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Haimar Zubeldia: The Anonymous One

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TANK91

TANK91

Mar 9, 2013
1,996
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Arnout said:
Mayo isn't overhyped. He was literally the best climber of the last decade-and-a-bit. Zubeldia was better against the clock, but Mayo schooled the peloton between early 2003 and June 2004.

After that the team doctor left and he never quite reached that level again, but that's another story.
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Mayo was good because he had leeway. Give Mayo that doctor every year and LA would crush him. Bet you will bring Dauphinee up or something but lets be serious, most dominant climber is LA it is a fact.
 
TANK91

TANK91

Mar 9, 2013
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burning said:
I think he's a overhyped rider, definitely not overrated as a climber though.
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He is overrated as a climber LA was far better climber, so was Basso. Mayo was too hit and miss, you cant call someone a great climber when 1 day their getting dropped and losing 20 mins and then their in break every day. Did you ever see Mayo ride in front group and drop LA and win a stage, LA may have let him go but Mayo was never better. Mayo is like Rujano could have great days but was awful just as much.
 
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inthepink

Jan 31, 2014
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Zubeldia is a very good rider. he doesn't have the talent of Contador or Froome or Quintana but what he has is consistency and effort..at his age he is still riding well in every Grand Tour he rides...People go on about Voight and Horner......Zubeldia is more remarkable IMO as he has done more and had better results ....but no commentators mention him and no journos seek him out

But what gets me about the posters on here is how they talk about good riders who make the best of what they have got, work hard, train year year out to ride Grand Tours , (which is in itself is a very hard job) with derision...the same people who wouldn't last one stage of the Tour if their life depended on it

Zubeldia has been 4th, 5th & 6th,8th in the Tour and against the EPO generation. In my book he should have won at least 2 of those tours in the UCI were doing their job....

Lots of hype here about riders ...lets see how many will have that record
 
Warhawk

Warhawk

Jul 3, 2012
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The dude's a real pro's pro. For all the jokes I make about him being some kind of mythical creature that you need candles and a ouija board to find out on the road, I really admire the way he goes about his business.
 
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aarnold517

Mar 18, 2009
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classicomano said:
If Francis De Greef was a pokemon, Zubeldia would be his evolved form.
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:D I think this about sums it up for me, really thought he might be done after his 36th last year, but just when you doubt haimar he sneaks in another top 10

Also, probably funniest moment of the tour for me was them showing the top 9 instead of the top 10 the day zubeldia moved into the top 10 :D
 
ustabe

ustabe

Jan 13, 2010
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Dekker_Tifosi said:
Actually Zubeldia more than once made the pace of his group, usually dragging Mollema, Ten Dam and Schleck along.
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Haimar Zubeldia started his pro career with Euskatel-Euskadi, and then he became one of those anonymous Spanish domestiques for Lance. His run of top-10 Tour finishes started with a 5th in 2004.

He came onto my radar when Discovery Channel or USPS was auctioning off the team bikes on ebay. I scanned down the photos and decided Haimar's was pretty spot-on for me.

He's still hanging out in 10th in the GC, five minutes ahead of Frank Schleck. You gotta respect that.
 
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chiocciolis_calves

Aug 28, 2013
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inthepink said:
Zubeldia is a very good rider. he doesn't have the talent of Contador or Froome or Quintana but what he has is consistency and effort..at his age he is still riding well in every Grand Tour he rides...People go on about Voight and Horner......Zubeldia is more remarkable IMO as he has done more and had better results ....but no commentators mention him and no journos seek him out

But what gets me about the posters on here is how they talk about good riders who make the best of what they have got, work hard, train year year out to ride Grand Tours , (which is in itself is a very hard job) with derision...the same people who wouldn't last one stage of the Tour if their life depended on it

Zubeldia has been 4th, 5th & 6th,8th in the Tour and against the EPO generation. In my book he should have won at least 2 of those tours in the UCI were doing their job....

Lots of hype here about riders ...lets see how many will have that record
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While I think you're going a bit too far with talk of TDFs he might have won, your point about what he does in comparison to someone like Jens Voight is well taken. Voight gets the camera time on his various quixotic adventures, but Zubeldia is there at the front day-after-day. It's also important to remember how often over the past six years he has been a domestique in the TDF for Astana, RadioShack and Trek. A couple years ago he finished sixth and he basically asked if perhaps the team might start riding for him. I can't remember who was leader...Andy, Frank, Kloden...someone weaker than Zubeldia but a bigger hit with the fanboys.

I do recall one time he attacked - The stage in 2003 where Ullrich dropped Armstrong before Armstrong recovered right at the end to minimize the losses. He may have put in a dig on Alpe d'Huez that year, too.
 
ustabe

ustabe

Jan 13, 2010
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chiocciolis_calves said:
A couple years ago he finished sixth and he basically asked if perhaps the team might start riding for him. I can't remember who was leader...Andy, Frank, Kloden...someone weaker than Zubeldia but a bigger hit with the fanboys.

I do recall one time he attacked - The stage in 2003 where Ullrich dropped Armstrong before Armstrong recovered right at the end to minimize the losses. He may have put in a dig on Alpe d'Huez that year, too.
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Damn straight.

