Teams & Riders He's coming home!!!! Alejandro Valverde comeback thread.

[Mr.White]

4th Liege, 2nd all-time behind Merckx, tied with Argentin
9th Ardennes win, 2nd all-time behind Merckx, but 1st if we only count real Ardennes races, cause Amstel in the 70's was not part of it
16 podiums (wins+podium places), 1st all-time, tops Merckx by one

Emperor of the Ardennes! Only Eddy Merckx himself can compete with Don Alejandro's records in this classics!

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Still so strong. You wonder what his palmares would be like without the 2 years suspension. Holy mother of god. He could surpass Merckx in the amount of Ardennes classic wins.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Re:

How come he struggles at Amstel?

Because it's not his race. He nearly never does well in Amstel. Keuteberg doesn't suit him, neither does Cauberg. He always tries but I think the shortness of the climbs and the many twists and turns is too much.

 

[Max Rockatansky]

Re:

Incredible early season. And so many big objectives still to come for him this year.

His spring was so good, that it could be compared with the super season Laurent Jalabert had in 1995. Catalunya took place in June that year. So I'm not including it here. Was later won by Jaja.

Laurent Jalabert 1995
Flèche wallonne
G.P Primavera
Critérium international (2 stages)
Milano - Sanremo
Paris - Nice (1 stage)
1 stage Vuelta a Valenciana
Llucmajor-Playa de Palma

Alejandro Valverde 2017
Liège - Bastogne - Liège
Flèche Wallonne
Vuelta al Pais Vasco (1 stage, points classification)
Volta Ciclista a Catalunya (3 stages, mountain classification)
Vuelta a Andalucia Ruta Ciclista Del Sol (1 stage, points classification)
Vuelta Ciclista a la Region de Murcia 'Costa Calida'

Later in that year Jalabert won Catalunya with two stages wins. He won a stage and the green jersey in the Tour and finished fourth overall. And then he went on to win La Vuelta with five stage wins plus all jerseys.

If Bala can keep this level, I will try to get Jajas points together to compare those seasons a bit better. For now it looks like they are quite close.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Yeah, its insane. Taking Amstel out of the equation, he'd had won 6 races in a row!

Its also quite rare that the 4 best riders i the spring wins the 4 monuments, there's no place for outsiders in 2017, only the absolutely best. I'd rank their spring like this:

1. Valverde
2. GVA
3. Gilbert
4. Kwito

These 4 riders have consistently performed on a incredibly high level and above everyone else, including Sagan and Contador who have gotten beaten by one more of these riders consistently in the spring.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

I agree completely with that ranking. I see it the same way. 4 riders on a different level alltogether. Not even Sagan could compete.

 

[ice&fire]

Re:

I had to fix that ranking

Yeah, its insane. Taking Amstel out of the equation, he'd had won 6 races in a row!

Its also quite rare that the 4 best riders i the spring wins the 4 monuments, there's no place for outsiders in 2017, only the absolutely best. I'd rank their spring like this:

2. Valverde
1. GVA
3. Gilbert
4. Kwito

These 4 riders have consistently performed on a incredibly high level and above everyone else, including Sagan and Contador who have gotten beaten by one more of these riders consistently in the spring.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Is that some kind of joke I don't understand?

 

[Netserk]

viewtopic.php?p=2098637#p2098637

 

[Fernandez]

And imagine that this man has underachieved in his career (in my opinión)

 

[Angliru]

Oleg on Twitter about Bala...

Hard to argue. I've made a huge mistake not to sign him for 3m in 2014. Contador was highly against that contract.I was stupid to listen him

Dont think Bala had moved.

It's no secret that he's quite happy and proud riding for a Spanish team. Tinkov is delusional if he thinks he could have lured Valverde away. Just another excuse to put down Contador.

 

[DFA123]

Re:

Yeah, its insane. Taking Amstel out of the equation, he'd had won 6 races in a row!

