Yates brothers co-Leaders?
Simon would be the leader. Adam is there for support and perhaps stage wins.
Adam is riding the Vuelta to survive - I have few expectations regarding his performance - Anyway this is potentially the most fascinating GT of the year in which there is no clear favorite - My favorite GT of the year.
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The Vuelta and Giro always ■■■■ over the TdF in terms of excitement.
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Actually it was disappointing that James Whelan only lasted one stage in L’Avenir - Wanted to seehis performance, seeing his performance in under 23 Flanders was a big surprise and he was quickly signed up by EF Education Fail - It’s also interesting to see Mitch Docker backing up for his second GT in 2018 after not riding a GT for two years at MS.
Yeh, but the talent pool at EF is rather shallow.
Canty gets no GTs this year, suspect he’s gone.
Who’s the Sky Leader?
Team Sky Vuelta a España 2018 squad
Jonathan Castroviejo
David de la Cruz
Sergio Henao
Tao Geoghegan Hart
Michal Kwiatkowski
Salvatore Puccio
Pavel Sivakov
Dylan van Baarle
Henao is the best GC rider on paper, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Kwiatkowski is the leader and could do quite well in the GC if that’s his target.
de la Cruz was 7th in the Vuelta in the past, but, IMO, I can’t see him winning it. Although this is Sky we’re talking about.
MS sign Aussie Nick Schulz from Caja Rural - This is an interesting singing because if the rumours are true about Edoardo Affini that will be four Neo-Pro’s signed.
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Not exactly sure what they see in him. Hasn’t set the world on fire at Caja Rural.
Schulz has done OK, though I feel PCT is his level - I suspect MS are having trouble on the transfer front and are failing to hit their targets, hence the signing of Schulz - I suspect Schulz will play a Bewley/Tuft kind of role - Have found the use of Kaden Groves at L’Avenir to be puzzling - Groves won a sprint stage of Qingdao Lake which suggests he could be very competitive in sprint stages at L’Avenir but yet they’ve working at the front of the peleton and then sprinting with Stannard - Weird !
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Porte confirmed to Trek
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I wish Porte would ride the Giro and forget his fixation with the TDF.
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Good signing by MS - Either Bookwalter or Roche would be a good addition to the squad.
Porte down playing his chances. His form is nowhere near what he was at the Tour.
Suffering from gastro just before this race continues his run of bad luck.
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Dennis wins the prologue from Kwiatkowski. Porte had a shocker, 50 seconds down, 20 seconds down on most of his GC rivals.
Rolling day tonight with a punchy finish.
I was disappointed at Trentin’s performance in the ITT - He’s usually good at prologues - Gotta hope he was holding something back - Quality performance under pressure by Dennis - Notice that Schackmann has not renewed with Quick Step - He’d be a good addition to the Classics squad.
It was a strange decision to start Stannard in L’Avenir in which the parcours was unsuitable,especlally with no ITT - Australian would have been better to send Evans - Stannard would have obtained extra benefit by riding as a stagiare at TOB.
And Stannard finished dead last in that stage - Anyway Valverde wins stage 2 of the Vuelta from Kwiatkovski and DePlus in a day of carnage for GC riders on a notionally flat stage - Goodbye Porte and Nibali while Zakhrin and Martin in trouble.