Men's Road Cycling UCI World Tour 2023 (La Vuelta Ciclista a España)

[heywoodu 16,036]

Vingegaard is making extra clear that he's giving the win to Kuss right here by checking 10 times whether Kuss is still behind him  

 

Oh well, nice reward for helping both Roglic and Vingegaard with their main successes. And nice that the win can go to probably one of the nicest guys of the peloton  

Edited September 14, 2023 by heywoodu

[heywoodu 16,036]

Stage win for Evenepoel, nearly 5 minutes ahead of the first 'chaser'. Ayuso and Mas jumped away from the group of GC riders in the last part, but Kuss jumped in their wheel and Roglic followed as well. Vingegaard probably thought of Saturday and decided to lose some seconds, which is smart, because it avoids a problem when sprinting for the stage win while not wanting to pass Kuss in the GC. Also looked super strong and easy though.

Edited September 14, 2023 by heywoodu

[Agger 1,702]

Vingegaard and Roglic makes the GC Kuss people shut up but meanwhile makes the purists angry... These guys just can't win!

[dodge 1,040]

Only question now is whether Remco attacks for the green jersey 😃

[Federer91 3,030]

There have been more random GT winners recently, than Kuss (if they indeed let him win). He has showed multiple times, that he is a world class climber domestique already. I just wished he would have won a more fighting race against real competitors and not this joke Vuelta, where the scenario has been written for a week now..

[heywoodu 16,036]

1 hour ago, Agger said:

Vingegaard and Roglic makes the GC Kuss people shut up but meanwhile makes the purists angry... These guys just can't win!

Thing is, when you're riding around with three guys who are all a level above the rest (and not hiding it), there is no way to do it right.

 

Now we see especially Vingegaard handing a Grand Tour win to Kuss, which isn't necessarily good, because giving away a Grand Tour win is, well....not done.

 

On the other side, if he had attacked today and taken the leader's jersey, which he clearly would have been able to do, that would not have been good neither, because attacking your teammate (who has been the best uphill domestique in the entire peloton for a while now) like that is, well...not done.

 

There is indeed no 'moral win' (or whatever one wants to call it) in the current situation. Resultswise it's a massive win-win of course, but in terms of silencing a discussion....that's basically impossible right now, since every single option they choose for has a valid reason for not being a good thing (and a valid reason for being a good thing).

 

Like I said before: at least it goes to a super nice guy who has more often than not been the key to the success of both Vingegaard and Roglic. And since Jumbo turned Roglic and especially Vingegaard from kind of anonymous to multiple GT winner, it's probably good they grant Jumbo a different GT winner as well  

Edited September 14, 2023 by heywoodu

[heywoodu 16,036]

20 minutes ago, Federer91 said:

There have been more random GT winners recently, than Kuss (if they indeed let him win). He has showed multiple times, that he is a world class climber domestique already. I just wished he would have won a more fighting race against real competitors and not this joke Vuelta, where the scenario has been written for a week now..

Tao Geoghegan Hart and Chris Horner say hello, indeed  

[dodge 1,040]

There’s been other team mates who had internal squabbles in the past and other GTs won by the second best man in a team. This one more complicated than most because of the trio but Stephen Roche got death threats for winning the 1987 Giro ahead of his team leader. We had the Contador-Lance split team. I think Chris Froome lost a Vuelta trying to make sure Wiggins won it one year (he didn’t) and Bjarne Riis wasn’t close to the level of Jan Ulrich the year he won the Tour. 
 

In the end Kuss will win probably his only GT while the other two will go on to win loads more races and likely some more GTs (particularly Jonas). 

[heywoodu 16,036]

14 minutes ago, dodge said:

There’s been other team mates who had internal squabbles in the past and other GTs won by the second best man in a team. This one more complicated than most because of the trio but Stephen Roche got death threats for winning the 1987 Giro ahead of his team leader. We had the Contador-Lance split team. I think Chris Froome lost a Vuelta trying to make sure Wiggins won it one year (he didn’t) and Bjarne Riis wasn’t close to the level of Jan Ulrich the year he won the Tour. 
 

In the end Kuss will win probably his only GT while the other two will go on to win loads more races and likely some more GTs (particularly Jonas). 

Yeah, Froome humiliating Wiggins on that one super steep climb (not Angliru, but the one which has the insanely steep last 100 meters or so) was quite a level worse indeed  

 

And in Vingegaard's favour: today he was (from what we could see, at least) thinking about Saturday's stage and creating some room for himself to go for the stage win there, without issues with the GC.

Edited September 14, 2023 by heywoodu

[frantic13poland 55]

Stage 19