what is it this year? is the course really that bad? am i just burnt out after the angst of the Tour? is i my imagination or do fewer riders seem to give a fig (except the handful within reach of the podium) about it -- using it only as training for the Worlds? how about all those that didn't even bother to come?

i'm baffled because it's really hard for me to be bored by cycling but i am, utterly, completely. what's causing this apathy and is anyone else suffering it as well?

Yep.

Too many bunch finishes. No really compelling story line. None of my favorites are in it. Bingen Fernandez' diaries about as interesting as it gets.

Also, to confess a bias -- what they now call "full disclosure" -- I am hating watching Carlos Sastre move inexorably towards yet another 4th. I wish I could cheer for him, I mean I do cheer for him, but it never seems to work out and I've gotten tired.

Yeah, I mean, a break that the bunch gives 15 minutes to, then a circuit race through St. Louis?...what? oh, sorry, I thought this was the Tour of Missouri thread... I guess as GT's go it's boring, but let's put it in perspective...

I think Sastre should become a Piepoli-type stage hunter. He'll never win a GT so he might as well go after stages and mountain jerseys (as well as targeting some 1-week stage races).

Jerseys maybe, stages ... hardly. He is never the explosive kind of guy that Piepoli is, he can win an uphill sprint handily. Sastre's greatest gift is perhaps his greatest curse: Consistency.

Funny you should compare him to Piepoli who could probably be a Sastre if he wanted - just don't know about the other way round

Edit: Onto topic
Yes, this edition is not very interesting, sadly. Seems as though it needs a Heras-Perez / Heras-Nozal battle to really stay interesting. Perhaps it is the route, which isn't exactly the hardest in recent memory as Sastre has pointed out. Compare, say, to the 2003 route:

Now that's just inhumane ... but it kept me on the edge of my seat right to the very end!

True, I guess I meant more that in giving up GC hopes he could be allowed to get away in breaks when the GC guys are watching each other. He's good enough climber to win stages that way. Definitely not piepoli-like in his climbing style.

Back to topic, yes it has been boring. So boring that I haven't even been watching the free coverage on cycling.tv.

The Vuelta has not contained the drama le Tour did, but it has had a number of nice twists. There have been some nice battles on the climbs. As a fan of descents, I really enjoyed watching Sanchez come down that last mountain during the 15th stage. I still have not seen how that one ended, but I caught some hi lites Sunday night and that descent looked to my untrained eye like a real piece of art.

Yeah that was as impressive a performance as I've seen all year.

The Vuelta is not quite over, but it's true it hasn't been that exciting.

The route is missing real mountain stage this year. I mean, those up-down-up-down-up-down-up. No stage has more than two climbs of 1st or special category.

I think that will be more and more common (even more in the vuelta compared to others). To not get to big timegaps in the GC, the organizers has designed a route like this year.

Isn't this what people wanted. Less tough mountain stages so they don't have to take drugs to finish each stage.

I think that it would be to Sastres advantage if the race has has a higher avaerage speed. To many times nearly the whole peloton has been together when we start the last climb, so it hasn't been tough enough. We have previously seen that Menchov has been in trouble in the mountain stages of the Tour when it has been a hard race from the beginning of the stage.



Partly true. Some has even proposed that the GT's should be just two weeks of racing.

One word for how to spice up this race: Angliru.

Agreed!
But I enjoyed watching Bennati outclassed Petacchi in todays stage

Ale-jet jumped too late and got swamped. Milram gave him a perfect leadout. That little turn at the end didn't help either, he got boxed as everybody moved left.

I'm wondering if the Alto de Abantos stage will offer any serious chances for Carlos or Cadel. It's a very short stage, only 130 km, and may not provide much separation, coming after so many flat stages.

Speaking of Angliru, I came across this clip of Jimenez and Tonkov on Angliru in 1999. Viva El Chaba!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RsddUPq-nc

Is this last year's "the vuelta is boring" thread or did we start a new one for this year?

though, i will say this, i'd be happier and more interested if I could get some covereage.

VS has what, 1 hour sometime in October, I think?

