tdf descents were interesting for the same reason giro was boring.

without trying to wind you up, that comment seemed to be made at the course and yes, a straight line has more dimensions than this course.

I dont know about 7 or8 stages, but I do think Alberto will return to racing with a different attitude.

He could easily have completely owned the Giro 2011 - but chose to back off a bit, to win friends, gift stages and save his legs.  This was in the knowledge that he would need both his extra energy and lots of friends/alliances for the Tour to come.

In coming to this Vuelta he has none of that.  He just has a fire in his belly and a major point to prove, and I believe he will be out to crush everyone.  Not only in the Vuelta where he will go for GC, stages and whatever jerseys he can win, but the worlds, Lombardia and everything else he can win.

without trying to wind you up, that comment seemed to be made at the course and yes, a straight line has more dimensions than this course.

the point he made is that the tour organizers were clever to put the descent in and the point i made is that if contador, who they didn't actually want there, hadn't been there the descents wouldn't have made a difference.you can see from how far back basso sanchez were and how schlecks bonked that no one was going to do anything that stage until contador went. And 17 was even worse.
 contador only got away on the descent and Evans and co were willing to stay with schlecks and pull it back on the flat.

 gap has been raced before but being placed 1 day before the alpes the only person we have to thank for making it an exciting stage is contador. Descent wise somethingwhat they have this year is better.

giro 2011 did actually have finnestre but that brings it back to the point about how contador being there ruined the race.

Contador will be on fire i think, there will be no mercy in him than there is milk in a male lion.

yep.

He is going to smash everything.   There will be no winning friends or gifting stages ... he will want to win it all.

Can Alberto better his 'winning' margin of 6'10" from last year's Giro?

I was going to post 10 min or more But I could not see where he will make that amount of time Now J-Rod can ITT a bit

I still say 8 minutes ...   and JRod will be a pretty easy second. 

What about Basso? I'd have him on second before Purito I think. There's Evans if he doesn't win the Tour, Scarponi and Cunego over from the Giro, Anton, Sanchez.. It might be quite a struggle for second place.

I'm going with 6 minutes for Contador. The Vuelta course isn't nearly as challenging as the Giro was, so less opportunities to take time from the rest of the field. On the other hand, Contador will be angry, and thus attack more. So a similar difference to the Giro sounds about right, 6-7 minutes.

Nacer Bouhanni announced after today's Halle-Ingooigem race that he is preparing to ride the Vuelta this year. It will be the first Grand Tour for the 21-year-old sprinter

Oh yes it will be nice. But mostly because I can finally see Alberto again, that's all I want.

sorry they are at the tour, do not what the bloke at the back is doing  ???

 ;D  ;D

The Vuelta will belong to Froome!

Of course, with Andy distant second.

nope it will be Siutsou, silly flo

http://www.lavuelta.com/12pr/en/recorrido/index.html?e=1

Absolutely ridiculous that, just ridiculous, a way of getting around the unfairness of the format but if it is a stage it is a stage..

  :-\
Could it be the wording has just been chosen wrong and they mean that this stage will not affect the overall much?

Really makes no sense, if it doesn't count for overall why would anyone bother riding it hard at all?