La Vuelta 2025

[CurtEgerer]

Are we watching this or what? Stage 1 on Peacock now

[CurtEgerer]

[CurtEgerer]

[CurtEgerer]

[rwest]

Thanks for the reminder Curt, I’ll need to check it out.

I feel live the Vuelta has some of the best scenery of all the major tours.

[CurtEgerer]

^^^ For me, it will take a few stages to really get into this because we're missing many of the big names and there're a lot of new names to me. But a storyline always develops.

[herr_oberst]

I'm going off on a bike ride right now, but I'll watch highlights of todays prologue and I'm looking forward to stage 2 tomorrow. I'll watch it live as much as I can.

[rwest]

I was a bit amazed at how much of the peleton was tightly together even into the final kilometer today. Maybe it wasn’t long enough of a climb or everyone is still fresh?

[herr_oberst]

A little of both. I was looking forward to this stage. Hats off to the winner, that was a pretty nice bit of sprinting.
I'm thankful that TVL weren't decimated by that crash. (And apparently, nowadays, if you're a professional bike rider you have to know how to fix your own dislocated shoulder. These guys are so tough).

[look 171]

I think Vingegaard will win it. He has the fire power and none of his real rivals are on the start line based on what Curt posted. Also, I think he likes to keep his job with the Dutch company so he best perform or bring in a grand tour win. There aint gonna to be another Kuss win but as much as I like to see him do this again

[CurtEgerer]

It never ceases to amaze me how these guys can crash and hop back on the bike and go like nothing happened. And that's not even counting a dislocated shoulder or serious injury. I've crashed a couple of times and was out for days just from the bruising, scrapes and soreness.

[rwest]

Great finish today.

I don’t know about you guys, but I really like the special jerseys that Lotto had made for the race since their normal kit is too close to the leader’s jersey. Too bad they didn’t do up their bikes as well.

I need to run a couple errands now and then get on my bike for a 60 to 70 mile ride. Should be decent temps when I start- was in low 50’s F this morning.

[herr_oberst]

Visma team woke up this morning to find that 18 bikes had been stolen; Mechanics had to scramble to build race bikes and spare bikes for the riders. Unreal.

[jyl]

The other GC guys and bunched up at 16 sec. Don’t think anyone significant has lost time. Looks like battling with Pogacar for bonus seconds has made Vingegaard more punchy-sprinty than he used to be. Great to see David Gaudu win and loved his interview with all the French “pfffft” which is their version of “ummm”!

[jyl]

Originally Posted by herr_oberst

Visma team woke up this morning to find that 18 bikes had been stolen; Mechanics had to scramble to build race bikes and spare bikes for the riders. Unreal.

This happens a lot. Seems bizarre they don’t have better security on what must be $100,000 of portable valuables. Don’t they have security cameras, rentacops, mechanics sleeping in trailers with bear spray?

[CurtEgerer]

I saw an interview with Visma team manager and he was beyond frustrated. He questioned why the event organizers don't provide security at the hotels. He said the hotel had their own security (probably some guy sleeping in a lawn chair). He also said that their trucks are extremely secure but that there was a crazy amount of "violence" used to gain access to the truck(s). He couldn't describe it in detail because the police were still investigating but it almost sounded like the thieves may have taken a torch and cut thru the metal!

In any case, with the sort of budget involved in these teams, why wouldn't they hire their own security to follow along the route? Seems like it would be a drop in the bucket.

[CurtEgerer]

Team TT today. NOT a good GC day for 4. Egan Bernal, 5. Tom Piddock, 6. Jai Hindley. They all took a big hit in GC. Not out of it by any means but still ...

[herr_oberst]

Fun TTT to watch. I was amazed Visma was able to cut the deficit to 9 seconds at the stripe! It looked like they were in real trouble at the second marker.

[herr_oberst]

A good read on the problem of bike theft at bike races

http://road.cc/content/news/lidl-trek-manager-describes-bike-thefts-organised-crime-315611

[herr_oberst]

Froome injured while training. Damn. Get well soon, Champ.

http://www.cnn.com/2025/08/28/sport/cycling-chris-froome-hospital-crash-intl