Vuelta Stage 2: Pontevedra - Baiona. Alto Do Monte Da Groba

Well, somehow, I had a good day. Saw points total and feared the worst, but seems we all took a bit of a hit. Great win for Roache and Saxo but came a bit out of leftfield. Here's to a continued eventful Vuelta!

Just 500 points away from getting my final badge! Wooo!

40 points for me..stupid old lazy Spanish men

I hate Boardman bikes anyway....Perhaps just as well...

Well that disaster writes off my vuelta, nevermind

I see they finally added Sanchez's name to the stage results. He was at +2:41 with his teammates who waited for him. Strange that it took two hours for his name to appear.

Last years KOM, Simon Clarke, was last man home 9.53 down.

Anyone know what happened to Sammy Sanchez? I can't find his name in any of the race results.

the top 20 from the stage:
1 ROCHE, Nicolas (SAXO-TINKOFF)
2 MORENO FERNANDEZ, Daniel (KATUSHA)
3 POZZOVIVO, Domenico (AG2R LA MONDIALE
4 KONIG, Leopold (NETAPP - ENDURA)
5 VALVERDE BELMONTE, Alejandro (MOV)
6 ULISSI, Diego (LAMPRE-MERIDA)
7 RODRIGUEZ OLIVER, Joaquin (KATUSHA)
8 BASSO, Ivan (CANNONDALE)
9 MOLLEMA, Bauke (BELKIN PRO CYCLING)
10 URAN URAN, Rigoberto (SKY PROCYCLING)
11 MARTIN, Daniel (GARMIN SHARP)
12 MAJKA, Rafal (SAXO-TINKOFF)
13 HORNER, Christopher (RADIOSHACK LEOPARD)
14 PINOT, Thibaut (FDJ)
15 ZUBELDIA AGIRRE, Haimar (RADIOSHACK LEOPARD)
16 NIBALI, Vincenzo (ASTANA PRO TEAM)
17 HUZARSKI, Bartosz (NETAPP - ENDURA)
18 KREUZIGER, Roman (SAXO-TINKOFF)
19 NIEVE ITURALDE, Mikel (EUSKALTEL EUSKADI)
20 SANTAROMITA, Ivan (BMC RACING)

and the GC

1 NIBALI, Vincenzo
2 ROCHE, Nicolas (SAXO-TINKOFF)
3 ZUBELDIA AGIRRE, Haimar (RADIOSHACK LEOPARD)
4 HORNER, Christopher (RADIOSHACK LEOPARD)
5 KISERLOVSKI, Robert (RADIOSHACK LEOPARD)
6 URAN URAN, Rigoberto (SKY PROCYCLING)
7 HERMANS, Ben (RADIOSHACK LEOPARD)
8 VALVERDE BELMONTE, Alejandro (MOVISTAR TEAM)
9 MAJKA, Rafal (SAXO-TINKOFF)
10 KREUZIGER, Roman (SAXO-TINKOFF)

Wasn't planning to make any transfers for tomorrow, but I think I'll be making 3 after that stage.

S Sanchez not looking too healthy. Not good for my Purist or 3 spaniards team

Sprint 2
1 Henderson
2 Rasmussen
3 Aramendia

Now 13k with 75k left

Sprint 1
1 Rasmussen
2 Henderson
3 Aramendia
Gap 12.30 at 95k remaining

Cat.3
1 Aramendia
2 Henderson
3 Rasmussen

Gap at 11 mins with 110k to go.
Could be difficult to pull back.

Only one change, got rid of EBH and replaced him with Majka

Vicenzo Nibali
Gianni Meersman
Sergio Luis Henao Montoya
Eros Capecchi
Zdenek Stybar
Simon Clarke
Amets Txurruka
Rafal Majka
Diego Ulissi

Lead over 9 mins at the base of the cat.3

8 mins after 38k
Fernandez (GRS) DNS

6.36 after 33k

3 man breakaway
Alex Rasmussen
Francisco Javier Aramendia
Gregory Henderson

over 2 mins out

Hoping Betancur is out of sorts as predicted.

2 changes for me, got some ground to make up already

Valverde
Kreuziger
Henao
Clarke
Tiralongo 4 Kangert
Bart De Clercq
Ratto
Stybar
Horner 4 Spartacus

Considered majka and Ulissi but wanna see what form they have if any?

Just gonna stick as I don't have a bad team, got future stages in mind with 2 picks

for today:

Valverde
Kangert
Zubeldia
Henao
Capecchi
Basso
Betancurt

Left in with the next 3 stages in mind:

Meersman
Stybar

The only disappointmet for me yesterday was Intxausti being dropped from the Movistar train......and I didn't really expect Choo-Choo to do anything as he's in there purely for breaks on the open road and LuLu is there for stage wins.

Everyone else performed more or less as expected and pretty pleased with 194th considering I picked for today in mind and can bank 2 transfers straight away

Team for today

Nibali
Brajkovic
Zubeldia
Uran
Henao
Valverde
Intxausti
LuLuSanchez
Txurruka