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

[Squire]

Re:

Excellent win today. He extends the record he already holds of most years between first and most recent win at la Vuelta. (That is going to be a very difficult record to break).
That crazy stat of 211 stages with only 4 finishes outside the top 20 is not just crazy, but is more proof of his crazy consistency. Surprisingly that is a stat I actually didn't know before yesterday.

That is not what the stat is. Valverde has a lot of stage finishes outside the top 20. What the poster probably meant, was that he's had 4 days outside of the top 20 GC standings. From having a quick look at his results, it looks like most of those came in his debut in 2002. I can find one day outside the top 20 GC from 2003 onwards, and that is after the opening TTT in 2013.

Edit: Seems like he was outside the top 20 in the beginning of the 2004 Vuelta too, and had a lot of days outside the top 20 in 2002. So it must be in his last 211 stages that he's been outside the top 20 for four days.

 

[Koronin]

TY guys.

 

[Valv.Piti]

What an absolutely terrific win!! Totally reminiscent of his 2015 Liege-win where he played Purito and Katusha. Really hoping he can grab the jersey on Tuesday.

El Imbatido, I love you

 

[joe_papp]

Re:

What an absolutely terrific win!! Totally reminiscent of his 2015 Liege-win where he played Purito and Katusha. Really hoping he can grab the jersey on Tuesday.

El Imbatido, I love you

Really a brilliant win. He utterly smashed Kwiatkowski, given that Valverde started his effort from like 500m out in pursuit of De Plus, was in control enough to lure Kwiat onto the front w/ what, like 170m to go, and then just motored by him. Glorious.

 

[Serpentin]

Wow he smashed that stage and played with Kwia. I just love when he goes to the front early to control the pace, you can smell that he is gonna win. Beautiful display of cycling, Bala is back!

 

[Eli]

Just watching the stage 2 highlights on itv 4 and the commentator was quite cheeky. He had this to say after Bala's win "Hugely popular in Spain but less so outside spain amongst people who don't like d#$@rs".

 

[Rollthedice]

Tuesday he's in red, Bala can keep it for a long time all the while comforting Quintana in the evenings by telling him "You're the leader, don't worry."

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re:

Tuesday he's in red, Bala can keep it for a long time all the while comforting Quintana in the evenings by telling him "You're the leader, don't worry."

First one, I really hope so. Kwito is in excellent form and it might be too early for him drop form, but on the other hand its a very long climb. Its pretty shallow tho. Its 50/50 I say, gotta study the stage a bit better. If bonus are in play he should do it as I cant see anyone beating him on that climb tbh.

Second part, yes, Im secretly hoping that as well.

 

[Blanco]

Superb performance by Bala! He was very confident that he was going to win, otherwise he wouldn't chase De Plus himself. I have a feeling he already knew with 400-500 m to go that he'll beat Kwiat, after he saw that he struggles to catch his wheel.

I hope there is much more to come

 

[Amazinmets87]

Which stage is Bala most likely to stuggle on? There seem to be a paucity of high-altitude multi-mountain stages.

 

[SHAD0W93]

Re:

Which stage is Bala most likely to stuggle on? There seem to be a paucity of high-altitude multi-mountain stages.

The last stage when he has to walk his aching bones up the podium for GC, points, and combined.

 

[Gigs_98]

Re:

Which stage is Bala most likely to stuggle on? There seem to be a paucity of high-altitude multi-mountain stages.

The covatilla stage and the penultimate stage probably suit him least but generally the route suits him pretty well. There are a few riders who'll most likely gain time in the ITT (keldermann) but generally valverde's Problem will most likely be that he usually isn't the strongest climber of a race. Yesterday valverde "only" showed that he is in his usual vuelta shape.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re: Re:

Which stage is Bala most likely to stuggle on? There seem to be a paucity of high-altitude multi-mountain stages.

The covatilla stage and the penultimate stage probably suit him least but generally the route suits him pretty well. There are a few riders who'll most likely gain time in the ITT (keldermann) but generally valverde's Problem will most likely be that he usually isn't the strongest climber of a race. Yesterday valverde "only" showed that he is in his usual vuelta shape.

The route is very good for Alejandro. Its weird saying this, but it would have been even better with more time trial kilometres. But it all depends on good form - if he is at his best, none of these stages doesn't suit him tbh.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Finishes like that are near impossible to beat Valverde. I think only Alaphilippe can do it, and even that is more likely a 50/50.

