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Vuelta a Espana - Discussion
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| Nemolito |
Posted on 05-05-2026 09:03
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Lopez Nolasco with a big MTT, crazy stuff from him. IF he could join the breakaway and win some more time/KoM-points in the coming stage(s) that would be ideal. Not sure if Aular can get in the breakaway with his GC top-5, it would be immense if he could keep his fifth place.
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 07-05-2026 12:11
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| OlegTinkov |
Posted on 05-05-2026 11:28
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Amazing reports Ulrich Ulriksen, much appreciated. Too bad my team isn't in the race at all, still hoping for something during the last three stages; Go Tinkoff!!!
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| SotD |
Posted on 05-05-2026 16:06
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5th is a solid result here by Giannoutsos, which also show that his 11th place (which was only achieved after a breakaway) is a significant underperformance.
I don’t know if it’s realistic to hope for another breakaway attempt. He didn’t try anything in 2 weeks being between 10-15th, and only really woke up after he became 18th.
I guess the best case scenario is him dropping a couple of spots on the next stage, and then a breakaway win on the final mountain stage to climb back up around 10th.
But more realistic he will try to cling on, and end up between 11-13th from defensive riding, given how he decided to ride for the majority of the race.
I suspect Schlegel and Champoussin will fight for the win on the upcoming stage.
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| DubbelDekker |
Posted on 05-05-2026 19:43
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Dombrowski again loses exactly 13 seconds to Latour. He should've done a bit better in this MTT. On the other hand; if he keeps losing 13 seconds per remaining mountain stage he stays 2nd in GC, which is mission accomplished.
Some brutal climbing in the coming two days. Hope he has the legs.
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 06-05-2026 02:30
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First of all, thank you for the report Ulrich. Absolutely insane stage, especially to end up with such a massive group heading into the final km. Felt like everybody would be coming in one by one minutes apart, but I guess the peloton really lost the impetus at several critical moments.
Gregaard once again showed why he loves these kind of stages. There's no chance I'm paying under 100k in wages for him again next year after these performances, but damn if he hasn't given me crazy value here. He just outlasts everyone. It was especially funny to see him and Aranburu in a small group together at the front. Such different riders excelling on the same climb. I really thought the stage win would be possible for a bit, but ultimately Wellens is a stronger climber, and that's okay. He had a great day out.
However, things are really getting precarious now with Carthy. He missed the actual break (which granted, was a blessing to an extent, seeing how some guys bonked), but then kept trying attacks on some of the weirdest points of the stage. He was never going to make the impact on flats and downhills. Losing time to guys like Firdaus, Valter, and Schlegel on this type of stage is a bit underwhelming as I would have expected Carthy to put some time into them if they weren't in the break.
That said, it all comes down to tomorrow now. Carthy in 8th is still in a pretty scary spot for our top 10 goal. He's got 5 minutes on Lopez Nolasco as his closest competitor for the last spot (given Gregaard's placing), but that's really not a safe lead if the peloton sits up. I could easily see Lopez, Tao, or Mas in a break that gets 8-10 minutes tomorrow. And on the other side, there's no one really above Carthy that he will realistically beat. He could leapfrog Godoy on a good day, but that's a toss up.
I think the smart move for us at this point would probably be to keep Carthy in the pack tomorrow and just use our guys later on to make sure the break doesn't completely go crazy time wise. But of course, the game doesn't know the top 10 is so important to us. We could also send Aranburu/Gregaard up in the break and kind of hedge on a breakaway succeeding, which could get us a GC top 10 from one of those two, but that's not without risk either considering how gassed they must be after today.
Very excited for the finale!
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
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| SotD |
Posted on 06-05-2026 05:00
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Strange stage. Giannoutsos rode like a complete moron, and still somehow climbed a spot in the GC. He lost so much time, however, that even with a succesful break tomorrow, he can’t really move up any further. Not an ideal Way to deliver here.
From a neutral point of view that stage was very interesting though!
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| knockout |
Posted on 06-05-2026 06:01
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Ouch. This hurts.
Massive massive report. Thanks for that!
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| ember |
Posted on 06-05-2026 06:33
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You really needed a top day to be part of the stage hunting there, and in the end, it was only three riders really up for it, it seemed like. Congratulations both to roturn and bbl. Carlsberg’s Vuelta is absolutely sensational stage wise, and another podium here.
Surprise ride by Valter. Was happy to see him in the breakaway, but then he probably saw that he wasn’t strong enough to fight for the stage. If so, a great move by GC Valter to drop, but then hang on to the red jersey group. Big surprise to see him 9th at the end of the day. Pretty sure it will take a big breakaway effort to stay inside the top 10 after stage 20, but a fun position to be in for him. GC wise so far, this is a much better race by him than expected. Stage wise, not so much, but still another chance left.
Thank you for the massive report, UU! That was a lot of action. Agree it would be cool to see the top GC guys also go all in in the last half of the stage, after the early pacing there to make it a very small group early on. |
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| roturn |
Posted on 06-05-2026 06:48
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What happened to Wellens here? He basically showed something he hasn`t done all season and also not before in his other break appearance.
Pure energy and even more freshness and endurance. Nothing you expect from declining riders usually.
He really was on a strong day apparently and even countered attacks.
Perfect stage here where I expected a huge struggle seeing all the big names in the break.
5th in the GC is huge obviously and even 7 min to our top10 goal. Still I hate it for other teams the same way I used to hate the top5-15 rotation in general whenever I was on the wrong end. A bit too much randomness and swapping to my liking. This time at least I am on the better end. 2 stages to go, hopefully he is able to keep going and not lose too much. The team around has saved lots of energy without break appearances, so they can hopefully support him.