Its also quite rare that the 4 best riders i the spring wins the 4 monuments, there's no place for outsiders in 2017, only the absolutely best. I'd rank their spring like this:

1. Valverde
2. GVA
3. Gilbert
4. Kwito

These 4 riders have consistently performed on a incredibly high level and above everyone else, including Sagan and Contador who have gotten beaten by one more of these riders consistently in the spring.

Pretty crazy to think that a rider who wins Milano-Sanremo and Strade Bianche, podiums in LBL and Amstel and gets top 10 in FW isn't even in the top 3 riders of the year so far!!!

 

[SHAD0W93]

Good job Balaverde. I hope he takes the TdF easy and just goes for stages then goes for Vuelta, WC, WCTT, and GDL.

 

[Jspear]

I want to see him win the Vuelta. If he can find this form again, it's very possible.

 

[Nirvana]

Looking at the route the Tour seems better suited to him this year than the Vuelta, i hope that the team will give him freedom considering that Quintana could suffer the toll of having ridden the Giro.

 

[dacooley]

Re:

I want to see him win the Vuelta. If he can find this form again, it's very possible.

I suspect he's willing to win the Tour.

 

[Velolover2]

I think he can become 2nd in the Tour if Quintana is tried.

He definitely shouldn't have to babysit him.

 

[Jspear]

Re: Re:

I want to see him win the Vuelta. If he can find this form again, it's very possible.

I suspect he's willing to win the Tour.

But that won't happen. The best he could do is podium. He should really try for the Vuelta. It's been 8 years since he won it, and it would look really good on his palmares....and it would make this season look even better.

 

[tobydawq]

I think he should try for the Tour. They're only climbing really high on the Izoard if I remember correctly, and it's a pretty easy route both climbing and time trial wise, which means that bonifications should play a bigger role and that suits him more than anybody (if Movistar realise this and don't let breakaways steal everything as what happened in last year's Giro, that is). Especially considering the fact that he has been the strongest rider in the season so far, I can psych myself into believing that he actually has a fair chance of winning the whole thing and it's only Froome that on paper is definitely above him. But I have heard Froome say that he won't focus much on his TT before the Tour because they are to TT so little. That was also the case in 2015 and back then he was only six seconds better than Valverde on the 14 kilometre time trial of the first stage.

On another note: Yesterday's victory saw Valverde enter into the top ten on the all-time cycling ranking as the first rider since Sean Kelly. That's pretty awesome.

https://www.cyclingranking.com/

 

[tobydawq]

Froome seems to agree with me. Interesting.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/chris-froome-valverde-is-a-potential-tour-de-france-winner/?utm_content=buffercbd07&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

 

[KGB]

I can not wait to see him in tdf .Will be great if Quintana will not go to tdf(for some reason like giro win and be tired) and all team will be for Valverde.He has great form he is only rider who actually could challenge Froome this year.

 

[AlexNYC]

We don't know how Quintana will be after the Giro, but if he feels OK, it would be incredibly shortsighted for Movistar to rely on Valverde as their main rider for the Tour. What makes you think that at 37 he will suddenly transform himself into a Tour contender? Even with this year's route, it only takes one hard high-mountain stage for him to lose minutes to the best climbers, and the Izoard stage is plenty hard.

 

[Jspear]

Re:

Froome seems to agree with me. Interesting.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/chris-froome-valverde-is-a-potential-tour-de-france-winner/?utm_content=buffercbd07&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Froome could just be playing mind games.

 

[dusty red roads]

Yes he'd love it if Movistar spends extra energy protecting both Valverde and Quintana again and Valverde doesn't go 100% all out for Nairo.

 

[StryderHells]

Re: Re:

Froome seems to agree with me. Interesting.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/chris-froome-valverde-is-a-potential-tour-de-france-winner/?utm_content=buffercbd07&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Froome could just be playing mind games.

I think that's exactly what Froome is doing, we've seen this before from the GC guys and I'm fairly certain Froome knows Quintana is a bigger threat than Valverde. I think people on this forum are getting a little carried away thinking Valverde could win the TDF, he's in outstanding form but he's going to have a bad day or two in a 3 week race and you can't do that in the TDF against Froome/Team Sky.