VUELTA - Love, love, love him!!

[maillotpois]

Oh I just LOVE Vino!!! He just put in a HUGE attack after the last climb and is now leading the Vuelta!!! (As cyclingnews' live coverage said: "Holy fiery Kaszakhstanis Batman, that was a massive attack.")

How much more exciting would the Tour have been with him in it? (Not to say it wasn't exciting enough). I just love his style. A friend I trained with for Death Ride last year and I used to try to do Vino impressions when we rode. His whole schtick is "When I feel good, I attack. When I feel bad, I attack." And I love that he's a muscle-y little dude, not some waify pure climber.

While I do like Valverde, I do hope Vino holds his lead.

[Cassandra_Cain]

OMG - I was thinking the same thing.

Serve up the vino baby, because he just put on a clinic today. Wow, what an attack!

He makes racing soooo exciting - he was the one guy in the peloton who was relentless in attacking LA back in his day. None of this watching your rivals or waiting till the end - he just goes for it - uphill, flats, on the downhills, everywhere.

LOL @ when I feel bad/good I attack.

I really like Valverde too and he is the future of the Grand Tours - but Alejandro, darling that he is, is just a 20-something, whereas Vino is already 30+. Valverde will win many races, but Vino's time is now limited.

Agreed, he's not some spindly climber, 16 BMI type - he's got plenty to, uh, love

[maillotpois]

He's a man of very few words, but sometimes he just says great stuff. This was his comment about the stage yesterday: "Valverde asked me to mark the pace, but I said to him that I would not and that I was only interested in attacking him."

He proved he's no liar!

[Cassandra_Cain]

Eh, with racing legs (and a face) like that, few words are no problem!

Tomorrow is going to be a really interesting stage because after that it is just the TT to separate the GC guys. If Vino has the jersey tomorrow, then I see him going to Madrid with it, because I doubt he'd lose time to AV on the TT.

[maillotpois]

Agreed. Valverde did great on that last TT and even so conceded a few seconds to Vino. Tomorrow will be the decisive day. Vino has also been known to lose time in the mtns., so it's pretty up in the air.

[salsabike]

I think Vino is incredibly cute, myself. I belatedly read Lance Armstrong's War during my August hospital days with my mother--I know, about a year later than the rest of you read it, I'm sure. Found it to be an incredibly interesting, pretty well-written, smart book. And he talks a lot about Vino in the book. He's a really impressive rider.

[DrBee]

I love the holy batman quote!