Bruno Pires

August 26, 2012

Vuelta Remains on Les Cuspides Going into Rest Day

Following the end of Stage 9, la Vuelta a España goes into its first rest day with no Point d’Appui. The number of riders who came home Sunday was 194, leaving Adrian Palomares of Andalucia and Bruno Pires of Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank on the cusp. Palomares finished 46 minutes and 39 seconds behind the race leader, Joaquim Rodriguez of Katusha, and nearly 52 minutes ahead of the rider in last place, Joost Van Leijen of Lotto-Bellisol.

On the stage, William Bonnet of FDJ-Big Mat and John Degenkolb of Argos-Shimano split the cusp with the same time of 2 minutes and 20 seconds behind the Stage 9 winner, Philippe Gilbert. Gilbert held the Point d’Appui after Stage 3 but has moved up in the rankings with strong showings such as his Stage 9 sprint win.

August 25, 2012

Vuelta Remains in Les Cuspides Since Stage 4

When a sailing ship hits the duldroms and the winds cease, the crew grows restless and starts doing ridiculous things like swabbing the deck. The Vuelta a España has gone three stages without a Point d’Appui, an even number of riders coming home each day. It got so bad that after Stage 7, the Vuelta’s website showed 194 riders finishing the stage but 196 still in contention for the general classification.

Suffice to say we don’t know how that works except that either there are two tandem bicycles out there or the Vuelta has entered its own period of blah.

Les Cuspides for the last few stages have been:

  • Stage 5 – Denys Kostyuk of Lampre-ISD and Zdenek Stybar of Omega Pharma-Quickstep.
  • Stage 6 – Bruno Pires of Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank and Assan Bazayev of Astana Pro Team.
  • Stage 7 – Pablo Lastras Garcia of Movistar Team and Rafael Valls Ferri of Vacansoleil-Dcm Pro Cycling Team.

Whether we find a new fulcrum on the first really tough mountain finish is yet to be seen. Maybe it will shake up the scorekeepers enough to get the number of riders correct.