Vuelta a España thread - spoilers allowed

The Vuelta a España starts tomorrow with a team time trial. I am looking forward to the racing, so I hope there are a few more people interested in this forum...

The favorites to win are Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas, defending champion), Michele Scarponi (Lampre) and Igor Anton (Euskatel Euskadi). Cycling News has a write up on the top 10 contenders. Among the riders that should be fun to watch are Peter Sagan, Taylor Phinney, Cavendish and Farrar. Wiggins and van den Broeck will also be there, as well as Cancellara, Klöden, Boonen, Chavanel, etc. I think it will be a contested race, so it should be fun to watch.

This site has plenty of information about the Vuelta: http://www.steephill.tv/vuelta-a-espana/

Too busy to figure out how to watch it. If I start watching, I know I'll spend way too much time. Best not to start.

As usual I'm watching all the coverage I can of the Vuelta, it's available on ITV 4 and British Eurosport over here, hope Wiggins and Team Sky do well, they had an unlucky Prologue but got the stage win yesterday. Would have liked to see Cav up there at the finish but team tactics left them short and Goss abandoned on yesterdays stage, would be great for HTC to have a successful Vuelta and a fitting swansong for the team.

I'll probably follow the Vuelta mostly reading online and save my TV time for whatever the Tour of Colorado is called now.

Yesterday's stage was fun. I love that even the sprint stages are "lumpy"... they tend to open the race a bit more to lesser known riders. At the end of yesterday, there was an 8% "ramp". Boonen imploded after giving it a go - he sat down and he looked done.

Anyway, the Colorado race is only one week long and the replays in Versus are at 11PM!

Just in case, RTVE from Spain is keeping a video archive with the complete stages: http://www.rtve.es/deportes/ciclismo...espana/videos/

The Vuelta is on Universal Sports. I watched this weekend's stages but will probably not have time to watch them much on weekdays.

I tried to find the transcript of the Live Update coverage on velonews.com, but it's pretty well hidden.

Watched the Prologue of the USA Pro Tour. Lots of comments about how the alltitude will affect the cyclists.

Can't wait for the mountain stages. The scenery will be awesome.

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Originally Posted by ny biker

I tried to find the transcript of the Live Update coverage on velonews.com, but it's pretty well hidden.

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On their web page, select the Vuelta under "Races", then the stage. Scroll down and the "Replay: Live Coverage..." will be there. I'm watching today's stage on Universal.

Watching the end of today's stage now.
The announcing is good, but the quality of the video is awful. It looks like I am watching someone's old home movies. So spoiled by the HD/Versus.
But, it's nice to hear that the riders are "being trashed by the heat," the same way I was when I rode in southern Spain!

Pll- I watched the Colorado race yesterday at 3:00pm-5pm on Versus.

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Originally Posted by Crankin

So spoiled by the HD/Versus.

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Totally!!! I feel the same way.

It was 113 degrees out there today. I could not ride a bike *down* a hill in that, let alone climb a mountain.

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Originally Posted by denda

Pll- I watched the Colorado race yesterday at 3:00pm-5pm on Versus.

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I am at work, in the office, until at least 5pm CST... I tried to watch yesterday, but I fell asleep on the couch -- 10pm is not that late, but I wake by 5am these days.... I was looking forward to seeing a bit of the stunning sites of Colorado through this event, but the TV coverage, at least the first 35 minutes of it (before I fell asleep) where so bad... start and arrival only!

Live online coverage. www.usaprocyclingchallenge.com. Click on "Shack Tour Tracker" in the right hand corner. 3:30 pm Eastern everyday. Earlier on Sunday.
The only great views yesterday were of the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs.

Hey, all:

MuddyTrails here, "reporting" from Granada, Spain. I just got back home from vacation in Galicia (gorgeous!) and thought I'd make it in time to grab my bike and watch yesterday's stage. Alas, that was not to be.

However, I did manage to grab some shots of today's neutralized start, as the peloton rode down from Sierra Nevada, right through the main street of my little town, Cenes de la Vega.

It is 12:20 PM local time, the peloton rode by around 12:15 PM through Cenes, headed towards the center of Granada. My partner is in town today, and waiting to get more pics of the riders going through Gran Vía de Colón.

As soon as I upload my pictures and hers', I'll post the best ones here.

Saludos,

Isa

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Originally Posted by Kathi

Live online coverage. www.usaprocyclingchallenge.com. Click on "Shack Tour Tracker" in the right hand corner. 3:30 pm Eastern everyday. Earlier on Sunday.
The only great views yesterday were of the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs.

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If I open that link at work, I will be doomed. Then I would have to watch the Vuelta in the morning, too. Next year, maybe I should vacation time around the tours.