Esteban Chaves Discussion Thread

[yaco]

Chavez chasing a fit and fully focused Nibali and his strong team will be a challenge for Chavez. Combine that with the three TT's and Chavez will need to travelling well. Interested whether Tzurruka and Plaza Molina will be part of Chavez team for the Giro and the Vuelta.

 

[dirkprovin]

Re:

Chavez chasing a fit and fully focused Nibali and his strong team will be a challenge for Chavez. Combine that with the three TT's and Chavez will need to travelling well. Interested whether Tzurruka and Plaza Molina will be part of Chavez team for the Giro and the Vuelta.

As to how "all out" they will go with GC at the Giro may be open to speculation. Chaves will certainly be given support but it may be a case of seeing how it pans out and if he loses significant time at some point. Then it may switch to a stage-hunting focus.

Matthews will most likely go to the Giro, at least for the first part so it's likely he will have some degree of support rather than all centred round Chaves.

It may well be that the Vuelta is again "friendlier" to Chaves. Much will depend on who 'fronts' at the Vuelta post Tour and Olympics .... or who else has a Giro - Olympics - Vuelta race schedule like him

 

[yaco]

Re: Re:

Chavez chasing a fit and fully focused Nibali and his strong team will be a challenge for Chavez. Combine that with the three TT's and Chavez will need to travelling well. Interested whether Tzurruka and Plaza Molina will be part of Chavez team for the Giro and the Vuelta.

As to how "all out" they will go with GC at the Giro may be open to speculation. Chaves will certainly be given support but it may be a case of seeing how it pans out and if he loses significant time at some point. Then it may switch to a stage-hunting focus.

Matthews will most likely go to the Giro, at least for the first part so it's likely he will have some degree of support rather than all centred round Chaves.

It may well be that the Vuelta is again "friendlier" to Chaves. Much will depend on who 'fronts' at the Vuelta post Tour and Olympics .... or who else has a Giro - Olympics - Vuelta race schedule like him

OGE will be chasing GC with Chavez - Olympics will be interesting Profile will suit the climbers - Could some opt out early from the TDF.

 

[robin440]

Can't wait for the olympics, should be a great race!!

 

[Valv.Piti]

Been mediocre at T-A and Catalunya, but I assume he has gone home to Columbia topping his form Quintana-style. Hopefully he will come out all guns blazing, such a nice rider! The route is by no means ideal for him, but Im confident he will be show his Vuelta-climbing again.

 

[liamito]

Re:

Been mediocre at T-A and Catalunya, but I assume he has gone home to Columbia topping his form Quintana-style. Hopefully he will come out all guns blazing, such a nice rider! The route is by no means ideal for him, but Im confident he will be show his Vuelta-climbing again.

Chaves most of the times is mediocre on cold/chilly days. To show his Vuelta-climbing again the weather should be nothing like typical Giro weather I guess.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re: Re:

Been mediocre at T-A and Catalunya, but I assume he has gone home to Columbia topping his form Quintana-style. Hopefully he will come out all guns blazing, such a nice rider! The route is by no means ideal for him, but Im confident he will be show his Vuelta-climbing again.

Chaves most of the times is mediocre on cold/chilly days. To show his Vuelta-climbing again the weather should be nothing like typical Giro weather I guess.

I believe. He took 2 months off last year before the Vuelta and was the strongest in the first week, but you are probably right on the whether. He is a joker, he probably can't win the race under any circumstances, but he can contribute to a good race, hopefully!

 

[yaco]

Re:

Been mediocre at T-A and Catalunya, but I assume he has gone home to Columbia topping his form Quintana-style. Hopefully he will come out all guns blazing, such a nice rider! The route is by no means ideal for him, but Im confident he will be show his Vuelta-climbing again.

Interesting tactics from OGE - Chavez has about 15 race days and has shown little form - His key mountain lieutenants Tzurruka has raced a bit more but has struggled to finish with the peleton and Plaza has 10 race days. How Chavez will perform is a mystery though the parcours for the Giro doesn't suit his characteristics, and he probably doesn't have enough support in the mountains - Expect him to be more competitive at the Vuelta.

OGE seem pretty keen to snare sprint wins with Ewan at the Giro which is more sprinter friendly than normal.

 

[chavito]

I'd love to say he's good for pink but I'll be realistic and say a fight for top 5 again. Hopefully he can pull from his bag of tricks like at La Vuelta and keep his smile on and great attitude which got him far the last few years. Looking forward to cheering him on next Month as he continues he rise!

 

[AlexNYC]

His form is bit of a mystery right now, but if the prologue performance is a good indicator, I can see him doing another top 5 in this Giro. He might even do better...

 

[Jspear]

I'm a big fan. I'm really hoping for a top 5 and then he can go on to win the Vuelta.

 

[jaylew]

Re:

I'm a big fan. I'm really hoping for a top 5 and then he can go on to win the Vuelta.

I would really love that. Of the GC guys I'd most want Chaves or Bala to win.

 

[AlexNYC]

He's looking more and more like a dark horse... Too early to know for sure obviously, but he's on the right path.

 

[yaco]

Think he's in good form - Made a mistake today staying with the big time GC guys, instead of following Dumoulin's wheel.

 

[Guybrush]

Good news! great performance. we'll see the whitest smile in the peloton very often

 

[Valv.Piti]

Along with Pozzovivo, might be the joker here. I think he will be a lot more conservative this time around and try not too spent too much energy in the first week/s, he looked very strong on the last kilometres today.

 

[SergeDeM]

Did we figure out why he's "Esteban Chaves" and not "Johan Chaves" in all the reports?

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Chaves is really strong again. Certainly close to his 1st week Vuelta level

 

[Pricey_sky]

Chavez looked good today, of course he will have to limit losses in Sundays TT but he will surely be strong in the high mountains. Still 28/1 with some bookies, worth a little each-way bet.

 

[42x16ss]

It's good to see that Chaves isn't racing too hard this first week going for stage wins. I still think he could have finished on the podium at last years Vuelta if he didn't go so deep in the first week. I really hope Chaves comes through with a nice result this Vuelta, he's even got a decent team for the mountains with Plaza, Txurruka and Howson (who would have thought?) there to support him. Hayman isn't there for the flat stages but Mezgec seems to be doing a good job.

 

[hfer07]

my man Chavito is nicely positioning in the GC- quietly but doing the necessary steps to stay close to the top 5, before the real tests arrive. Looking forward to his performance in the mountains

 

[Jspear]

Re:

my man Chavito is nicely positioning in the GC- quietly but doing the necessary steps to stay close to the top 5, before the real tests arrive. Looking forward to his performance in the mountains

He's my man

 

[yaco]

Disappointing how he lost 9 seconds. With 5kms to Chavez was one side of the road with 3 riders and Ewan wason the other side of the road with 3 riders - Have no idea what happened.

 

[RedheadDane]

Maybe Orica just got confused about who was who...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ScZSX6ypJY

(Look at arond 3:10)

 

[Valv.Piti]

You can't really dislike this Chaves!

Genuinely a good guy, always smiling, almost laughing. Bit of a pretty boy and a pure climber, altho more explosive than most.. gotta love him. I was really surprised by his prologue, I thought he and Landa would be the worst, but he did surprisingly well and looked to have no trouble yesterday in the final K. Still a big question mark in proper mountains, but if I remember correctly, he was very decent in Els Cortals?