Now I have to go out and buy the 2003 Tour video.
 
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chiocciolis_calves

Aug 28, 2013
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ustabe said:
Damn straight.

Now I have to go out and buy the 2003 Tour video.
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You'll get protestations from some who cannot get past their Armstrong hate, but that was a very entertaining Tour. I have it on DVD. Ullrich annihilating Armstrong in the TT is a joy, but you also have the drama on the way to Gap, a phenomenal stage on Alpe d'Huez and Petacchi in his prime. Good stuff.
 
Bernie's eyesore

Bernie's eyesore

Sep 14, 2011
1,980
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aarnold517 said:
:D I think this about sums it up for me, really thought he might be done after his 36th last year, but just when you doubt haimar he sneaks in another top 10

Also, probably funniest moment of the tour for me was them showing the top 9 instead of the top 10 the day zubeldia moved into the top 10 :D
Click to expand...

That was good, clearly the person in charge of the graphics hadn't seen Zubeldia all race so thought a mistake must have been made and left him out just in case.
 
afpm90

afpm90

Jul 10, 2009
609
36
10,030
ustabe said:
Haimar Zubeldia started his pro career with Euskatel-Euskadi, and then he became one of those anonymous Spanish domestiques for Lance. His run of top-10 Tour finishes started with a 5th in 2004.

He came onto my radar when Discovery Channel or USPS was auctioning off the team bikes on ebay. I scanned down the photos and decided Haimar's was pretty spot-on for me.

He's still hanging out in 10th in the GC, five minutes ahead of Frank Schleck. You gotta respect that.
Click to expand...

That's strange... He never rode with those teams. His last season for Euskaltel was in 2008. So he was with Armstrong in 2009 at Astana and in 2010 at RadioShack.
 
D

Dr. Juice

Jun 5, 2014
883
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chiocciolis_calves said:
You'll get protestations from some who cannot get past their Armstrong hate, but that was a very entertaining Tour. I have it on DVD. Ullrich annihilating Armstrong in the TT is a joy, but you also have the drama on the way to Gap, a phenomenal stage on Alpe d'Huez and Petacchi in his prime. Good stuff.
Click to expand...

It was a great Tour from A to Z. Also the Loudenvielle mountain stage won by Simoni beating Virenque in a sprint where Ullrich didn't attack Lance on the Peyresourde or let him do the chase work to catch Vinokourov. Instead towing Lance up and doing all the work. You saw Armstrong was still a little knocked on.
And regarding Petacchi at the Tour 2003...he didn't pass the easiest hill and claimed to be tired...but I've never seen the best Cipollini, Cavendish or Kittel humilate a peleton including the best sprinters ( the same Cipo excluded) in the way he did. Shame he got a virus infection after the first week.

Zubeldia was a lot more regular than Mayo that Tour. Always around Lance/Ullrich or just seconds behind. Mayo great on Alpe but got a free card (Zubeldia may have also won but you don't chase after your team mate) and good at Luz Ardiden. But nowhere at AX3 for example.
 
Arnout

Arnout

Mar 10, 2009
4,704
34
15,530
Dr. Juice said:
It was a great Tour from A to Z. Also the Loudenvielle mountain stage won by Simoni beating Virenque in a sprint where Ullrich didn't attack Lance on the Peyresourde or let him do the chase work to catch Vinokourov. Instead towing Lance up and doing all the work. You saw Armstrong was still a little knocked on.
And regarding Petacchi at the Tour 2003...he didn't pass the easiest hill and claimed to be tired...but I've never seen the best Cipollini, Cavendish or Kittel humilate a peleton including the best sprinters ( the same Cipo excluded) in the way he did. Shame he got a virus infection after the first week.

Zubeldia was a lot more regular than Mayo that Tour. Always around Lance/Ullrich or just seconds behind. Mayo great on Alpe but got a free card (Zubeldia may have also won but you don't chase after your team mate) and good at Luz Ardiden. But nowhere at AX3 for example.
Click to expand...

Zubeldia was not that good on Alpe though, he was 5th best at most. I agree that Zubeldia was a lot better on Ax-3-Domaines, but that was the only mountain stage where he was markedly superior to Mayo.
 
gunara

gunara

Dec 6, 2012
1,893
1,573
13,680
Yaaay, nice 8th!!
Haimar doesn't wheelsuck, he stalks, and when he does, it's not in bad intention, he's never stolen a win from anyone :p
He's one of those few that got me into cycling after all, can not bring myself to ever say bad things about him.
 
ustabe

ustabe

Jan 13, 2010
491
0
0
afpm90 said:
That's strange... He never rode with those teams. His last season for Euskaltel was in 2008. So he was with Armstrong in 2009 at Astana and in 2010 at RadioShack.
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Thanks for the correction. Didn't recognize him in orange in the 2003 photo, and I'd assumed he'd been associated with Trek earlier.

He doesn't wheelsuck. He paced Frank Schleck for his short time in the second chase group Thursday.

He should be Trek's team leader for the Vuelta or USA Pro Challenge. Maybe if Trek sees that he has fans, they'd let him do it.
 
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