2025 Vuelta a Espana

At the finish, Jasper was pinched hard left up against the barriers. Jasper the Disaster would have bulled his way through taking out who knows how many riders. He's not the same after the crash, and for some reasons, that's good. I have no idea how Mads got caught so far back, but it was a technical finish and all it takes is a brake check and you're done. Good for Turner. To be pulled from one race, get called up to a grand tour, and win a stage? That's unbelievable.
 
Mads Pedersen isn't living up to much-hyped expectations. Not a world tour race, I know, but he looked very strong at the Tour of Denmark, and the commentators said so as well.
 
Interested to see how organizers will handle the Isreal-Premier Tech team TT run disrupted by protesters in today's Stage 5. Seems like a difficult problem.
 
I missed today's stage, and I have no time to watch it. From what you are saying, some people protested the Israeli team by blocking their progress. I know of no set rule regarding protests. There are clear rules about stoppages due to outside influences, in particular, at a railroad crossing. In that case, if the gap is less than 30 seconds, it's a racing incident, and tough luck. If it's more than 30 seconds, then the group or groups up the road are neutralized until the race can be restarted. At the restart, all gaps are put back in place, and the race resumes.

So let's say that I'm a UCI commissaire (I'm not) and I'm on the jury. Let's also say that the protest lasted 2 minutes before the riders could restart. Let's also assume that no individual rider got away, and that the IPT team restarted with a minimum of 3 riders (I don't know if this is true or not as I didn't watch it). I am 99.9% sure that there was a UCI motor commissaire with the team, and that they started a watch when the team was impeded. I am 90% sure that they stopped that watch when three riders started racing again. My vote at the jury would be to take their finish time off the third riders wheel, subtract the time lost at the protest, and add 30 seconds. This is the UCI though, so who knows.
 
Yes yes. Just look at Bernal. The GC margins are so tight they need to be at peak everything to compete. What the permanent effects of a broken body does even after a "full" recovery? Even knocking off 5% of performance can make all the difference. And there is the mental side too. On those crucial mountain passes it's such a mental game. The self doubt gnawing away inside, so that worries about physical deterioration can result in poorer performance. All adds up.
 
Some people ahould never be given a microphone. The shrill, fast-talking female announcer/emcee I keep hearing on the PA in the background is one of them.
 
Some people should never be given a microphone. The shrill, fast-talking female announcer/emcee I keep hearing on the PA in the background at the starts and finishes is one of them.
 
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Here's my ignorance showing: Why did the big GC teams let the breakaway get so far ahead in Stage 6? Cost them a lot of time, and cost Visma the red jersey.

Guessing they're not worried about getting rhe time back from that particular group of breakaway riders with 15 mostly climbing stages left? And they didn't care about the points involved?
 
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