Carlos Betancur discussion thread

[AlexNYC]

Re:

I only came here to see how much hype there would be.

LOL, that makes two of us

 

[Gigs_98]

He was looking impressive today. Not sure yet what to think of it but he could definitely enter the top ten if he keeps riding like this.

 

[Moviestar]

A pity he got a flat tire in the last km's, +50 sec after the second group.

 

[Escarabajo]

Re:

A pity he got a flat tire in the last km's, +50 sec after the second group.

Thanks for the information.
I was wondering about how he faded the last kilometers. I thought that he couldn't be worse than Froome therefore what happened.

 

[DBotero]

Decent race for Betancur,15 in the final GC.Hopefully he'll find a way to improve even more in the next races.He's not there yet.

 

[Popchu]

Decent race for Betancur,15 in the final GC.Hopefully he'll find a way to improve even more in the next races.He's not there yet.

Decent indeed, I think it was a performance more or less in line with the expectations. It wasn't a perfect build-up towards the Giro because of his late start of the season due to his ankle injury, everything was a bit rushed. A pity he wasn't in yesterday's breakaway to fight for a stage win (although I'm pretty sure Nieve would've won anyway), a day earlier he was in the breakaway but they stood no chance.

Now I'm looking forward to the rest of the season. I think we don't have to fear another disappearance, he looks really motivated. The only question is, what will his program look like? He's not on the provisional startlist for Suisse or Dauphiné, which is logical because he's basically non-stop racing for three months, but on the other hand he can take advantage of his post-Giro form.

Vuelta + Worlds sounds perfect for me.

 

[Moviestar]

Leadership seems quasi-impossible now in GT's and in one-week stage races, with 5 leaders already within the team.

 

[laarsland]

Not a single top-10 on a stage, clinging on to finish 15 in the GC by ninja in the year he turns 29. Please enlighten me to how this can be a beacon for good things to come?

 

[Koronin]

Re:

Leadership seems quasi-impossible now in GT's and in one-week stage races, with 5 leaders already within the team.

If you're including Carapaz in that it, he makes 6 leaders. Valverde (who is the overall team leader), then Quintana and Landa, and after them you have Amador and Soler, and now Carapaz. I don't think there are enough races for more leaders, other than the cobbled classics or of course a sprinter like Barbero for those few races that are mostly sprint type stages.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Re: Re:

Leadership seems quasi-impossible now in GT's and in one-week stage races, with 5 leaders already within the team.

If you're including Carapaz in that it, he makes 6 leaders. Valverde (who is the overall team leader), then Quintana and Landa, and after them you have Amador and Soler, and now Carapaz. I don't think there are enough races for more leaders, other than the cobbled classics or of course a sprinter like Barbero for those few races that are mostly sprint type stages.

Will Amador really get to lead anything important now? My suspicion is that now that Soler and Carapaz have stepped forward there will be no more room for leaders junior to the big three. Two is already a lot of “spare” leaders.

 

[Koronin]

Re: Re:

Leadership seems quasi-impossible now in GT's and in one-week stage races, with 5 leaders already within the team.

If you're including Carapaz in that it, he makes 6 leaders. Valverde (who is the overall team leader), then Quintana and Landa, and after them you have Amador and Soler, and now Carapaz. I don't think there are enough races for more leaders, other than the cobbled classics or of course a sprinter like Barbero for those few races that are mostly sprint type stages.

Will Amador really get to lead anything important now? My suspicion is that now that Soler and Carapaz have stepped forward there will be no more room for leaders junior to the big three. Two is already a lot of “spare” leaders.

That's still 6 leaders who are all infront of Betancur after this Giro. That's what my point more was. I agree they have an over abundance of leaders on this team.

 

[Blanco]

Re: Re:

Leadership seems quasi-impossible now in GT's and in one-week stage races, with 5 leaders already within the team.

If you're including Carapaz in that it, he makes 6 leaders. Valverde (who is the overall team leader), then Quintana and Landa, and after them you have Amador and Soler, and now Carapaz. I don't think there are enough races for more leaders, other than the cobbled classics or of course a sprinter like Barbero for those few races that are mostly sprint type stages.

