Yeah that one was so pointless. Smh

For a guy that is not known for attacking, it was bizarre.

Yeah remco is a lot snappier than mas so attacking just in front of remco is really not ideal. But also Attacking from deeper means eating more wind and having to spend more just to get past remco. Thats also not ideal. But i think Overall his tactic of start stopping would have worked if the climb was a little bit steeper.

@@felixwagner3152 Mas had no chance of dropping Remco when attacking from in front of him, yet that's all he did and never tried anything else. Attacks between reasonably evenly matched riders have much more chance to be successful when they attack from behind and going past with a speed difference. Sometimes they even deliberately leave a little gap to accelerate into for even more speed difference. If you have to eat wind for 1 more second for a chance to get a gap vs attack from the front with much less chance for gaps, which one would you choose? Why only the latter over and over again and never the first? The climb wasn't a little bit steeper. It is what it is and Mas had to work with that. Stopping and starting didn't work. When Evenepoel turned the tables and surprised him by attacking without Mas being on his wheel, Mas has had to work so much harder to catch him than Evenepoel had at any one of Mas' predictable and telegraphed attempts.

@@felixwagner3152 I think he Mas should ahve just saved his energy for the last day and the most mountainous stage. If he's going to do it, it has to be then and I don't think it will be before.

I guess no one is calling they should let Gesink win this time?

​@@nonwatcher If two guys from different teams catch a breakaway rider, then how can they go for only 2nd when they want to beat each other and they're much stronger and fresher than Gesink?

is it just me or Mas wanted to let Gesink win ? but then Remco attacked and Mas had to follow. Remco lost my respect on that stage what a goober he is.

@@hoMEOWnerr omg... He had to win. Why lose seconds to Mas to gain popularity?

Haven't watched a stage live yet because of it sadly. Just as this, I already knew who won so seeing Robert out in front and knowing he wouldn't make it just made me even sadder.

+1

I feel ya.. was really hoping for a 3rd week Primoz comeback. Let’s just pray for a Saturday Stage 20 raid 🤞🤞🤞

Remco like a Boss!

Litterarly same here man, the LaVuelta just isnt that LaVuelta that i know and love without him.

Actually at 2km to go he allready did that.

@@draregrevtaam1147 oh even worse. I was internally screaming "NOOOO DON'T JINX IT"

I think remco was really close to breaking tbh. He had that pain face and there was a small gap once. The gradients where just to low so that sitting in the wheel can help you recover very well.

Ikr .. so unfortunate, hate it

it's over barring disaster. there's only one stage where Mas can make up time on him, stage 20, but it's not hard enough to create a 2 minute+ gap, especially since it flattens out at the end. Last mountain is 10KM at 7% and then 6.5KM of flat. That will take the "sting" out of any gaps. Remco would be have to be going backward to lose 2 mins on that kinda profile.

Not over until it's over

Its over Sunday evening. Look how the leader of the polka dot jersey, Jay Vine crashed out today

that stupid cheater

Portuguese believed he was on the same level as Remco ahaha. He's training to be a good domestique for Pogi next TDF

issou

He might be slightly above bernal and slightly under healthy roglic now. He might be a giro winner next year if he fully commits it seems week 2 he paced to be fresher in week 3.

real shit

its about time you get on one !

Even with that, the performance increases aren't that super

Appearently no one told remco he needs to really bad in the 3rd week.

@@LordVilmore if remco can do this in week 3 he will challenge for tdf win in 24

The closest to him was carapaz at 26 minutes, so not really an option

highest ranked rider in first group was on 26minutes or so. When they would get 10-12minutes, they would probably stop riding and start pokering + in the extreme case where they have 20minutes or so, the teams with lesser climbers would for sure start to pace to not get into time limit problems is my take

I think Felix meant to let the gap grow after the Almeida attack. Dangerous game to play, all other teams need to collaborate against QS. Movistar would never let it happen.

In the final week riders and teams start to protect their top 10 GC positions which can be frustrating to watch as it usually helps the leader of the race a lot.

With all due respect, that makes absolutely 0 sense. No one was in the breakaway that could've reasonably endangered Remco. Astana's best rider was López with 5:33 down. When Almeida attacked, that directly threatened López who had only 1:20 and Rodríguez who had 1:30 advantage over him, not Evenepoel who had 7 minutes. Astana and Ineos had reason to close that gap, they had nothing to gain from Almeida overtaking their riders. None of them have any chance of winning the race. Best they can do is fight for positions and maybe get onto the podium.

Like in all the other stages of the Vuelta, sure...

We don't know if he would've.

And Remco would gain 3 more minutes in a 40km TT ... but there isn't ...

Only useless when Remco won or when they can't hurt him.

I don't know about that. Remco was suffering a bit the last 1,5km but was far more explosive at the end. And before (I think at like 5 or 6 km before the finish) Mas really needed Verona to bring him back cause he was suffering then.. I think they are just above the rest together

Merckx was 25 when he won his fist big tour but was probably in a stronger team compared to Remco

Merckx is the goat and earns all respects, but... He has been so silent on evenepoel these last couple of weeks, in contrast of the fact he has always been very (very) critical about him when he failed... I don't like that, even if it is easy to hate this brat.

@@phil40870 Merckx was 22 when he won his first Grand Tour, the Giro in 1968. He had won 2 Giri and 2 Tours by the time he was 25, not to mention 4 of the 5 Momuments and the World Championship.

Primoz is the ultimate choker. Kinda fits in a Dutch team

Not worth watching live anymore sadly

It was literally top 2 stage today of la vuelta

@@MarvinWestmaas You didn't even try as you yourself stated above :) Bit rich don't you think? Sure you can sad about Rogla dropping out, but today was probably 2nd or 3rd best stage of the race so far.

@@phil40870 roglic crashed way harder

@@phil40870 Should Evenepoel have "man up" as well when he fell in the ditch in lombardia ?

Ah yes so instead of sprint trains and GC trains shouldering and elbowing each other from 10 to 3km you now extend this to 750 or 500m what could go wrong

That is even worse, way too late. Either you keep it as is, or even extend it. However I'd add that a rider if not injured needs to maintain a decent pace to the finish after the incident. For example make them do a minimum of like 80% of the speed of the group they were in, else getting downgraded to a group that matched their speed taking into account that 80% rule. So if the rider in question does 40km/h, but his original group did 60km/h averaged, the rider would be downgraded to a group doing average 50km/h or less , since 50km/h*80%=40km/h. To maintain in the original group the rider in this situation would have to go faster than 48km/h averaged. Since it would be difficult for riders to know the speed of the original group, they'd just go full anyway after the incident. Such a rule would prevent affected riders from just casually strolling in and already would take away something many people don't like.

@@MDP1702 You don't ride as fast in the peloton or alone by yourself. Basicly, this rule is made to avoid too much people in front of the race in last km of flat stages. Which makes sense, less people means less chance for big, dangerous, crashes. So all riders that do not fight for the stage win can just seat back and relax for the last km, they just get drafted to the line. Your rules would make a rider to put an effort, while 80% of the riders in the group he was, did more or less 0 effort.

@@simeonpolet1307 *You don't ride as fast in the peloton or alone by yourself.* Which is why I am talking about a % of the speed of the original group and not the same speed, what % it has to be, would have to be researched. In the end it is mainly so riders essentially don't just straddle to the finish like is the case now, not unless the original group straddled themselves.

@@MDP1702 that would mean that if you have a technical issue you would have to produce an effort and if you don't, you could rest, which is unfair. What is 3km on 150-200km, especially on flat road ?