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!

[Nanci]

Salsa, I've read Lance Armstrong's War three times. I love that book.

Nanci

[Cassandra_Cain]

Oh my Vino!

He's done it, what a victory~

Instead of playing cat & mouse or poker or merely watching his rivals, he went right at Valverde, Sastre, etc and beat them all handily. Classy gesture to letting Kash get the stage win after helping him.

Wow

[maillotpois]

YAY YAY! I was "watching", too. Amazing. What an exciting racer to watch. He just doesn't leave anything out there - he uses everything he's got every time.

[margo49]

He just blasted them all down the classement!
Nice the way he "gave " Kasshechkin the "win" over the line. He (K) rode well too.
Had hopes for a few moments that Iban Mayo might "do something", but it came to nothing.
What a climb! What scenery! Total moonscape and that section above the clouds and then descending back down into and through them was just brilliant to watch!

[maillotpois]

No fair Margo - you actually get to WATCH!!!

[margo49]

Just saw the ITT on Eurosport!
Wow! 6 seconds! Unstoppable!
Btw there was this *woman* who gave him a kiss at the finish and then another one just b4 he went into the testing hut.
Of course *I* am faithful to *my* Ree-charr Vee-ronque. I am just telling the rest of you so you are not under any illusions.

[maillotpois]

*I* am faithful to my JaJa.

However, there's something mindlessly handsome and charming about Vino. I like his proportions better than Jaja's. But Jaja has that classic French pout...

[RoadRaven]

You people are so lucky - I have to watch through your words and the reports on velonews/cyclingnews etc

Why doesn't SKY network cover this???? We got every single minute of L'Tour... you'd think a few highlights packages would be easy to slip in!

And yes... Vino is pretty fine...