The written rules strike back:
Oh dear. There’s an unwritten addendum to the written prohibition on drafting team cars: try not to do it on camera. Primož Roglič is here at the Vuelta a España trying to win for the fourth time, which would equal the record of mega-doper Roberto Heras, so I guess we all should be cheering him on. But, my dude, you are Primož Roglič… at the Vuelta… you are always on camera!
Twenty seconds sounds like a lot to those of us who, for several years now, have periodically felt imprisoned on Roglification Island. Roglič is undoubtedly a master of stage finishes, which usually set him up with oodles of bonus seconds that can be downright decisive. A September Tradition like no other! That doesn’t mean you or I have to like it — there are a lot of traditions like war and disease and injustice and sunny weather at the Ronde van Vlaanderen that we absolutely don’t have to like. Anyway, this is a long and not entirely coherent way of saying that his punishment fits more than just the crime.
Dutch word of the day: fietswissel! The literal meaning is bike exchange, and tijdstraf is time punishment, the real operative term here. But I prefer to imagine the meaning of Dutch words, and in this case I imagined a referee in the car next to him blowing his whistle for an infraction. [Tweet! Tweet!] I FIETSWISSEL YOU, SCOFFLAW!
Anyway, it’s much ado about nothing, I think? I was away on a beach vacation last week, and I’m still somewhat unable to do things like watch cycling early in the day, for logistical reasons. Therefore I will not try to offer a qualitative assessment of the race, you guys are much better equipped for that. But GC leader Ben O’Connor did little today to convince me that he has “grand tour winner” in him all of a sudden, and this week’s schedule is absolutely murderous: Lagos de Covadonga, Altos de Moncalvillo, Picón Blanco, and a closing time trial in Madrid, in case there is so much as a scrap of flesh remaining on O’Connor’s bones.
Cycling is funny though, and Roglič has to execute the plan to some degree before he can inherit the overall lead. And while Enric Mas and Richard Carapaz are both more than a minute back, neither is two minutes back, and these climbs are places where a rider on a big day can find a whole lot more than that. And lord knows the Vuelta devours expectations like so much thin-sliced jamón.
Photo by ANDER GILLENEA/AFP via Getty Images
Wout Van Aert’s jersey collection might be one area where he has it all over Mathieu van der Poel, and just about everyone else (post-Merckx). Is there someone keeping track of jerseys won, total? In this glorious data age you would think this could be done with a device no larger than a hardcover copy of The Iliad. But is it being done? Somewhere in Belgium a tech guy nods vigorously… but I raise this because Wout has possibly donned his last KOM kit. He is tied with Jay Vine for the lead at 46, nine ahead of today’s bike-thrashing stage winner Pablo Castrillo, with the bigs in the teens and twenties. Maybe he will actually survive Lagos de Covadonga and the transitional stages ahead. It would be kind of ridiculous for none of the GC guys to cash in on the various points stashes before Madrid. Will they let enough riders up the road each day to scatter the prizes? Will Wout or Vine or Castrillo use the circuits on stage 20 to pad their lead? This is easily the second-best competition remaining. The points comp is absolutely done and dusted, unless Kaden Groves starts crushing KOMs.
Entertaining week ahead! I hope to join you along the way!
