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.

ooh Tarragona el - and a sprintish finish!
Leg, section, stage, a ridey part - all fine.

Great Pan , I shall be there, at the last 'ridey part' with a big HELLO MUMSNET banner

We'll be looking out for you elQuinto!

Fantastic to see Nico Roche taking the overall lead today - DH is very happy. Poor Dan Martin was forced to pull out following his crash yesterday. He's had a terrible Vuelta but a terrific year.

I think the success of those two has been great for cycling in Ireland - they are the new generation after Sean Kelly & Stephen Roche in the eighties. Everywhere you go around here there are lycra-clad people out on their bikes, and even the smaller rural villages like ours now have cycling lanes. DS1 has taken up mountain biking in a big way recently and is loving it. He just takes himself off & comes back totally exhilarated a couple of hours later.

ElQuinto I'll look out for you.

Seashells the tough stages are great for us spectators, maybe the hope is that with a cleaner peloton no one will be able to run away with the race at an early stage as everyone will need more recovery time and hopefully we get a wider variety of stage winners and a more competitive tour.

Yay! I will be watching the live coverage with even greater interest now, elQuinto!!

What a finish! Edge of your seat stuff today.

Today was amazing!( no spoilers yet but worth watching the last 3k!)

Ariadne-I agree (it was v noticeable in the tdf that Sky blew out the day after every big effort)

take ariadne's point about a drug free tour leading to more open and competitive outcomes.

Tyler Hamilton nailed the belief that because doping was happening it meant a level playing field, when it did nothing of the sort. Different riders had access to different drugs, took them inconsistently and the effects on individual riders were different.

That was an exciting finish!

I was hoping Eddie BH's break would work out & that Nico Roche would hang on to the lead .

Yes, I was thinking 'surely not another line-clincher for the peloton!' But it looks like the biscuit supply let him down.

Anybody watch today?

Well done Christopher Horner at the ripe old age of 42 grabbing the stage & the overall lead, and holding three of the jerseys. Not bad for an oldie!

Hello! I think this has been more interesting than the TdF, at least they've swapped the lead around a bit. Looking forward to watching tour of Britain too.

So yesterday was the first mountain stage. That final climb was just brutal, averaging 7.7% even with a downhill section. They deserve their rest today.

Missed this thread. The Vuelta has been really exciting so far - well worth renewing the Eurosport subscription for.

The only thing that has been irritating is how quickly Eurosport swaps over to the tennis after the finish.

Yes - they don't even show the overall standings before they swap to the tennis.

I love but I want to see the Vuelta results first!!

Just went to watch today's and there isn't one. How dare they have a day off!

I know!

I see Alonso has bought Euskaltel Euskadi ensuring the team have a place next year. Not a massive fan of Formula 1 (MotoGP>F1) but this is great news, it takes some uncertainty away from the team.

I forgot the day off too. DH & I settled down to watch the recording of the day's events yesterday evening & it wasn't there. Very disappointed. We had to settle for .

Great news about Alonso buying Euskaltel Euskadi, it would've been a real pity to see one of the longest standing teams disappear. The peloton wouldn't be the same without that bright orange kit. I believe they are planning to stay with their original ethos of employing mainly local riders, and they are keeping on the ones they have. I hope it goes well for them.

Not only the bright orange kit but those vile helmets as well - pro-cycling just wouldn't have been the same.

I was a bit about Valverde's not-so-subtle comments re Horner's performance - especially coming fro him. Maybe though, it takes one to know one and DH pointed out that Horner was pretty close to Armstrong for a while. The sport will be much easier to support once the last wave of the old guard pass through - although there are still a lot of them in management. I am becoming more open to Vaughter's view that open confession and rehabilitation is a quicker route to a more believable sport and trusted performances.

ON a similar note, is anyone keeping an eye on the fiasco that is the UCI presidential elections? McQuaid's behaviour is jaw-dropping - and if the national federations don't boot him out, then the sport's credibility on the world stage is done for, frankly.

I am going to admit something really sad here. Instead of counting sheep, when I can't sleep, I count TdF riders. My aim is to commit all the riders to memory - I managed it with the 2012 TdF, and am up to 73 of this year's. That is pretty tragic, isn't it.

It is great news about Euskatel - it must have been such a worry for those riders, especially the domestiques, who wouldn't have been guaranteed a spot on another team.

Ds could test you SDTG - he is such a bore geek about all facts cycling, especially to do with the TdF.

We never have to tell him to shut up about bloody cycling, oh no, not us

HowGood I couldn't agree more.

SDTG I'm seriously impressed .

Right, just about to bundle elQuintoPequeñointo the car and head to town.
Riders should go along the beach, up a short but steep and bendy road past the shells of two forts and turn right onto a main road. We are aiming to stand at that corner.
I'm wearing a green flowery top, 5ft4, bobbed hair, possibly orange pushchair with 21mo DS, posdibly along as we'll be near a park and DS may be distractef by the 'whee' (swings!).
Didn't have time to make a Hi MN banner, or hunt down pombears, don't have an MNscarf I'm sure you'll be busy watching the cycliists!
Oh, the beachy-bit is at the end of today's stage. I hoope they show our lovely amphitheatre from the helicopter

I did look out for you Quint, but they switched cameras just as they reached the corner. This race is more difficult to call than the Tour, purely because the teams aren't so well organised. I dare say things will get sorted in the mountains.