Vuelta Stage 13, Calatayud - Tarazona:
Ted, don't you tease! My delicate heart!
Livin' the high life.
There a party at Vuelta Extra tonight? Juan Antonio and Ashley have traded their branded polos for button ups.
Woooooooah. Ashley throwing shade at the finish town: It's not the most beautiful of arrival towns, Tarazona.
Juan Antonio reframed: In town it's nice.
So another big-ass breakaway today. 24 riders, among them of note: Nico and Niki, Stevo, De Marchi, Wee Sylvain, and Max Monfort.
They've got 4 and half minutes with 60k to go.
Astana controlling on the front.
Gap down by a minute here at 49k.
Crosswinds have been mentioned...
Peloton verrrrrrry strung out.
Wanna do a bit of work?? FFS. De Marchi seems to be indicating to Europcar and Lampre at the front.
Here at the back with Alex Howes.
Lots of picture breakup but you can't miss Niki and Nico riding on the front side by side.
But it was too much amazingness, it broke the feed and everything went black.
Woah you can tell a Morton a mile off. That hair styling is genetic. Hey Gus!
That segment on Sport Beans was pretty darn dull.
Onto the climb.
Some laughs here.
Gianluca and Max Monfort were having a bit of a giggle, then Nico joined in.
Ruben Plaza goes on the attack with Chava
They're doubting the wisdom of this long-range attack. Uh hello, Chava eats long-range attacks for breakfast.
Also, his nickname is Mimosa?
They've sort of come back together now.
A Tinkoff makes an attempt.
Max and a Lampre are chasing.
They've been joined by some others and there's now a tiny group off the front of the breakaway.
Those two groups seem to have come back together.
Splits again.
WOAH they're gonna catch that Tinkoff.
Over the top of the climb.
Some awkward bridging attempts going on
Lampre trying to get away and spoil the day
He's got 15 seconds, the group behind is a bit of a mess.
Anybody gonna do something?
He's got 20 seconds with less than 20k to go.
The peloton is just chillin' at the back.
Now 30 seconds.
40 seconds. 15k.
50 seconds. 12k.
Bit of the Marc Madiot going on here with the Lampre DS leaning out the window banging and screaming.
That chaser group is just sort of all over the place.
9.5k to go.
Niki is TRYING to go for it but he's towing a fucking tugboat of passengers.
Under 5k into the lumpy finish with just under a minute for the Lampre soloist.
Tinkoff has come to the front of the peloton for no reason I can fathom.
Movistar and OGE also joining in the fun.
Probable wind panic I suppose.
Nelson Oliveria we should probably start calling him by name cuz he's coming in for the stage win.
And there it is. Snooooooze.
Uhh the bow's been done. You're never gonna match that.
Yaaaas Nico, sprinting for the rest of the podium places.
Too bad that wasn't the finish.
Peloton just rollin' along five minutes behind like nbd.
Finally at the flamme rouge.
Some AG2R breaking off the front now as if he doesn't know the finish has already finished.
If he raises his arms I will honestly weep.
No, thank god. Just a bizarre mini-escape.
Sky comes across together chatting.
I think they were like "what was that guy about?"
Moving on, who is carrying the flag for America in Richmond:
Ok I kind of care about women and U23s, but not really.
Hey someone from Santa Rosa!
Is everyone on this programme Southern?
Alright here we go:
TAYLOR OBVSSSSSS!
Anyone who's been around Taylor knows what a charismatic character he is.
ALEX!!!!!
Representative of the International King Dynasty (though not the right one) Ben King!
Brent Bookwalter
And... Tyler Farrar? Ok, interesting.
Well the feed went out so we won't get to hear more about that 6th TBC place.
While I don't like that Boz feels left out, this does further emphasise how he's always kind of seemed English to me. I think it's the ginger hair.
Also, George Bennett is on fire this Vuelta.
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