Thanks for the report. |
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| redordead |
Posted on 06-05-2026 07:40
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Weird ride by Schlegel. He didn't really accumulate many KOM points, but did at least enough to wear the jersey for a day. At the same time he managed to finish 8th on the stage so the legs had to have been decent.
I don't really trust him to bring the KOM home, but at this point I'll give him some credit if he at least gives it a go tomorrow.
"I am a cyclist, I may not be the best, but that is what I strive to be. I may never get there, but I will never quit trying." - Tadej Pogačar
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 06-05-2026 07:56
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Oof
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| Eden95 |
Posted on 06-05-2026 12:14
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A weird stage, it seemed like total carnage 3/4 into the stage and then all the favourites come in within 20 seconds of each other in a big blob at the finish with two guys in the break 3 mins ahead and it’s basically just another stalemate really.
Latour has been riding really well and looked amazing, but just can’t really gain any time. Hopefully tomorrow is harder and he has an ok day and can do his thing. Crazy to see him and Firdaus both attack and stick with Herklotz like that, Firdaus rode like a man possessed and has somehow clawed his way into the white jersey with one major stage remaining which is huge and unexpected. Surely riding for Latour cooks him tomorrow and Plapp overtakes him, but it would be incredible to have him take the jersey home 
Frankiny was terrific in the break, used a lot of energy chasing the KOM and is set for a tilt at the jersey tomorrow as well. Think the other two will be too hard to overtake, but it should be fun to follow.
Thanks for the terrific report Ulrich, made it easy to follow a very busy stage. Congrats to roturn on a great ride by Wellens too!
Indosat - ANZ HQ
"This Schleck sandwich is going to cause serious indigestion for Evans" - Phil Liggett |
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 07-05-2026 07:16
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Getting two KoM jerseys in two Grand Tours would have been pretty cool. But, you can't wake up in the last mountain stage to actually go for that jersey. If only Champoussin would have gotten a few more points in the previous stages.
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| redordead |
Posted on 07-05-2026 07:37
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Schlegel was as weak as I expected. Fortunately he was as lucky as he was weak and comes away with the KOM. Not an inspired race by any means, but by his standards this was a success.
Hopefully Philipsen and the bad sprint train have something left for tomorrow.
"I am a cyclist, I may not be the best, but that is what I strive to be. I may never get there, but I will never quit trying." - Tadej Pogačar
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| knockout |
Posted on 07-05-2026 07:55
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Not sure if i like Plapp exhausting himself for Eenkhoorn again but getting both into the group was a good call and then you could have played it either way and i understand the logic of riding for the better placed GC rider.
Love Areruyas ride. The decision to have him ride here certainly paid off! Congrats jandal!
In the end, the race ended up okay i guess in terms of pure Evonik scoring but great in terms of our title ambitions as ELCO seemed to have the best race out of the other top 6 teams before the month despite looking like non-attendees for the first two weeks.
Hopefully no major GC upsets tomorrow...
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| roturn |
Posted on 07-05-2026 08:12
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Dropping 1 spot to 6th is still awesome. Mo stat wise might be about right, total stat wise this is a great result for Wellens and while I was hoping for the top10, it didn`t look that good until yesterday.
Vanhoucke with a very weird Vuelta. Barely seen, then now joining a break to be super weak. Had more expectations from him. Though Schelling as Wellens protector and even more Guerreiro performed very well.
6th, 24th, 33rd, 35th is a nice depth with 3 stage wins as well obviously.
59th by a rather invisible Teuns, 69th by Denz as well.
Quite a bit of missed breakaway potential I still think but apparently Guerreiro worked just different here and changed tactics for the team.
4th in the team GC shows this depth as well. Small extra points.
One flattish stage to go. Nothing to really get there for me. Just a safe way to the finish line I hope.
Thanks for the report and congrats to those that did win today, stage, KoM etc. Close fight for later till the end. |
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| SotD |
Posted on 07-05-2026 08:51
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No breakaway action unfortunately, so in the end a bad Vuelta for us… Losing to Valter in the GC is pretty much saying it all.
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| Nemolito |
Posted on 07-05-2026 08:56
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Not the last stage(s) we hoped for with Lopez Nolasco in the end dropping to 21st and the team going from third to fifth in the team's classification, but Aular gaining one spot and finishing top-5 in a GT is definitely a nice achievement to add to his palmares A shame we couldn't get a stage win in the Vuelta in the end (I blame Herklotz and a bad day on the TT bike for Ocampo), but we did definitely try. Mostly a strong Lopez Nolasco, so that's why it's a bit sad to end on a negative note in his case.
Hoping we can consolidate the spots we have in the GC tomorrow! Thank you for the fantastic reports, Ulrich
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| ember |
Posted on 07-05-2026 09:24
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Impressive stuff by Valter! Cool to see him able to follow Herklotz on the final climb. When he decided to not try for the breakaway, it seems like his daily form combined with the relatives easy riding in the peloton suited him rather well. Suspect it all came down to daily form. Staying inside the top 10 from the peloton is definitely a positive surprise from Valter here. When the race developed like it did, definitely happy with his showing on these final two brutal mountain stages. |
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| jandal7 |
Posted on 07-05-2026 11:25
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Areruya this morning:
Let's fucking go! Full thoughts on the race after tomorrow obviously and I will save whatever moaning I may have and just say this was an awesome ride from my man, I knew it was in there and overjoyed at this point to get back on the podium on the last day with a very memorable mountaintop stage victory. An awesome moment, and as the report says a very cathartic one too. One for the team history books for sure. We're leaving here with something! 
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant."
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