Parrulo said:
oh he is at least 2 stars <_< certainly stronger then arroyo and sella and sastre
Respectfully disagree. Machado perhaps has more potential, but he's never completed a GT before. Xavier Tondó took 3 attempts to do so, and he's won the Volta, and is arguably a better climber than Tiago (though Tiago has the benefit of youth). Arroyo had 2 top 10s (2007 and 2009 after di Luca's DQ) before his infamous showing last year, so he has proven pedigree of being able to be there. When you consider how appalling his ITT is, he had to put in some mighty impressive mountain showings to be there. Sella may not have the same level anymore but he was always animating the races in the mountains (not unlike Tiago, but Tiago's a much better time triallist than Lelle) and the mighty strength of Androni means he may be able to get away with something because of having teammates in the group behind. Sastre is getting old, sure, and will probably be riding for Menchov.
c&cfan said:
i don't mind if he ends out of the top 10, as long as he wins something.
is pires on the start list? i always thought that he was pretty good, still not at andre cardoso's level.
Pires' best results come in 2008, for LA-MSS. There are a number of climbing domestiques I would have picked for Leopard before Bruno Pires. He's had a pretty decent season, all things considered. Makes me wonder what Mestre, Victorino, Cardoso or Broco could do in the rest of Europe.
Ryo Hazuki said:
the only reason machado was never a threat in volta portugal was because he was too young, rode like an idiot and rode against the biggest epo-users in modern history.
I'm a huge fan of portugese cycling and know a lot about it but portugal is no spain. andre cardoso is incredible but he wouldn't be in the 10 best climbers in the giro or better than machado yet, maybe in future but it remains to be seen and if you really wonder why european teams don't take portugese riders you should perhaps learn why and what portugese cycling went through, it's clean now but most european teams don't trust a thing there.
Portuguese cycling has been through the mill and it has been its own worst enemy. It's managed to get itself ostracized and as you say teams find it hard to trust talents coming out of there. It's a shame but it's also why it's a good thing that people like Costa, Oliveira and Machado have got out whilst still young, because once you get to 26-27 and are still in Portugal, I worry that you'll never get out.
Cardoso, if let off the leash, I reckon could push Machado. I don't think he's as good a rider as Machado but I think he's less likely to ride like a lunatic. In some respects Bruyneel is good for Machado, but I pine for the Machado of old, who would attack like he was channelling Vino, Voeckler and Vandenbroucke at the same time. On the other hand, Cardoso's ITT makes Arroyo look like Cancellara.
Parrulo said:
^^that
its a fact. having a sprinter climbing with the best in august and hiring the puerto black listed riders did nothing good to portuguese cycling. also having the winner of the volta testing positive (nuno ribeiro) and the whole LA MSS thing almost killed portuguese cycling credibility.
thankfully portuguese cycling seems to be on the right track. not many black listed guys left and portuguese teams are going mostly for portuguese cyclists and portuguese leaders (it used to be spanish cyclists then it become portuguese cyclists and spanish puerto guys leaders) santi perez is one of the last guys left and hopefully he won't perform on a portuguese dominated volta.
The problem is that traditionally better salaries in Portuguese domestic cycling than Spanish (especially before the expansion period in Spain) meant that these blacklisted riders could make the best available wage in Portugal, and because of their name value and quality of riding (plus perhaps the less stringent controls than at the ProTour level) made them attractive to the teams. Of course, a number of Spanish riders have spent time in Portugal or made their names there without the Puerto taint (with mixed outcomes), such as Xavier Tondó, David Arroyo, Óscar Pereiro and Ezequiel Mosquera. Some never left (Héctor Guerra). But it then became perceived that Spaniards in Portugal = Puerto leftovers. And of course, the likes of Bernabéu and Blanco started leaving their fingerprints all over the Volta, and obscuring Portuguese talent from coming through the ranks.
The big problem is that the Portuguese péloton is shrinking, and has shrunk very badly. The number of local teams shrinking has helped show up the lack of outside interest in the Volta, because few teams are really all that keen on spending two weeks in the blistering heat of Portugal in August to get thoroughly steamrollered by the natives. Even lately we've seen LA-MSS, the storied and historic União Ciclista da Maia, fold in a haze of dope-induced rot, Liberty Seguros collapse, and we've lost Loulé to the amateur ranks, thanks to financial trouble, and Benfica full stop. Teams like ASC Vitoria, Cantanhedes and so on, all either gone entirely or gone back to the u23 and amateur ranks. And the off-season debacle with Liberty Seguros that prevented some teams from signing riders because of funding woes, and lots of highly talented riders either returning to u23 with their tails between their legs (José Gonçalves, Fabio Silvestre) or scrabbling for rides elsewhere (José João Mendes) after the eleventh-hour plug-pulling... that hasn't helped anybody at all. The size of teams is shrinking too, especially considering that 9 riders tend to start the Volta.
Santí is still around and still getting good results. He tends to care about April more than August though. I almost feel bad for him though - he's paid for his sins with a lot more than most, in that he's still unemployable seven years on.
There are a lot of talented youngsters in Portugal. Either there needs to be more teams for them to go into so that talented riders don't give up the ghost at 23 and 24, or they need some more teams to look to Portugal for talent. It would be a real shame to see the likes of Rafael Reis and Amaro Antunes never leave Iberia.
El Pistolero said:
That would be either José Manuel Fuente or Luis Ocana.
Fuente! One of the absolute all time greatest.
lol
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram