknown. But don't forget about Landis. He did some incredible climbing in the Tour this year. If he and Beltran team up well, the two of them may do very well on this stage. We'll see. They both seem to be in top form now.

12-09.-2004, 06:54 AM

#97

Virenque

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Re: 2004 La Vuelta a Espana

Quote:

Originally Posted by gntlmn

OK the crowds were big (see it here) hehe, but in most of the stages are not. Last year the Vuelta went on the same roads as last years Tour (col d`Aspin, col de Peyresourde, ...) and the diference was enormous hehe!

Last edited by Virenque : 12-09.-2004 at 07:03 AM.

12-09.-2004, 07:02 AM	#98
gntlmn Registered User Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Anchorage, Alaska, USA Posts: 1,672	Re: 2004 La Vuelta a Espana I'm glad to see that Petacchi has regained his form in this Vuelta. I was pretty disappointed when he and Cippolini dropped out of the Tour this year. I was beginning to wonder if Petacchi was going to have a very short time in the limelight. But now he's up to 20 wins for the season, including 3 in the Vuelta. He says he was not even feeling very well the first 2 wins, but he felt very strong yesterday. He says he's back.

12-09.-2004, 07:05 AM

#99

gntlmn

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Re: 2004 La Vuelta a Espana

Quote:

Originally Posted by Virenque

OK the crowds were big (see them it here) hehe, but in most of the stages are not. Last year the Vuelta went on the same roads as last years Tour (col d`Aspin, col de Peyresourde, ...) and the diference was enormous hehe!

There must be a huge difference, as you point out. Otherwise, OLN and many of the other media companies that follow the Tour would also be following the Vuelta. I am sure that the local Spaniards at least are very proud of their Grand Tour though. It is a very challenging race. There are a lot of great riders there this year too.

12-09.-2004, 07:12 AM	#100
Roadrash Dunc Registered User Join Date: Aug 2004 Posts: 259	Re: 2004 La Vuelta a Espana Cant understand why OLN arent broadcasting it for you guys. The TdF has the most prestige and awareness obviously. The Giro is the most beautiful. But the Vuelta is always the most exciting and hardest.

12-09.-2004, 07:18 AM	#101
Virenque Registered User Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Ljubljana, Slovenia Posts: 1,213	Re: 2004 La Vuelta a Espana They have the reason! I dont think there are a lot of americans want to watch the Vuelta! And it would be the same with Tour if Lance will not participate.. Hm..Vuelta the hardest? I think the Tour is.. Last edited by Virenque : 12-09.-2004 at 07:27 AM.

12-09.-2004, 08:10 AM	#102
Roadrash Dunc Registered User Join Date: Aug 2004 Posts: 259	Re: 2004 La Vuelta a Espana Nah the Veulta is often considered by riders the hardest to complete - maybe not to win (as some notable favourites dont always ride it) but its physically more gruelling in most years. Its hot and high - more climbs than the Tour and spread out more so you dont get into a rhythm.The TdF splits the Alps and Pyrenees into 2 chunks of 2-3 days so riders can mentally prepare for them easier.The Vuelta is more relentless. Anyway , Tyler the all American hero is favourite for the Vuelta.Gold Medal Olympiad too , silly not to screen it. Its usually a more interesting race too.And i wouldnt say the fans dont turn out en masse , certainly not on the big mountain stages.The basque fans are more passionate than any and read this , taken from the veulta website : >>>We reach one of the stages that has set a new record as regard the number of followers watching the riders passing by. In La Vuelta 2001, we got to Aitana from Valencia and all the surrounding roads were collapsed because of the huge number of people who came to watch the stage<<< Imagine that!

12-09.-2004, 04:43 PM	#103
Virenque Registered User Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Ljubljana, Slovenia Posts: 1,213	Re: 2004 La Vuelta a Espana But the most of mountain stages are with just little crowds! Last year there were big mountain stages and just MTT had big crowds! I think todays stage is popular because big city, Valencia is not far away! Did you see how many people were watching yestrdays TT? Very little! And it was near Valencia! I dont know why, but there are big diferences in number of crowds between Tour, Giro and Vuelta! If you check the photos you can see that..

12-09.-2004, 10:58 PM	#104
Virenque Registered User Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Ljubljana, Slovenia Posts: 1,213	Re: 2004 La Vuelta a Espana Something is wrong with Ag2R riders too! Andy Flickinger, Julien Laidoun and Stephane Berges have all abandoned!

13-09.-2004, 12:08 AM

#105

Brunswick_kate

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Location: New Brunswick, Canada

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Re: 2004 La Vuelta a Espana

Quote:

Originally Posted by Roadrash Dunc

Cant understand why OLN arent broadcasting it for you guys.

.

$$$$$.....The programming is expensive to produce and there isn't the audience numbers to support it, so advertisers won't buy time which ....

I think the head of programming for OLN has a column in Velonews about the whys...but something about it takes them 84 crew members working 20 hr days to put on the Tour de France programming....very expensive for OLN and even then advertisers aren't exactly flocking. This year it was Subaru and Trek pretty much who picked up the bill for it.

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