Customize Consent Preferences

We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below.

The cookies that are categorized as "Necessary" are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site. ... 

Always Active

Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site, such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data.

No cookies to display.

Functional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collecting feedback, and other third-party features.

No cookies to display.

Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics such as the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

No cookies to display.

Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.

No cookies to display.

Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customized advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyze the effectiveness of the ad campaigns.

No cookies to display.

Nairo Quintana isn’t particularly ill as it turns out

Photo by: filip bossuyt
Photo by: filip bossuyt

Nairo Quintana’s had a virus. He said he thought he was getting over it. I said he’d flag. On stage 14 of the Vuelta, he beat all of the major contenders, so when it comes to Nairo’s physical wellbeing, listen to him from now on, not me.

Initially, it looked like Fabio Aru would gain time on the final climb. He’s always the most game and up for an attack and on this occasion only Quintana could follow him. It was a self-defeating effort from the Italian though, because he couldn’t sustain it. Everyone caught back up to him, at which point several people – knowing for a fact that he was now done in – went past him. But whoever attacked, Quintana was able to follow them. You rather suspect he could have gained a bit more time if he could have been bothered, but he instead settled for snatching a few seconds, saving himself for the coming days.

To be honest, illness or not, we should have seen this coming. He’s always good in the third week.

Dumoulin Time Loss Watch

Not a special single-purpose timepiece, but a new and short-lived feature in which I keep tabs on how Tom Dumoulin’s doing ahead of the time trial.

The Dutchman lost 20 seconds to a few of his rivals today. He’ll settle for that as he’s banking on recovering whole minutes in the time trial. The steeper slopes today (Sunday) and tomorrow might see bigger time gaps, but so far he’s keeping everyone within striking distance.

After all this, he’ll probably crash or puncture on the time trial, but hey-ho.

Alessandro De Marchi won the stage

He was in the break. He won a stage the same way last year.


Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Buy Me A Coffee