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Vuelta a Espana - Discussion
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 24-04-2026 04:55
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Tour de France Champion
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Not a perfect stage with Aranburu looking a bit boxed in for the finale (or just not having the legs, but priority wiset hat's what we should be doing (and should have done earlier) Aranburu has a free agent to pursue the finish while Carthy sits on and stays attentive. So I like that showing a lot even if the stage result is slightly less. It's been a great race for us so far, and happy to see AKA still in the points jersey.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
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| Heine |
Posted on 24-04-2026 06:03
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Sony just quietly getting important points by being in the jersey
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| knockout |
Posted on 24-04-2026 07:24
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Grand Tour Champion
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Blums > Areruya.
Plapp lost a few seconds to many top ten contenders but overall not a terrible stage with Eenkhoorn and him slowly climbing the ranks.
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| Eden95 |
Posted on 24-04-2026 07:28
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Latour not bothering to get involved again sucks. At least he didn’t fall off the back again.
Indosat - ANZ HQ
"This Schleck sandwich is going to cause serious indigestion for Evans" - Phil Liggett |
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 24-04-2026 08:35
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World Champion
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One week of racing gone and it's not been very good for us. We had some top 10s, but that's about it. So no great scoring so far.
Champoussin looks towards a good GC placinging, but it's way too late to make any proper judgements on that though with no proper mountain stages yet. So can't get too excited about that either.
Thanks for the reports so far!
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| Nemolito |
Posted on 24-04-2026 10:13
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Stages like these I can only hope for no time loss. So the last two stages were succesfull  Congratulations to the stage winners!
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| OlegTinkov |
Posted on 24-04-2026 12:54
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Classics Specialist
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7 stages of absolutely nothing in it for us, nonetheless the report are fun to read, fingers crossed for week 3 I guess because I think week 2 will be more of the same.
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| ember |
Posted on 24-04-2026 13:01
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Wow, crazy good leadout by JP Lopez  Too bad Valter couldn’t come around and get those important bonus seconds to claim a better GC position moving into the next mountain stage that looms.
But good to see us near the front of the peloton keeping Valter «around» for the decision kilometers. |
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| SotD |
Posted on 24-04-2026 13:52
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Oh boy. It’s going even worse than the Tour. Really need to figure out how to set up a team for a GT next season.
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 25-04-2026 03:18
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Tour de France Champion
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Happy for another solid stage result and hanging onto the points jersey. Once the mountains and hills become the full time terrain, AKA will fall out of that spot and likely end up OTL. But I'm enjoying the farewell tour while it lasts for sure!
Congrats to redordead for Philipsen finally waking up, and thanks for the report.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 26-04-2026 14:45
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| Eden95 |
Posted on 25-04-2026 03:47
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Great win for Philipsen, congrats red! Good to see him finally take a stage. Minali was really strong, I honestly thought he wouldn’t be able to reach him.
Baska with another great ride he has no reason to do, he’s been getting involved when he’s not been part of a train all season and it’s good to see him get a good result.
Thanks for the report!
Indosat - ANZ HQ
"This Schleck sandwich is going to cause serious indigestion for Evans" - Phil Liggett |
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| redordead |
Posted on 25-04-2026 05:04
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He's alive?! 
Two more stages left to win.
"I am a cyclist, I may not be the best, but that is what I strive to be. I may never get there, but I will never quit trying." - Tadej Pogačar
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| ember |
Posted on 25-04-2026 05:37
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Prasad and our leadout struggling to make it click, it feels like. 6th is decent, but I think we would be better off without a train, really.
Excited for tjener two stages! The best chances remaining for Valter to do top stage results from the bunch, I suspect. Fingers crossed he is up for it!  |
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| roturn |
Posted on 25-04-2026 06:18
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Losing a couple seconds were not ideal but must be expected. Still in contention and the second half might favour more breakaway appearances where the team is rather invisible so far.
Good to see phillipsen finally getting his first win here. |
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 25-04-2026 07:18
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World Champion
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It's a shame van der Kooij couldn't finish that lead out with something more than 10th place.
Congrats, red!
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| knockout |
Posted on 25-04-2026 19:07
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Grand Tour Champion
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Love to see Broxham defending red for quite some days already. Huge bonus for Sony <3
Good first 8 stages for me. Not because we have been good but because the entire top6 has been doing nothing so far
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 26-04-2026 02:17
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It's insane how my team always does the opposite of what I expect. I came here saying we just needed a calm race and a GC top 10. 9 stages in we have 3 stage wins and Carthy losing time. 2nd overall with a puncheur and AKA in the points jersey. What a race for us so far!
It's been a long wait and a lot of investment into Alex Aranburu to get to this moment. We dumped so much money training him from 77 to 80 hill, and already at the beginning it wasn't clear that was a productive move given his low acceleration and stamina. Then after the new engine came and stamina was buffed while resistance was nerfed, it seemed like he was cooked. We actively tried to schedule him some room to work within his own skillset, and somehow it panned out. He's had a great second half to the year, and winning a Vuelta stage in the Spanish NC jersey must be a a dream for him. Maybe would only be better if it was a Basque stage, but this will do!
As it turns out, the Vuelta is kind of the perfect race for him, with the hilly/medium mountain finishes after relatively easy days. Negates the stamina and emphasizes resistance in the one big push. He's thriving, and it gives a lot of hope that he can have a solid last couple of years of his career and make it somewhat worth it with good planning, even if he'll never quite live up to his overall and wage.
Thanks for the report!
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
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| kandesbunzler26 |
Posted on 26-04-2026 07:47
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Cool to see Aranburu finally live up to expectations at least a bit! And it proves once again bbls tactic of yelling at riders until they perform works 
Also a nice 3rd from Schlegel who at least gives red a hint he should also go more with this tactics as well 
A bit late to the party, but seeing Camrda pulling of a stage win for DeNA was really cool. It's probably his career highlight (Camrdas, not Ezees hopefully), but at least he'll always be a GT stage winner and there's hardly a team which deserves it more this season.
And also nice to see Broxham keeping up Sony single-handedly. With MacC probably gone he won't have to search long for a thankful new team.
Finally thanks to Ulrich for all the great reports! It's always a pleasure reading yours!
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| knockout |
Posted on 26-04-2026 08:24
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Grand Tour Champion
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Slowly but surely the gc shapes up. Plapp with a good ride today although unlucky that there wasnt a gap after the top9 or so. The rest of the team lucky that there was none. Guess that cancels itself out then ^^
Congrats to bbl, what an incredible race for you! And Broxham still on top of his game. Awesome to see.
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| ember |
Posted on 26-04-2026 09:10
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This is crazy sensational by Aranburu! Congratulations again, bbl.
For us and Valter, I’m getting very pessimistic, to be honest. We have thrown away too many chances at stage success already. Need to drop out of GC contention sooner rather than later, to hopefully be part of the breakaway action. That feels like our best chance. The dream before the race was to have a Aranburu light race up to this point to get the points haul going, and luckily he has tried. Just a pity his attacks are somewhat predictable and look easy to catch
On to the next one! Another chance |
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