La Vuelta (Tour of Spain) and The Tour of Britain

[Pan]

Taking a leaf out of my new biking hero Sylvan Chavanel, it seemed a good idea to lead from the front.
Vuelta starts this Saturday, and many of the usual suspects will be in there. The course looks quite climby, so Team Sky have opted for their Columbian rider Sergio Henoa Montoya as leader, tho' an old warrior will be the sprint king.
Useful links are:
A course guide
and
The Start List by Team
As far as I can tell, Eurosport are carrying live action and ITV4 are showing highlights, tho I think that may well be from the action the day before.
The Tour of Britain starts the day the Vuelta ends, 15th September.

Sooo, if you like most things in lycra and whizzing along a road, this is the place for you. As NicholasTeacozy reckons, it's like chess on hundreds of wheels. If you're intrigued but don't know your peloton from your domestique, drop in and someone will no doubt help out.

Wowzers. Had a great day out in llanberis.

And! I have been up close and personal with brad!

DS and I were knocking about the back of the sky bus (checking out their washing machines as you do ) after the presentation when some drunk people pushed us out of the railings so we were on the other side.

I got a lovely pic of DS with Matt Hayman and then brad turned up so he signed ds's arm and he signed something for me. He was in a great mood and was then completely mobbed. I have this on film and you can hear him say 'who's pushing my arse'.

We fought our way through the throng and I said to DS 'brilliant you have brads signature!'. He said 'mum, what's a signature?' i tell him and he says 'Brad can't write very well, can he'.

Can't wait to watch the highlights!

Great stage!!

It delivered, didn't it! I didn't realise Penn-y-Pass was so slight - I've walked up it and drove up it, but riding up it under pressure is prob. a bit different.

And chapeau to Halfmum and ds! Excellent to have agents in the field.

HalfMum that's fantastic, lucky you!

frosty hope the Cav win has cheered you up.

That was a great stage, really exciting towards the end and fabulous scenery without any rain

See - I didn't give anything away!

Ds and I were shouting at the TV, "Come on, Come ON, *COME ON!!!!!!!"

ToB - This year the Uni Family are supporting one of the smaller, less well known teams. Madison Genesis. Boy is watching the highlights of the previous day at breakfast and always wants to know where his two heros came , that's Cav and Dean Downing.
I like the video from Mad Gen about their first two days on the ToB
www.madisongenesis.co.uk/news/madison-genesis-tour-of-britain-part-one
Roget Hammond doesn't pull his punches when he's talking to his very young team about their future careers. (Some strong language) Its interesting to see how hard this race is for riders who are not pro tour team riders.

We get to see a stage on Friday down here in Devon, Mad Gens Dartmoor boy isn't riding this race , but we will cheer on the rest of them as they climb to the summit Finish at Haytor. DH and I ride the last section of route ourselves to get there.

prettybird - it was remarkably restrained of you.

- my final bold didn't come out - but you get the gist!

I was very impressed at the control of Von Hoff - Viviani's riding across the line was positively dangerous and a large part of the peloton could have brought down after the finish!

Ds wants his track bike when I buy it to be a Madison, as that's what his LBS has suggested at a reasonable price initially he wanted a Dolan just 'cos he knew the name . As soon as I've sold his Islabike I'll put the order in :)

Pan I did the same yesterday with BBC News. I will avoid it from now on. I enjoyed the fact that they completely ignored the Vuelta so there were no spoilers!

I know my micro-biological friend I'm too absorbed at work to think about it, so BBC is my enemy until late evening.

Von Hoff's bike handling skills were very impressive. The mayhem of a finishing line-sprint pile-up is too horrific to contemplate.

Tis lovely to have Brad back - I am very tearful about it. I have missed him this year.

By the way, quite How Vile is the kit of Node4

They look like they're wearing big black nappies. But none of the teams have really pleasing kits imho.

Node4 - what were they thinking!?

Are we up to speed? Nice to see a bit of dry road today!

Half ten for the highlights? I'm about to go to bed, will have to watch two back-to-back tomorrow.

WOW that was a good finish. Nice to See Liam Holohan rewarded for his big break by winning the combativity prize- cheese I believe, lets hope he likes cheese.

LOTS of people up on Haytor for the summit top finish and lots of the them rode there, bikes everywhere. It was pretty cool to see some of the racers riding down off road to get back to the team buses, who says you need a mountain bike when you leave the tarmac.

If you look at the replay of the chap who nearly fell off concentrate on his chain. It came off as he was piling on pressure, and from experience I can say it's a miracle he stayed on. It's happened to me a few times and only once have I stayed on.

yes NT missing the chain jump is a real nuisance. ime it happens on cheapo bikes, which I'm sure tho' our lycra dudes are NOT riding.

So is this TdeB going to be a procession now?

Rather disappointingly I have had to work late a lot and have got behind, am spending the weekend catching up on the sky plus box. Tomorrow it's London and I shall be on the route.

This damn work thing. We should be negotiating 'bike race watching' leave.

Am actually watching a stage finish live! Last 8km and it's building.

YY to the special leave. I managed to catch up and have watched the stage live. All I can say is, what a finish!

Worth a viewing,innit?

I watched it live today and will still watch the highlight show later. That finish was superb, and they went into Guildford by exactly the route I'd have chosen.

is the MN peloton running out of biscuits?

Am being dragged off for some non-cycling activities this afternoon, so it's the 9pm highlights for me. No-one appears to be showing the womens race or any of the other events which is a shame.