Was the Vuelta was a race?

Edit: If the sprinters can't beat a GC guy then they don't deserve to win the Green Jersey

I don't have a problem. Racers gotta race, don't like it, beat him. I concede it makes watching a race far more boring when one guy is wrapping up all the jerseys.

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The secret of a long life is you try not to shorten it.
-Nobody

It's competitive sport not little league.

I thought it was very unfair of Froome to compete for the Vuelta after already winning the TDF. A bit greedy if you ask me.

Or, it is a race.

This sounds like one of these silly "unwritten rules". I'd blame the race organizers for the points structure and not Froome for taking advantage of it. Dissapointing for Trentin, but considering how close he came to winning the jersey on these crazy stages, that's pretty baller on his part. He never gave up.

Froome hasn't won much this year, but because he has won the last two grand tours this year, it just seems like it. I'm not a Team Sky fan during the GT season, they are such a bore, but La Vuelta has been his white whale for so long, can't blame him.

Trentin won 4 sprint stages including the final! I just think the way points were arranged along the stages favored the gc/climbers and that's why the results are so skewed and there are few sprinters in the sprinters competition. I think Froome should have realized this farce and sat up in the final 200m.

Seems like I'm in the minority, but sprinting for 12th place to keep a sprinter from the sprinters jersey is a little much.

In fairness, Froome did apologise afterwards saying that on the one hand he felt bad for him, but on the other it might be the only opportunity he'd have to win a points classification in his career.

If he was robbing a team-mate I'd be inclined agree, but he doesn't owe Trentin anything; it's a race. The blame (if there is any) should lie with the organisers, not the racers.

They don't show it on TV but everyone does gets a medal after the finish so its all good.

And the mom's take turns after each stage passing out orange slices and ice cream.

I understand your point and maybe it was a dick move but they all knew the rules beforehand and the teams should have planned accordingly and made their sprinters a higher priority.

Perhaps the issue is the designers of the route having so few sprinters stages and so much climbing. Who did they think would be the most consistent finisher? Sprinters only usually win the green jersey due to gc contenders not bothering on flat stages, but they will try on the hills when they can make time up.

Why would froome give up the jersey, and potentially winnings away? Good man I say.

I don't think he was going for 12th

"So one of those blue guys are gonna win ... lemme see ... two, three, four, five & six, seven, eight-nine-ten, eleven and ... Okay, I gotta be ahead of this red guy. Oh shit! where'd the blue guy go? Wait, where's my red guy? Fuck!!! I lost count"

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

LOL...during the tour people were complaining that the GC was a snoozefest because the climbs were not steep enough and there were not enough summit finishes.

So enter the Vuelta. The GC action was awesome. Tons of mountain stages and summit finishes. Summit finishes on stages that weren't even classified as mountain stages where the GC were the ones battling for the line and creating time gaps.

And now we're going to complain that the Vuelta was too hard and made the battle for green unsatisfactory? Sorry...you can't have your cake and eat it too.

ETA: And for the record...it's a points jersey...not a sprinter's jersey. The points jersey goes to the rider who can accumulate the most points, not to the best sprinter.

Trentin rides for Quick-Step who often employs team tactics aimed just as much at keeping others from winning (see Terpstra) as it is at getting their guy on the top step. It's all part of cycling. If Trentin wants the points jersey at a non-sprinters race, then he needs to go get it. Honestly the "sprinters" jersey at the Vuelta is comical to begin with which is why there are few top level sprinters there.

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"It's good enough for who it's for" - Grandpa Wayne

I am about as low a level bike racer as one can be and I have gotten team orders in masters races to do what I can to make sure so and so from team X finishes behind our guy and ideally by at least X places, all to protect the $100 season's point pool payout. That's a decent portion of the season ending team party budget. Somebody might go hungry or only get 2 beers instead of 3 if I fail to do my part. Bike racing is serious business.

I'm not saying either way I just found it interesting. Guy wins 4 stages what twice more than others and doesn't win that classification. Definitely showcases the type of terrain that makes up majority of course.

So yes to your point it's a "points" race.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

Everyone knew this ahead of time. A sprinter winning the points competition (which is not necessarily the sprinter's competition) was always going to be a long shot. Given his performance across all of the stages, Froome had the most points and he deserved the win.

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"Human existence is based upon two pillars: Compassion and knowledge. Compassion without knowledge is ineffective; Knowledge without compassion is inhuman." Victor Weisskopf.

Froome won a Yellow jersey a few weeks back without ever winning a stage. In fact, I think his first non GC win of the year was in this Vuelta.

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"It's good enough for who it's for" - Grandpa Wayne

Eddy Merckx was so greedy for winning every jersey at the 69 Tour (and the 68 giro), he really should have taken it easy instead.

Yes I think it was lemond that last won it without winning a stage.


I know the Vuelta was mountainish favored course but I'd just always assumed top sprinter would win it. Kinda one of those you scratch mine, I scratch yours..top guys have their jersey to fight over, top mt guy has theirs etc. and not saying it's wrong Froome went for it, I'd have thought him being a "patron" of the peloton would have "let" the other guy win. Of course I couldn't tell you 3 guys in the sprinters up for this jersey within Vuelta.

Just that if you tell me 1 guy wins 4 stages and other guy half that, I'd have said he deserves it and have no problem if he won it.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

He was just a kid, what did he know?

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

It took me reading a few posts to realize you weren't kidding.

It's professional cycling. They don't hold hands. They don't do it to win friends and influence people. They do it to win. The winner of the points jersey gets €11,000 if I'm not mistaken. He isn't going to hold back and feel badly about it.


I get that there are some traditions that are honoured, like not attacking on the final state of the grand tours (unless its a time trial and you're Greg Lemond). The reality is that these guys are paid very well to win, not to make friends.

Well, each race can determine their own point system for the overall finish, the intermediates, as well as the time bonuses. The TdF does it differently, and under your criteria, where "most stage wins" is of high importance, it would be possible that a climbing stage hunter could win 7 mountain stages (20 points each) and earn less green jersey points than a sprinter who wins 3 flat stages (50 points each).

The TdF organizers have clearly set up their point system to have sprinting specialists in the mix. But in addition to that, they also reward riders for being in the break, with up to 20 points available (15 spots) at the intermediate check points where the Vuelta only awards 4 points (3 spots). If the Vuelta also offered up 20 points for intermediate check points then Trentin likely would have won green. But the Vuelta put more focus on stage finishes during a tour with a lot of mountains. It is what it is.

Lol has there been a Tour when a mt climber has won even 5 stages in 1 GT let alone 7 stages. Your not even being realistic. There are far more Sprint specific specialists then there are climbers who can dominant stage wins. There are climbing specialists but no where near dominant w actual stage wins vs sprinters.

ETA: a race can design it's courses however it wants and setup whatever points/time it wants. My point more was that if you would have told me a guy who won 4 stages lost to a guy who won half as many I'd have said the course was main culprit. Because most week+ long events all have category races within an race over the main discipline of cycling- overall leader, points (which for almost all races goes to best sprinter), mt, and usually young rider. So Froome can go for it, cool, take advantage of the course setup that will never likely again let him win.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II