The race is boring because

1. the season is too long, its like watching the NBA finals in june or july or whenever they happen

2. the parcours is stupid boring

3. the racing is boring, because:

4. the riders are boring, there are no great riders riding period. There are no great personalities, and no big rivalries. Just the same crap different day.

That and the fact the Vuelta factor, call it the Heras-Nozal-Galdeano whatever inevitably makes me take it less seriously because its the "anything goes" what happens in the Vuelta stays in the Vuelta mentality of that country and that race.

The race has just been so utterly un-intense. Menchov haven't, or so it appears, been pushed to the limits at any time, so he have just controlled the race without exhausting himself. The top GC guys have, unfortunately, been the "wrong" ones: Not to disrespect Efimkin, Evans and Sastre, but they're not exactly the most explosive and entertaining riders in the peloton. Although Sastre's move on yesterday's stage to Avila was cool. The more exciting and aggressive guys (such as Sammy Sanchez and Gomez Marchante) lost too much time in the beginning to be of any threat to Menchov. The flat stages have been more boring than ever, it seems, except for the few times when cross winds have split the field for a moment. And apparently I've missed the couple of stages which provided some kind of drama.

I dunno, maybe I just need a break from cycling right now. The season's been (too) long and chaotic already.

Aw, I know what you mean, but it's not as bad as that. The GC reads Menchov, Evans, Sastre, Sanchez -- all within a breath of 4 minutes. That's a quality field, and it is still close. What killed it was Menchov's ride in the TT (relative to his competitors) -- Evans' lack of condition at that stage of the race was telling. If the longer TT were last, not first, there would still be some heat in the battle for first. But comapred to some GTs, this one is still relatively close. We're back in the hills, Sastre is riding aggressively... It might still really come to life.

Maybe OP would push you to that decision but in fact the Vuelta in recent years has had more success in getting positive tests from the big names. Hamilton and Santi Perez in 2004, Heras in 2005.

Have to admit even the Tour of Misery stole some of the thunder from the Vuelta. Who wants to follow a sport that's subject to a kangaroo court before, during and after the event? I ignored the Vuelta last year due to OP's lack of transparency. This year I'm hanging on by a thread.

i cant help thinking that if danielson and menchov's roles had been reversed then there would be an entirely different debate on boring.
For sure Menchov has shown great class- as has his team -Rabobank with freire and Menchov have cornered the market in classy champions without popular support.
personally i found it impressive.
thanks
pedallo

good post. couldn't happen to a more loyal sponsor either.

I here you, Wildeone. I have had the chance to watch the Vuelta via Cycling TV each day and have chosen to stay away from it. Between the boring parcours and the non-descript race leader and probable winner of the overall, this years Vuelta is about as exciting as watching paint dry.

As has been suggested time and again, this race should be reduced to a two week affair as there simply isn't enough drama or interest to sustain it for a full three weeks like the Giro and TdF. Were the organizers to do that I think there would be more interest in the race from top tier riders that consistently choose to skip it each year.

Also, as a change of pace, I would like to see some of the cobbled semi-classics moved to the fall as it gives the specialists in those types of races something look forward to and worth training for the second half of the season. For example, instead of having Het Volk and KBK on successive days in March move KBK to the fall and have it replace Zurich on the the Pro Tour calendar. Same with E-3 Prijs and Brabantse Pijl. Split those races up and have one contested in October. This would at least spice up the fall schedule and combined with Lombardy would give us fans something to get excited about and worth following towards the end of the cycling calendar. Frankly speaking, I could do without Paris-Tours on the fall calendar or anywhere, for that matter <lol>, and would much rather see the hardmen battle it out on the cobbles in Belgian during a nasty fall day to end the season as it began. Plus I think it would be a nice prelude to the European cross season. Thoughts?

Move the opening weekend races to the fall??

True that there could be more hardmen's races - mind you, there is a new race coming up.

I like your ideas on the whole (except for the shortening of the Vuelta - don't forget that this race has actually provided us with some of the most suspenseful GC action of recent years, just not this year)

the best part of the Vuelta thus far