Todays stage of the Vuelta is a time trial..........about 39K

The first half is uphill but only gradual, rising to a cat 3 summit..........then the second half is back down again

Looking at the profile it rises about 600 metres in 18K, so that's about 3.3% average

I'm not sure who that's going to suit............it's not very steep but it is 18K long........and of course you can always pull time back on the downhill second half

perhaps suit the stronger time trailers more than the climbers ?

Meanwhile over in Holland..........there'a a 6 day ladies tour race underway and Lizzie Armitstead is in the leaders jersey after stage one.

There was a smallish group came over together and although she was second over the line she got the jersey by virtue of bonus seconds in the intermediate sprints along the route

Lizzie rides for the Boels-Dolman Cycling team and Boels are the sponsors of this race.

Most of the other British girls seem to ride for the Wiggle-Honda team who are not taking part in the race

You were right. Cancellara from Martin from Povavivo.

Looking at the splits Valverde did not appear to lose any time due to the slow front wheel change. He could have come much closer to Nibali had he not punctured: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...4cE5YT0E#gid=0

Gaps to Nibali in ITT:

0:00:01 Pozzovivo (+)
0:00:00 Nibali
0:00:23 Roche
0:00:27 Valverde
0:01:07 Pinot
0:01:13 Majka
0:01:18 Basso
0:01:29 Horner
0:01:36 Rodriguez
0:02:35 Moreno

Eurosport are really cursed in their attempts to bring us North American racing, they've covered today's race from Alberta entirely from fixed camera positions on the closing circuit.

Sky Team for the Tour of Britain

Bradley Wiggins, Ian Stannard, Josh Edmondson, Bernhard Eisel, Mathew Hayman and David Lopez.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/23971905

To be honest, I'd forgotten all about it.

Think that's down to not watching La Vuelta on Eurosport.

Looks like Eurosport have dropped the Tour of Alberta after yesterday's flop where there wasn't even a single moto camera. No sign on the schedule tonight.

Been a bit of a disaster for ES this American Tour malarkey.........

They really beefed up the number of races they were scheduled to show this year and have ended up hardly showing any of it..............and what they have shown has been shocking picture quality

Quite an amazing charge by Gilbert to nudge out the unlucky EBH. It shows there are no strong sprint teams that could have set a pace neither could have escaped.

De Weert is still in ICU after yesterday's ITT crash: http://www.omegapharma-quickstep.com...-de-weert/1415

ES have scheduled live coverage of at least the first five stages of the ToB. ITV4 have promised but not yet listed live broadcasts: http://baytvliverpool.com/vod/index....V51fa4b191e83a

More big names for the Tour de GB. Cav, Pettachi, Ciolek, Quintana, Alex Dowsett, Dan Martin

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/23971905

does anyone know if the Track World Championships will be shown on TV?

I'm sure it will be, the BBC has done the whole thing in recent years.

Wrong thread!

thanks

ES have tweeted that tonight's live coverage of 'Alberta' will go ahead at 10 as planned..........that was tweeted 4 hours ago or before the race started.........how do they know the pictures will be up to broadcast standard?............

ES apparently recorded yesterday's live coverage to see if the technical issues were ironed out: http://blogs.calgaryherald.com/2013/...rop-live-feed/.

Arrgh! Currently no live Vuelta coverage as the helicopters cannot fly in the mist. The race has gone uphill and the weather downhill. Hopefully no snow like in Falmouth.

Simon Gerrans of OGE retired from the race yesterday with a hip fracture undetected from an crash in Stage 3.

Watching my tape of the Tour de Alberta from last night. There's some pretty epically flat country they're going through, makes Holland look like the Himalayas,

just watching on Eurosport now, the weather is awful!

Roche cracked big-time on the second half of the final climb losing three and a half minutes to Nibali. Down from second to sixth on GC.

Waiting for the final abandon list due to the grim weather. Hypothermia was cited in a few cases.

16 riders abandoned today............

big names include Basso, Sanchez, Nuyens, Westra, Poels, Kreuziger and Zubeldia

another big day in the mountains tomorrow with 4 category one climbs...............hope we get pictures !

If the weather remains as forecast, surely the organisers must be considering shortening tomorrow's stage? Valverde and Roche were pushed right to their ultimate limits today. None of the riders will have recovered properly by the start tomorrow. Half as long again in similar weather will cause carnage in the peloton. http://www.lavuelta.com/13/imgtiempo/etp15.gif

Raining in Alberta as well..............

It's raining all over the world..............there's going to be a showdown !

Cadel Evans has got in the break...........it's splitting up a bit but the peloton is 10 minutes back

Apparently the course had to be altered late on because of flooding.........there was meant to be a mountain stage but it was taken out

It might be a better race next year

I see what you did there!