La Vuelta 2017 - sun, sea and sangria? Possibly not!

[FelicityLemon]

1 Team time trial Saturday, August 19th Nîmes / Nîmes 13.7 km
2 Flat Sunday, August 20th Nîmes / Gruissan. Grand Narbonne. Aude 203.4 km
3 Mountain Monday, August 21st Prades Conflent Canigó / Andorra la Vella 158.5 km
4 Flat Tuesday, August 22nd Escaldes-Engordany / Tarragona. Anella Mediterránea 2018 198.2 km
5 Hilly Wednesday, August 23rd Benicàssim / Alcossebre 175.7 km
6 Hilly Thursday, August 24th Vila-real / Sagunt 204.4 km
7 Hilly Friday, August 25th Llíria / Cuenca. Ciudad Patrimonio de la Humanidad 207 km
8 Hilly Saturday, August 26th Hellín / Xorret de Catí. Costa Blanca Interior 199.5 km
9 Flat Sunday, August 27th Orihuela. Ciudad del Poeta Miguel Hernández / Cumbre del Sol. El Poble Nou de Benitatxell 174 km

• Rest day Monday, August 28th Provincia de Alicante 10 Flat Tuesday, August 29th Caravaca Año Jubilar 2017 / ElPozo Alimentación 164.8 km 11 Hilly Wednesday, August 30th Lorca / Observatorio Astronómico de Calar Alto 187.5 km 12 Hilly Thursday, August 31st Motril / Antequera. Los Dólmenes 160.1 km 13 Flat Friday, September 1st Coín / Tomares 198.4 km 14 Mountain Saturday, September 2nd Écija / Sierra de La Pandera 175 km 15 Mountain Sunday, September 3rd Alcalá la Real / Sierra Nevada. Alto Hoya de la Mora. Monachil 129.4 km
• Rest day Monday, September 4th Logroño 16 Individual time trial Tuesday, September 5th Circuito de Navarra / Logroño 40.2 km 17 Mountain Wednesday, September 6th Villadiego / Los Machucos. Monumento Vaca Pasiega 180.5 km 18 Hilly Thursday, September 7th Suances / Santo Toribio de Liébana 169 km 19 Hilly Friday, September 8th Caso. Parque Natural de Redes / Gijón 149.7 km 20 Mountain Saturday, September 9th Corvera de Asturias / Alto de l'Angliru 117.5 km 21 Flat Sunday, September 10th Arroyomolinos / Madrid 117.6 km

Yes it's that time of year again.

Don't forget to pick your teams www.velogames.com/vuelta-a-espana/2017/entryform.php

Perm any 9 from this selection www.lavuelta.com/la-vuelta/2017/us/teams.html

Thanks for starting a thread Felicity

Will take a look at Velogames when I get a chance.

Hello! I signed up for Velogames this morning! The first time ever i've remembered in time! I still don't completely understand it. I've picked my team but don't know what happens next.

In case you are not aware, a Reddit forum called Peloton do an excellent summary of each stage before and after with interviews and lots of information. The Pre-Race Thread is here and the Race Thread for Stage 1 is here

Hi fellow Redditor! I can confirm the quality of the post race threads, you can usually get video clips of important parts of the race too!

Hello! Have you joined their velogames league? We could do a mn one.

We have an MN league check the Velogames thread I would link but am on the phone I think you can join more than one league. I haven't joined the Reddit one so will check on that see if I can join late

ah i'll have a look see :)

This is looking more Le Tour than vuelta. Sky on front in lead shirt.

Froome is riding the Vuelta very differently from the strategies he uses a the TdF. I'm enjoying Contador & Nbali mischief very much. And GO NICO! Sterling maneuver today to almost snatch 2nd place from Chavez.

Yeah, anyone...a little bit...bored?

I have been distracted from the Vuelta firstly by a film festival for 5 days and secondly by illness for the past two. I intended to catch up Tuesday and yesterday but have felt too ill to sit and watch tv so have just read race reports. Glad to see Quick Step doing well, but yes the thought that the well financed Sky train will now start to suck all the quirkiness and excitement out of all the grand tours fills me with dread.

I don't think that's fair... Contador & Nbali are injecting lots of excitement. Roche too. The Yates brothers (will I ever learn to tell them apart!). There are talents we didn't see on the TdF. And I haven't even seen today's stage yet but I heard a few results.

Vuelta is a lot more exciting than TdF ime, b/c the course itself is more demanding (imho). Same for Giro, really.

I see the Yates brothers are not doing as well as they have done in the TdF. Maybe they were sharing the load during the Tour

Today was not boring.

Contador was incredible! Froome and Poels impressive too. What a day!

So after all that maybe Nibbles did win.

Could be....umm.......interesting.

Handbags at dawn

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/42363825

Yes I read that. Perhaps would have been better not put on Twitter really.