Vuelta a España

[ariadneoliver]

Lots of info and links here: www.steephill.tv/vuelta-a-espana/#route-map

The official site is here: www.lavuelta.com/14/en/index.html

No Chris Horner this year so new champ beckons

1 Saturday, August 23 12.6 km
Jerez de la Frontera

2 Sunday, August 24 174 km
Algeciras ? San Fernando

3 Monday, August 25 188 km
Cádiz ? Arcos de la Frontera

4 Tuesday, August 26 173 km
Mairena del Alcor ? Córdoba

5 Wednesday, August 27 182 km
Priego de Córdoba ? Ronda

6 Thursday, August 28 158 km
Benalmádena ? La Zubia

7 Friday, August 29 165 km
Alhendín

8 Saturday, August 30 207 km
Baeza ? Albacete

9 Sunday, August 31 181 km
Carboneras de Guadazaón ? Aramón Valdelinares

R Monday, September 1
Rest day
10 Tuesday, September 2 34.5 km
Real Monasterio de Santa María de Veruela ? Borja

11 Wednesday, September 3 151 km
Pamplona ? Santuario de San Miguel de Aralar

12 Thursday, September 4 168 km
Logroño ? Logroño

13 Friday, September 5 182 km
Belorado ? Obregón. Parque de Cabárceno

14 Saturday, September 6 199 km
Santander ? La Camperona. Valle de Sábero

15 Sunday, September 7 149 km
Oviedo ? Lagos de Covadonga

16 Monday, September 8 159 km
San Martín del Rey Aurelio ? La Farrapona. Lago de Somiedo

R Tuesday, September 9
Rest day
17 Wednesday, September 10 174 km
Ortigueira ? Coruña

18 Thursday, September 11 174 km
A Estrada ? Mont Castrove. Meis

19 Friday, September 12 177 km
Salvaterra do Miño ? Cangas do Morrazo

20 Saturday, September 13 0 km
Santo Estevo de Ribas de Sil ? Puerto de Ancares

21 Sunday, September 14 10 km
Santiago de Compostela ? Santiago de Compostela. El Final del Camino

Total Distance 3018 km

So pour a glass of Sangria, kick back and enjoy!

Just caught up with t of Britain won't spoiler it for those who haven't seen yet but that was a good stage

Sorry for my crappy typing am on iPad and have fat fingers.

info about Jensie's 1 hour bike.

"It's Jens versus the clock. Feel sorry for the clock."

"I'm not sure this 180km neutral roll out zone is a good thing. It detracts from the 5 minutes of actual racing"

Seeing as this seems like the combined Vuelta/ToB thread - dh and dd went to Camberley this morning and Operation Kittel was a resounding success :-) She'd also printed out one of his instagram photos and got him to sign it :-)

That's utterly FAB! Well done them! Was she all excited? What's the full story? "He said then we said" stuff please?

I watched live & was a bit annoyed at the commentators initially missing the awful crash on last 800m! Hope Tao Geoghegan Hart is ok.

How does he not get bike hat hair?

With hair as firm as that he doesn't need a hat.

Bertie/Froomey/Roddy/Valvey SCRAP, SCRAP!

Coverage was patchy

There was a car park where most of the coaches were parked, and then a few out on the road, including Giant's minibus, lol (guess they only have one big coach and it's in Spain), and there was hardly anyone there. So they waited and there he was, signed dd's carefully-printed-out-on-photo-paper instagram pic of Kittel eating two ice lollies, and posed for photos :-)

As for the lack of helmet hair - there was a little alley leading from this car park over to the road where it was starting, so dh positioned himself on the corner and got loads of photos of riders coming through. All helmeted, except Kittel So I guess he leaves it off until the last minute so as to get the maximum benefit from the quiff :-)

Dd didn't show Kittel the bead bracelet she made and was wearing, red/yellow/black beads and then letters spelling KITTEL. Think she thought that might look a bit too stalkery!

She also shouted "I love your tweets" at Ned, which apparently amused him greatly!

That's very aware of her.. MK would prob say "Okaaaayy..."
I like Ned's style too. Self-deprecating with some wonderful obs.
In the book I'd just finished he'd commented to someone in the London Rapha set that he didn't think David Millar's cover photo on DMs book looked anything like him. The other rider said "Oh, David was quiet happy with the photo when I took it......"

Ned just looks so much like a cyclist (no I don't fancy him). But you can see from his physique that he is a keen rider.

Didn't CF ride magnificently today!!?

Can't believe Kwiakowski nearly got it back, what will happen tomorrow?!

Odd that both ToB & VaE are ending with short TTs this yr.

That's a great picture! I bet she was doing this all day.
Ned makes me smile too

Had a great time near the start for the TT and am now hanging out at the 100 m to go sign waiting for the circuits to start. I am also sporting a very fetching Festina straw hat.

Dh and two dd's were at about 300m. I was going to go, but had a million other things to do and couldn't face being out all day They went and hung around the team buses afterwards, and young Finbar Todd/Cavendish gave them an OPQS bidon

Oh, David Millar getting all choked up after his time trial Will miss him

Was . I was saying " no, don't make him cry" at the telly.

Time trial a bit of an anticlimax really as race was already decided, a big sprint finish would have been a more fitting end to the vuelta I think.

I had the impression the interviewer was going for the tears.. "Did you realise that this was going to be...." etc. Funny that isn't it? These hard men of the pro-cycling world are just really sentimentalists..... Really hope he moves into commentating/summarising.
Atia - this ToB has been harvested well in your household hasn't it?

We've done ok ;) I hadn't mentioned that we were watching in a feed zone on Friday and got Movistar, Tinkoff Saxo and An Post bidons too! Had an emergency (i.e. no tea!) and had to open my Yorkshire Thé from the TdF the other day Can't beat the French caravan for freebies though, lol.

Anyone else picked up on the Columbian womens team outfit horror? How anyone thought this was a good idea needs laying down in a dark room for a while. Looks like UCI are getting involved, prob on a disrepute charge. Won't link to it. A google image search will prob reveal all, as it were.

Dh showed me at the weekend - he said he'd seen it going around and thought the photo was fake in some way, and then read the UCI involvement story! Just sooooo weird.

Pan yes I'd seen that too. Had a wtf moment and thought it must be a photoshop job but seems not.

Right, so what do we watch now then? Am bereft of cycling.

Haven't been able to post pics yet as the page freezes every time I try. So that's nearly it, just the world champs next week and the Tour of Lombardy and then a long empty space until the Tour Down Under

There's Jens on Thursday