Will Amador really get to lead anything important now? My suspicion is that now that Soler and Carapaz have stepped forward there will be no more room for leaders junior to the big three. Two is already a lot of “spare” leaders.

That's still 6 leaders who are all infront of Betancur after this Giro. That's what my point more was. I agree they have an over abundance of leaders on this team.

He just needs one performance on his 2013 level and he'll be up there with the leaders.

 

[Koronin]

Re: Re:

Leadership seems quasi-impossible now in GT's and in one-week stage races, with 5 leaders already within the team.

If you're including Carapaz in that it, he makes 6 leaders. Valverde (who is the overall team leader), then Quintana and Landa, and after them you have Amador and Soler, and now Carapaz. I don't think there are enough races for more leaders, other than the cobbled classics or of course a sprinter like Barbero for those few races that are mostly sprint type stages.

Will Amador really get to lead anything important now? My suspicion is that now that Soler and Carapaz have stepped forward there will be no more room for leaders junior to the big three. Two is already a lot of “spare” leaders.

That's still 6 leaders who are all infront of Betancur after this Giro. That's what my point more was. I agree they have an over abundance of leaders on this team.

He just needs one performance on his 2013 level and he'll be up there with the leaders.

I'm not sure he's capable of them any more, however does a team really want 7 leaders on their team? That would be total overkill.

 

[Blanco]

Leaders are Valverde, Quntana and Landa. Others just play the role if the main guys aren't there.

 

[Beech Mtn]

Giro stage 12

 

[movingtarget]

His best chance is one of the one week stage races. Too many leaders on the team.

 

[DNP-Old]

He might be on the move. La Gazzetta is reporting that UAE are really interested in him. So much so, that he might even ride La Vuelta for them THIS season.

 

[Gigs_98]

Oh god no, please not. He finally looks decent again but then the team where riders go to kill their careers wants him. This must not be true, please let this not be true
it would add to his narrative though

 

[Red Rick]

I don't really care, it's not like he's good enough to be more than an also ran anywhere anyway.

 

[Alexandre B.]

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/betancur-now-well-see-who-was-right-me-or-ag2r/
AG2R aren't wrong for the moment.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re:

I don't really care, it's not like he's good enough to be more than an also ran anywhere anyway.

Thats a little harsh. He finally found legs last year in the Vuelta, but crashed. This season has always been about reaching the best possible form with last year's injury hampering him and he is obviously not 100% still. He started late.

I hope he changes team, there isn't enough room for him with the young guys developing.

 

[Gigs_98]

No he won't become the multiple gt winner some people hoped he could become. But let's be real, he probably never had that potential anyway. What I do think however is that he has what it takes to win gt stages and one week stage races like the Paris Nice he won. Hell, if the bora rider who tried to follow his attack in the Imola stage had stayed with him he might have won a stage in this giro. And I also don't think he has hit his peak shape so far this season as what he showed in that one vuelta stage before crashing out was more impressive than anything he has shown so far this year. Let's not give him up just yet. I still have hope

 

[DBotero]

Horrible team to go but since Movistar is stacked,leaving them seems like the only option.

 

[yaco]

I suspect this is a salary dump by MS - They need to strengthen their squad with more flat land grunt, so getting rid of Betancur makes perfect sense.

 

[May0maniac]

If UAE are smart they'll give him a results based contract, on the other hand I wouldn't mind seeing him cash out with a nice contract.
That said, he has raced for an italian team before, he knows the language and the culture and those really hard training camps that Tira has with Aru and his crew could actually be a good thing for him.
Of course I'd have prefered to see him riding the Vuelta to support Valverde.
I hope that Movistar also gets something out of this deal, they need more rouleurs and Ganna is out of contract, he could go the Malori route and leve Saronni for Unzue. He could learn something from guys like Erviti and Bennati (if he stays) and they have good TT bikes/seem to work more on their TT than UAE. But Sky and Quickstep will probably also go after him, Brailsford already wanted to sign him just before he turned pro, but he already had a contract with Lampre/UAE.