Vuelta a España 2012 (likely to include spoilers)

[citoyen]

That was probably the most insane bike race I have ever seen. I hope Cataldo is OK - he looked quite unwell at the finish, didn't even have the strength to get off his bike. Amazing win though. Chapeau!

And I don't think I've ever seen Contador suffer so visibly like that before.

Crikey.

d.

[Honest John]

And I don't think I've ever seen Contador suffer so visibly like that before.

Looks like the rabo de toro is OK this year 

[TheLurker]

Dear God, that was brutal.

[Rig of Jarkness]

Well that was quite something !  Do you reckon that the Giro and Vuelta are trying to outdo each other with who can find the most insane gradients ?  I guess we have 10 and 11 speed gearing to thank for this.  In the old days of 42/52 and at best a 28 sprocket they'd have been quicker to walk.

[Ivo]

Well that was quite something !  Do you reckon that the Giro and Vuelta are trying to outdo each other with who can find the most insane gradients ?  I guess we have 10 and 11 speed gearing to thank for this.  In the old days of 42/52 and at best a 28 sprocket they'd have been quicker to walk.

In the old days you allready had cranks which could handle a 34 or 36 inner. Campa Victory, TA Cyclotourist or Stronglight LX100/LX80.

[spesh]

I'm fairly sure that one year, some riders were using triple chainsets on one stage of La Vuelta.

[mr magnolia]

Todays stage finishes at Lagos  Covadonga, I went up it last year, in a car I should add, but it is one hell of a climb.   IMO it is probably harder than many alpine climbs, it is not a steady gradient, it is very steep in places.

Bit out of place now, so apologies, but I'm about to settle down to watch this - I went up the covadonga hill with loaded panniers
as a little side step on a trip from Santiago de Compostela in, oh help, about 1990. It was hard then too.
Snowy as well, as I recall. Happy days!
ps no triple in them days neither.

[Honest John]

I'm fairly sure that one year, some riders were using triple chainsets on one stage of La Vuelta.

ISTR pictures of J Ullrich riding up the Angliru in foul weather using one. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/I1sx2mfb65E&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/I1sx2mfb65E&rel=1</a>.

NB Language alert for soundtrack.

[Rig of Jarkness]

Yes and I remember Indurain experimenting with a triple.  I was thinking of the time before that when every year we'd be treated to the sight of top 'shamateurs' having to walk up the the Devil's Staircase etc in the Milk Race.

[Exit Stage Left]

Triples were being used as early as 1981.

This bike was specifically made for Giovanni Battaglin for the 1981 Giro d'Italia. It was his usual racing bike, but made for the very steep Tre Cime di Lavaredo stage that year. This was the first modern triple chainring used for road racing on this level. My father Giovanni came up with the idea back then; he took a regular Campagnolo Super Record chainset and then drilled out the crankarms.

"In our former workshop in Catena di Villorba, they made a special spider for the crankset to add a third chainring. Then the inner 36 tooth chainring was added to give an extra level of gear ratios. In those days, the smallest inside chainring you could use was a 42 tooth, so the gearing worked out as 36-42-53. And for the 1981 Giro time trial in Verona, we only used one chainring... it all worked perfectly and Battaglin won the Giro and the Vuelta that year. This bike had custom geometry for Battaglin, but otherwise it was our top racing bike back then; cast microfusion lugs and Columbus SL tubing with Campagnolo Super Record seven-speed."

http://autobus.cyclingnews.com/tech.php?id=tech/2004/features/pinarello

[slohill]

Yes and I remember Indurain experimenting with a triple.  I was thinking of the time before that when every year we'd be treated to the sight of top 'shamateurs' having to walk up the the Devil's Staircase etc in the Milk Race.

AIUI, we have to thank Indurain asking for a triple to ride the Angrilu for the launch of the Campag racing triple 52/42/32 in the 90s.

[LEE]

That was probably the most insane bike race I have ever seen. I hope Cataldo is OK - he looked quite unwell at the finish, didn't even have the strength to get off his bike. Amazing win though. Chapeau!

And I don't think I've ever seen Contador suffer so visibly like that before.

Crikey.

Yes, that was insane.

You don't always get a good perspective of gradient on the TV but some of the shots looking back down the road to the valley below gave me a real vertigo feeling.

The steepest series of climbs in my locale are at Combe Gibbet, Newbury Downs.  They are all around 12%-13% but the difference being they are all less than a kilometre, more like 500m, in length at their steepest.

I honestly can't imagine climbing 13% for several kilometres in order to reach gradients of around 25%.  It's the stuff of heart-attacks.

Brutal stuff (I'm enjoying this much more than the Tour, with it's day after day of the Peloton rolling along flat roads for 180km, waiting for the last 200 metre sprint).

[citoyen]

You don't always get a good perspective of gradient on the TV but some of the shots looking back down the road to the valley below gave me a real vertigo feeling.

Yes, those shots were amazing. I made my son watch the highlights with me last night and there was a big clunk as his jaw hit the floor when it came to those bits. 

d.

[spesh]

Yes and I remember Indurain experimenting with a triple.  I was thinking of the time before that when every year we'd be treated to the sight of top 'shamateurs' having to walk up the the Devil's Staircase etc in the Milk Race.

AIUI, we have to thank Indurain asking for a triple to ride the Angrilu for the launch of the Campag racing triple 52/42/32 in the 90s.

That's the one, thanks. 

[mr magnolia]

I'm fairly sure that one year, some riders were using triple chainsets on one stage of La Vuelta.

ISTR pictures of J Ullrich riding up the Angliru in foul weather using one.

didnt help though?  Maybe he should have tried something else.  oh, wait...

Gold leaders jersey - much classier than this modren red stuff!

I watched Sundays stage and yesterdays stage highlights back to back last night, and I felt punchdrunk at the end.  Madness.  mrs m said it reminded her of our younger days, when she would curse and shout all the way as she climbed her way up assorted mountans.  I was never foolish enough to try anything like yesterdays slopes though.

[spesh]

It's almost reassuring to see the pros reduced to pedalling in squares, until you realise that it's required twice the gradient to get into that state.

[Toady]

It's almost reassuring to see the pros reduced to pedalling in squares, until you realise that it's required twice the gradient to get into that state.

I sometimes cycle up a 25% hill. (Cudham Hill nr Biggin Hill) OK, the 25% bit is only about 10 metres long.  It reduces me to a similar state to Cataldo yesterday, but there aren't usually crowds of people to help me off my bike at the top.

[Nuncio]

Anyone know if many of the riders had to resort to walking up that last bit? Given that those at the front end almost came to a stop, I wouldn't be surprised.  I've found this so far but can't believe that Terpstra, who had about 70 riders come in after him, was the only one.   

[spesh]

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/riders-react-to-cuitu-negru

Eritrean rider Daniel Teklehaymanot (Orica-GreenEdge) was seen vomiting as he crossed the finish line, some 35 minutes behind stage winner Dario Cataldo (Omega Pharma). "I think he has never known anything that hard," an assistant of the Australian team told L'Equipe.

[Toady]

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/riders-react-to-cuitu-negru

Ten Dam echoed his sentiments. "It was perhaps a great show for the spectators, but not for the riders. When I came down again, I saw other riders still going up, and it was just unbelievable to watch, terribly steep. I rode with a compact cassette for the very first time in my life. And in the end, I needed it! It was no fun, I was in a cave of pain. Horrible."

What does he mean by "compact cassette"?  I've seen the term "compact" used to describe a double chainset with small spider for a little inner ring (I ride with one), but what is a compact cassette?  (apart, of course, from a handy means of gathering together your favourite party tracks in the 1970s and 80s)

[spesh]

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/riders-react-to-cuitu-negru

Ten Dam echoed his sentiments. "It was perhaps a great show for the spectators, but not for the riders. When I came down again, I saw other riders still going up, and it was just unbelievable to watch, terribly steep. I rode with a compact cassette for the very first time in my life. And in the end, I needed it! It was no fun, I was in a cave of pain. Horrible."

What does he mean by "compact cassette"?  I've seen the term "compact" used to describe a double chainset with small spider for a little inner ring (I ride with one), but what is a compact cassette?  (apart, of course, from a handy means of gathering together your favourite party tracks in the 1970s and 80s)

It was possibly a Freudian slip on Ten Dam's part, because there was a post up-thread (see below) that suggested that the riders were using MTB or touring cassettes, going by the maximum sprocket sizes. I think he really meant Compact chainset, but after riding up Cuitu Negru, I'd imagine that most riders weren't in a fit state to think straight, never mind ride straight.   

Top riders are reported to have used gearings as low as 36x28 or 38x32 today.

[LEE]

... but there aren't usually crowds of people to help me off my bike at the top.

You say help but I see many of them as clueless idiots, interested only in getting their fat arses and faces on TV, regardless of whether that may necessitate blocking the progress of a rider.

I apologise for my outburst but, if you find yourself running sideways up a climb, shouting in the ear of a top pro, bumping into other spectators as you run, then you are a clueless idiot.  I doubt that applies to anyone on this forum as we are all cyclists.

If I were a top pro I would, at the expense of the added weight and time, carry my big Zefal HPX riot baton pump and beat some of those morons into a mushy pulp with it. (Why don't the official vehicles have Bodicea wheel spikes?)

[Little Jim]

Bike Radar has a piece today about Bertie riding with an 11-32 cassette on the back, but no mention of what he used on the front.

[Toady]

... but there aren't usually crowds of people to help me off my bike at the top.

You say help but I see many of them as clueless idiots, interested only in getting their fat arses and faces on TV, regardless of whether that may necessitate blocking the progress of a rider.

I apologise for my outburst but, if you find yourself running sideways up a climb, shouting in the ear of a top pro, bumping into other spectators as you run, then you are a clueless idiot.  I doubt that applies to anyone on this forum as we are all cyclists.

If I were a top pro I would, at the expense of the added weight and time, carry my big Zefal HPX riot baton pump and beat some of those morons into a mushy pulp with it. (Why don't the official vehicles have Bodicea wheel spikes?)

Actually I assumed the people team crowding around him after he'd finished and was flopped on the handlebars were from his team.  Maybe I was wrong.

Road racing on the continong has a history of crowd misbehaviour, from Merckx getting punched to all kinds of stuff in the early tours - roadblocks, pushing favourites up hills and so on from what I've read.  I suppose you have to balance the nutters running beside the riders yelling in their earholes against the accessibility of it all.  It's lovely to just be able to rock up and find a good spot by the road, plonk down your picnic and wait (although I've personally only done that on flatter stages in the N of France.  I've never been on a big climb, and I don't posess a mankini ). 

I remember reading that one rider (Andy Hampsten?) said that riding through the crowd on one of the big Tour climbs as one of the most fantastic moments of his career.

[spesh]

Bike Radar has a piece today about Bertie riding with an 11-32 cassette on the back, but no mention of what he used on the front.

According to the caption on one of the pictures, the outer ring's a 53, so I guess that makes the inner ring a 39.

Using 11-32 with 53/39 on the mountainous stages gives a similar bottom-end gear as someone running 50/34 with 11-28 at the back, but avoids the problem you get with compacts, in that when you drop to the smaller ring, you have to shift a load of cogs at the back to avoid over-revving.