J-V is in the driver's seat, presuming Roglic takes care of TT business. The only remaining mountain stage isn't that tough, with a final climb in the 7% range. With J-V's team strength it'll be hard to get away.

They showed a video of Roglic cooling down after one of the stages. Sitting on his TT so I am guessing they learned something from the Tour. Roglic looked like he hadn’t been on a TT in weeks during thy last TT. Let’s see how he looks on Tuesday

Word. I'm going for my track's hour record in a few months, so put my old TT bike on my trainer for Zwift. I'm going to be in that position almost every day.

Smart.
I found out the hard way at Nats years ago that there is riding in the position and then there's racing the position. Longest 40k of my life.

It takes me a solid 6 weeks of consistently riding the TT bike to really be adapted to the position. I have always been surprised that you don’t see GC riders cooling down on the TT bike all the time. Kind of the simplest marginal gain I can think of. .

Respect. The thought of doing an effort like that on the track seems almost impossible for me, but on the road it is so much easier for me mentally.

What is the advantage of having Kuss sit back there with Roglic at that point? (this is a serious question even if it may be dumb) It could be the TV makes it appear they aren't going as fast as they actually are, but draft wouldn't appear to be an issue at that point. Is it just for moral support or for those areas where their speed picks up enough to have some draft advantage? Is it in case of a bike issue/mechanical? All the above?

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

Good question. I don't know. I don't think drafting on the short descent to the finish line probably mattered much.

While I was watching it, I thought Kuss should have followed the attacks to hoover one of the time bonuses. They got lucky in that Carapaz finished outside the bonus, but that was just luck.

Maybe it was psychological advantage. Or maybe just preventing the internet from blowing up with Froome v. Wiggins comparisons.

I don't think there's a clear answer. As the other poster mentioned, the only advantage of having him go ahead is to try to steal some of the bonus seconds. There's no guarantee that he does that though (although it's likely he would get at least third). The advantage of having him stay is a very slight draft, physiological (it "feels" easier sometimes when you're staring at the wheel in front of you), and having someone there should a mechanical happen. I think that that last one is the biggest reason to hang with him.

Getting “paced” like that provides focus. Kuss’s wheel is the rabbit, the goal, something to chase and Roglic had to stay on it. There’s draft but it is psychological and it works. If he’s on his own there’s no visual target, just the voice(s) in his head. His own and Race Radio I mean.

He was cooling down on his TT bike after going up Angliru. It makes sense because he was just at the limit and now they are forcing him into the TT position when his body wants to sit up...."sorry Primoz, suck it up and get aero, we don't care if you just rode Angliru".

Slowman spoke many years ago about "last bike effect". For whatever reason your body wants to just go back into the position you were last on. The good thing is when you're doing a seated climb on a 20 percent grade with your saddle pointed 20 percent up relative to gravity, that's alread plenty of compressed hip angle, so it won't be like going from a road stage with completely open position to TT. Its going to be a similar compressed angle for similar duration on Tuesday. It should be a fun day tomorrow, but hopefully the Vuelta does not get less exciting with the TT so early in the week.

I would think this is it.

Agreed. Probably more psychological than physical. Likewise, on other days Kuss is likely to dig deeper knowing that Roglic is good and waiting to pounce. It’s as much of how much mental fight is available to draw upon as well as physical.

There's actually been several stages they've shown him warming down on his TT bike-as a matter of fact I don't think I've seen them show him NOT warming down on his TT bike

Did anyone else see the Velonews power data article from Kuss on stage 12? He is awesome.

This time trial is going to be awesome I think. I just asked a friend and he said strong headwinds are coming from the north and that the riders are scared to death of this 30% kick up.

Some Kuss data from Stage 12:

Kuss – Alto de la Mozqueta:
Time: 18:42
Avg power: 368w (6w/kg)
Avg Grade: 8.2 percent

Kuss – Alto del Cordal:
Time: 17:03
Avg power: 380w (6.2w/kg)
Avg Grade: 8.8 percent


Final 1500m:
Time: 5:58
Avg power: 403w (6.6w/kg)
Avg Grade: 11.9 percent


Kuss – Alto de l’Angliru “flatter” section:
Time: 12:52
Avg power: 382w (6.3w/kg)
Avg Grade: 7.6 percent


Kuss – Alto de l’Angliru (full ascent):
Time: 44:00
Avg power: 374w (6.1w/kg)
Avg Grade: 9.4 percent
Avg Speed: 17kph (10.6mph)


Steepest section of l’Angliru (6.4km at 13.3 percent):
Time: 29:00
Avg power: 378w (6.2w/kg)
Avg Speed: 13.5kph (8.4mph)
Avg Cadence: 79rpm


Sepp Kuss – Vuelta a España Stage 12: 6th (+0:26):
(Excluding neutral start)
Time: 3:09:02
Average Power: 293w (4.8w/kg)
Normalized Power: 329w (5.4w/kg)
Peak 5min Power: 410w (6.7w/kg)
Peak 45min Power: 374w (6.1w/kg)


https://www.strava.com/activities/4273131277/

That final climb is all kinds of awful. Going to be deja vous all over again for Roglic.

Saw the Velonews piece on Kuss’ data. I can’t even.

How long is the final climb today? The Mirador is a wall, iirc (might even be the literal translation). Should be a ten minute effort max i think?

1.8km, I think. But it's savage, so yeah, on the order of 10 minutes - but I think a little less. Gorgeous scenery on the climb.

I'm getting tired of Walker and McCrossan nitpicking every crease in every skinsuit! It's like they're a living slowtwitch thread.

Thought I read there’s like a 30% kicker or something crazy?

Some cool camera shots... for a bike race.

Roglic had quite a good day at the Tour TT. It was just that Pogacar had a gigantic day. Roglic would have kept off all the other GC guys and it is not in every grand tour that someone comes out with a 7-watt-per-kilo-performance.

That said: never underestimate Ineos at a TT. I guess Carapaz has upped his game this year.

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10k - 30:48 / half - 1:06:40

I didn’t say he had a bad day at Tour. While Pogacar was underrated even though he beat Roglic at nata, Roglic is still one of the top GC TTers. The scenario and route today are similar, that’s my point.

Mirador means "lookout", which is quite appropriate, given the scenery

Also, I'm surprised that no one here has enough command of Spanish to have corrected me :)

It looks like Rodriguez did 6:46 on the climb in 2013.