offbyone said:
If that is what he wants he should just say it. But he contradicts that by choosing team sky, a non-spanish team with lesser talent instead. Doesn't make sense. And with Rubiera and Zubeldia they might have had a radioshack team with some great spanish riders. Not too mention they could have even brought the king of basque country.
Iban Mayo? Seriously, though I thought they might want Zubeldia as a sop to the first trip to the Basque country for years, he's not any more loved in the Basque country than any other rider who's pulled on the orange, even Samu, who's Asturian.
I have no doubt that you are right. This decision can only be because of this type of attitude but it is petty, trivial and unprofessional. They should always choose the best riders. Half the teams in the vuelta don't target it and send b-squads or tired out a-squads with no gc goals. This has been happening for a long time. Yes Guillén has the right, but that doesn't make it smart.
Who decrees who 'the best riders' are? Different riders for different tasks. If the best riders should always go, then the teams that get selected become totally inflexible and there's no natural movement or progression. Makes it very difficult for anybody to change levels.
You are correct, of all the teams out there they have a lot of depth. They could have easily sent a team to the giro. I am not sure why they didn't. I thought at the time that the giro organizers only wanted a team from them that contained LA.
Trust me, that wasn't the problem. Angelo Zomegnan and Lance Armstrong see eye to eye about as much as Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles.
Still, I don't see how their non-participation in the giro has anything to do with the vuelta. 2 Grand Tours a season is pretty reasonable. I guess it would have been better if they had talked up the vuelta when missing the giro, but this requirement is like schoolyard cliques.
Perhaps it is, but not participating in the Giro
proved that they really did only care about the 2 races. The Vuelta might be a proving ground for budding GC talent, fought out by a few Spanish specialists, and riders whose other GC ambitions in the year faltered, or are salvaging injury-ravaged seasons, but they're trying to market their race, and if you treat it like that in public then it reflects badly on the race, and I can totally understand why that would make their presence damaging. If a team who don't care about the race make it seem worthless, then dominate it, or worse,
don't dominate it, then that devalues the race.
Again the Shack could have brought some good spanish riders. Rubiera would garner a lot of local interest alone. I am sure you are dead on, but again race invites for a grand tour shouldn't come down to who made nice the best.
The lance, levi and kloden free squad would still be a top 10 vuelta squad including some classic spanish riders. And in contrast to the astana team, they would have certainly had at least one serious gc contender. All during the giro everyone complains how the giro is treated like the TdF's dirty step sister. Well the Vuelta isn't even family.
The Vuelta is the runt of the litter, but would the Lance, Levi and Klöden squad still be that good? Do you remember anything about that 2009 Astana team at the Vuelta? Quite clearly you don't. It was planned out and announced. The 9 riders were to be led by Klöden, with Horner and Zubeldia as superdomestiques. Klöden pulled out due to fatigue from the Tour shortly before the race. Even ignoring the farcical soap opera that led to Vino's replacing him, that should have been the first warning sign. Horner crashed out of the race on stage 4, and that's fair enough, that's bad luck, you can't help that. But Zubeldia fought on, but was fatigued from the Tour, and could only muster 14th. During the entire 3 weeks of the Vuelta I can only recall once when an Astana rider attacked - I believe Hernández was in the break on the stage Deignan won. When Bruyneel then talks of a team with Klöden, Zubeldia and Horner, Guillén probably thinks "they sold me down the river with that last year. To hell with that", and who can blame him?
It is just like how the ToC was run this year. Lots of good teams went but sent lower class riders or riders who didn't give a crap. If they want to keep their status as the 3rd grand tour they need to elevate the quality of talent and competition at the race. The only way to do that is by inviting teams with real gc contenders. They should be thinking about that first and foremost.
Nonsense. Good teams went but sent riders who didn't give a crap. That's what happened at Cali. The way to elevate the quality of talent is to elevate the quality of competition, not vice versa. If you have top level talent but no desire to win, you'll get something like California. What you have in the Vuelta is a race that is historic and prestigious, but is fought over by slightly lesser talents. They could still viably have Sastre, Menchov, Arroyo, Nibali, Mosquera, Sánchez, Antón, Rodríguez, and possibly even Contador. That's not a bad lineup of competition, you know.
I would rather have riders who aren't the absolute élite fighting it out than riders who are the absolute élite not giving their all and not caring. The same should apply to teams too.
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