Michele said:
By checking cqranking, only 2 guys got a better ranking (up to today) than Machado; Horner and Braijikovic (and please notice that both of them rode California and Tour).
Indeed he is the third ranked RadioShack guy.
If you check his 2010 results at cycling archives you will see:
3º General Classification Tour of Algarve
2º General Classification Circuit de la Sarthe
7º General Classification Vuelta a Castilla y Leon
7º General Classification Tour of Romandie
4º General Classification Tour of Austria
10º General Classification Tour of Poland
Which is many top 10's throughout the season but not a win. And as you point out he did not race the Tour, or California. Which are harder races than the above.
His results before tell the same story.
I fully agree that he's super talented. But not a winner. if he embraced his job as a domestique he would be one of the most desired and valuable riders in the peloton. Instead of riding for himself in lesser events and wracking up a list of top 10's.
At best in the Volta he'd get a top 10.