Great reports Smowz. That's my first GT podium for a couple of seasons, and we managed a stage win along the way aswell, which helps - dont tend to get many of them in GTs either.
Some highlights from a few stages of the race:
Rankings
Surprise surprise, Santander scored plenty of points here. But they may be dissapointed that Madrazo supplied 76% of their points - the rest of the team perhaps could have scored better. 2284 is a great score, and lifts them right up to 3rd.
Having a rider finish on the podium is always key in GTs, and so it is the case that Festina and Vesuvio are the next best teams. Festina jump right back where they are used to, the Top 10, while Vesuvio strengthen their lead at the top of the division - despite Pearl Adidas still doing a good job at keeping in touch. It's going to take a strong effort to bring Vesuvio back though.
It was a bad race for Sony Ericsson and Wikipedia, the lowest scorers. Sony Ericsson slip back into the pack having once been a clear 3rd, while Wikipedia are down 6 to 13th at the upper end of the relegation battle.
B&O, Carmeuse and Spyker all had their struggles during in the race - despite B&O's breakaway success, Roelandts' double stage wins and Reimer leading the race in the first week to yield Spyker most of their points here. A strong finish to the season is critical for these 3, aswell as UBS, since as things stand, one of them will go down. Cafe de Colombia and Warner Brothers are struggling to keep in touch - but the Tour de France could easily turn that around.
In the Individual standings, Sella could have gone top had he repeated his Giro performances, but he could not - so Ricco maintains his position at the top of the leaderboard. 1752 points from 1 race puts Madrazo straight in at number 2 - and with the Tour de France to come, makes him a serious contender for overall honours. The rest of the podium move into the Top 10, with Contador 7th and Intxausti 8th.
A Podium in the tour should keep me from relegation and put Madrazo very close to winning the Overall ProTour, which would be excellent, even if it does screw over my team next year.
[url=www.pcmdaily.com/forum/viewthread.php?thread_id=33182]Team Santander Media Thread[/url]
For my part, I couldn't keep the pace of my reporting as high as I wanted to, not that this is always the most important thing of course all time.
The Giro and Vuelta were cool, but I am imagining (well I know coz I have seen the startlist) the Tour will be something else. The Video highlights package is superb!
Ah, slight problem with the rankings. (Sorry alex).
Seems the scoring wasnt done right for the TTT. You got given 5x70 rather than the actual 5x17 - and the same for all other points scoring teams on that stage
First of all, thanks Smowz. Know you said you got unexpectedly busy during the Vuelta - but nice one for sticking with it and getting the detailed reports out.
Second for Colombia, that was really dissapointing. Abal's 81 in MO and 77 in TT really didn't transfer into much. The TT especially was meaningless. Rogers got the race off to a flyer getting himself into the leader's jersey, but the way the team lost it was just so lame.
Roll on the Tour for Colombia. I'm too lazy to check the parcours again - won't be much between Cunego and Madrazo on the climbs - Cunego can really hurt him on the lumpy stuff though. Bring it On!
fenian_1234 wrote:
First of all, thanks Smowz. Know you said you got unexpectedly busy during the Vuelta - but nice one for sticking with it and getting the detailed reports out.
Second for Colombia, that was really dissapointing. Abal's 81 in MO and 77 in TT really didn't transfer into much. The TT especially was meaningless. Rogers got the race off to a flyer getting himself into the leader's jersey, but the way the team lost it was just so lame.
Roll on the Tour for Colombia. I'm too lazy to check the parcours again - won't be much between Cunego and Madrazo on the climbs - Cunego can really hurt him on the lumpy stuff though. Bring it On!
I hope it will come down to TT vs bonus seconds, with Cunego being unable to drop Madrazo on the two hilly stages.
I'm sure that Madrazo will mess up one of the multi mountain stages to let Cunego win though.
[url=www.pcmdaily.com/forum/viewthread.php?thread_id=33182]Team Santander Media Thread[/url]
I think my team did well at the Vuelta though. Several Top 3s including a stage win and 21st with Keinath is not all bad. I'm gonna continue building his climbing stat and then lets see how far he can take.
Next races should be better for my team though with Pluchkin returning into action I have high hopes for him at Le Tour and Suisse/Dauphine (can't remember which one he is racing). A nice push from him should put safely out of relegation danger.
Very enjoyable reports Smows, looking forward to follow you doing Le Tour aswell
Great reporting this Vuelta, Smowz. You spent a massive amount of time writing these great reports for sure. Great work!
18th place overall, a stage win, 2nd place in TTT and a lot of agressive racing which bring me a really nice package of points. Great Vuelta for Milka. My hopes of staying up are really high now.
Thanks for an awesome Vuelta Smowz, it was thoroughly exciting
UBS were very average throughout the race though. No stage wins, only a couple podiums and several top 10's. I expected more from Gomez Marchante, but the field was stacked with strong guys.
Not surprised by the showing after i lost most of my team, but was hoping for a bit better from Van Heerden. At least Mai was active in some breaks and should be of help to Phinney in the races to come
