This season is just a single, drawn out disgrace. 12 men in another winning break, and guess what we do.

It's pointless. Literally.

Willie Smit is a very similar type of rider to Malecki. Here we go...

Congrats to SN.

Great to have a stage without a Duolingo rider losing contact for once

PCM AI handled Evonik on this stage in the single most stupid way imaginable. It had so many reasonable options to pick but didnt:

Option A) Attacking with Skujins either from the beginning or after keeping the break in reach: Nope, he can stay comfortable in the peleton all the way.

Option B) Send someone in the break on a rather obvious break chance: Nope, why bother when you have a favourite?

Option C) Keep the break within reach and then chase hard on the hills to prepare the finish for Skujins: Not a single Evonik jersey was spotted between the working teams during the final

Option D) Try to set up Eislers for a possible bunch sprint: Nope, Eislers is the first guy spotted working in the early stage.

It just makes absolutely no sense. Sorry Nemolito

We're not really finding our breakaway gear here. Though, that's kind of okay, as it's not a right we've got to join the breakaways and win/get stage points from them.

Congratulations on the win, SN!

Also thank you for the reports, Nemolito, and also the consistency you post with. That makes it easy to follow the race, even in a busy everyday life.

Good to see that unlike the Giro, we this time feature in the breaks. Seeing Quita there on stage 6 gave me already a good feeling. He's also similar to Malecki and DD made me pay quite a lot for him before he shifted his focus on Malecki.
It was clear that Kasperkiewicz would finish last in any sprint so it was nice to see that he forced a selection.
Reis still doing well is very good, I hope it stays this way and he'll have a good TT. Also Smith seems to be in better form now after loosing time in the previous hilly stage.

Congrats SN, let's see how long Smit can hold on!

Couple of good stages for us with some good results from the breaks. Nesset lost a bit of time on one stage, but other than that he's been good so far. Hope he can keep getting closer to the top 10 as the race goes on!

Unless he MASSIVELY overperforms on the TT on the next stage, he should lose the jersey already now.

26km should mean atleast 2 minutes lost for a 69TT rider like Smit to the likes of Lecuisinier, Gesink, Tenorio and Kritskiy

You're right of course haven't thought about that. But don't underestimate the leader jersey bonus

I really prefer to though, as Lecuisinier was the one losing it just before the TT

Well the big 5 are all in the Top 5 now. Shikai did well enough, it was always going to be difficult for him to do a great ride, so looking at the time gaps, I'd say he did about the best he could have.

Massive day for Tenorio, apparently really feeling at home here! With all the top guys in the first positions now, I hope it'll be a much more interesting GC battle than in the Giro - or will Malecki do Malecki things again anytime soon?

Not much to say about this stage as it was a tt but im slightly worried that tvetcov might be a bit too high in GC right now as he needs to go into breaks now. Just waiting to be dropped would be very disappointing...

Another pathetic show from Lecuisinier here. Things have really turned from good to crap fast...

For his country! Viva la Tenorio!

That win ties Tenorio with TVG for the most wins in program history (11) and sets himself up nicely in our quest for our first GT win!

Also awesome to see Gesink 2nd for a PCT 1-2 at the top of the leaderboard. Wildcards showing out here at the Vuelta. And to think Tenorio almost wasn't invited...

Congrats mre!

Acceptable TT from Reis that puts him into 7th in GC. Except for Smit, I don't think he can challenge the riders in front of him, but would be great if he can try to defend his position against the guys behind him.

Impressive stuff by Tenorio. Will be interesting to see how he can hang on now that he's in red.

Nice result for Haig, a rare GT stage scoring result this year.. Any seconds gained are great as well, but since our Giro scoring was a disgrace despite finishing on the GC podium, those stage results feel even better if he keeps this shape in the key stages, the fight for the Top-5 is as realistic as I thought it would be

I was really hoping to see Gesink back in the red jersey

well deserved, congrats!