 

[Blanco]

Re:

Finishes like that are near impossible to beat Valverde. I think only Alaphilippe can do it, and even that is more likely a 50/50.

70/30

I still think in absolute top shape that Bala is better than Ala

 

[Koronin]

Re:

Finishes like that are near impossible to beat Valverde. I think only Alaphilippe can do it, and even that is more likely a 50/50.

Alaphilippe is the only one who has any real shot at him in those type of finishes. However, I still think even after the Ardennes this year that it's more like 75/25 if we have an in form Alejandro.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

No sorry I don't. Not after this year

 

[Valv.Piti]

Its hard to judge really. I think Valverde has the upper hand with something like 55-60%, but not more.

 

[Koronin]

One of the guys at GCN said that of Alejandro's 212 (now 213) stages he has 94 top 10 finishes on stages.

 

[Serpentin]

I don´t think he should wait for Quintana in this race. Too many muritos, he should go for it.

 

[dastott]

Re:

Bala can keep it for a long time all the while comforting Quintana in the evenings by telling him "You're the leader, don't worry."

Yes, it would be pretty funny if he finished above Quintana in GC and not a massive surprise either.

 

[Nirvana]

Sadly in the team press release he said that when he saw that Yates was gone he worked for Quintana in the finale of yesterday stage, i think at this point there is no doubt that the team want only Quintana as leader even if that means ruining a possible higher placement with Valverde.

He arrancado intentando llevar al grupo y cuando me han cogido, he decidido seguir tirando un poco por Nairo, para que no se le fuese mucho.

http://movistarteam.com/2018-08-28/vuelta-espana-2018-etapa-4

 

[tobydawq]

Re:

Sadly in the team press release he said that when he saw that Yates was gone he worked for Quintana in the finale of yesterday stage, i think at this point there is no doubt that the team want only Quintana as leader even if that means ruining a possible higher placement with Valverde.

He arrancado intentando llevar al grupo y cuando me han cogido, he decidido seguir tirando un poco por Nairo, para que no se le fuese mucho.

http://movistarteam.com/2018-08-28/vuelta-espana-2018-etapa-4

Well, he didn't really work that much, did he? He kept Yates somewhat in check, went to the back of the group to get some air and then still had the strength to attack from the group and gain a few seconds in the finale.

So he's definitely not 100% at the service of Nairo - he probably just realised that if he didn't take a turn, no one would, and Yates would gain significantly more time.

 

[Nirvana]

Re: Re:

Sadly in the team press release he said that when he saw that Yates was gone he worked for Quintana in the finale of yesterday stage, i think at this point there is no doubt that the team want only Quintana as leader even if that means ruining a possible higher placement with Valverde.

He arrancado intentando llevar al grupo y cuando me han cogido, he decidido seguir tirando un poco por Nairo, para que no se le fuese mucho.

http://movistarteam.com/2018-08-28/vuelta-espana-2018-etapa-4

Well, he didn't really work that much, did he? He kept Yates somewhat in check, went to the back of the group to get some air and then still had the strength to attack from the group and gain a few seconds in the finale.

So he's definitely not 100% at the service of Nairo - he probably just realised that if he didn't take a turn, no one would, and Yates would gain significantly more time.

He has never been 100% in service of Quintana but if he has to work for him here and there or wait on some occasions his own GC Chances are compromised. The team probably didn't learn the lesson after the 2016 Tour where (for their own admission) Valverde was in better shape than Quintana.

 

[Koronin]

Re: Re:

Sadly in the team press release he said that when he saw that Yates was gone he worked for Quintana in the finale of yesterday stage, i think at this point there is no doubt that the team want only Quintana as leader even if that means ruining a possible higher placement with Valverde.

He arrancado intentando llevar al grupo y cuando me han cogido, he decidido seguir tirando un poco por Nairo, para que no se le fuese mucho.

http://movistarteam.com/2018-08-28/vuelta-espana-2018-etapa-4

Well, he didn't really work that much, did he? He kept Yates somewhat in check, went to the back of the group to get some air and then still had the strength to attack from the group and gain a few seconds in the finale.

So he's definitely not 100% at the service of Nairo - he probably just realised that if he didn't take a turn, no one would, and Yates would gain significantly more time.

He has never been 100% in service of Quintana but if he has to work for him here and there or wait on some occasions his own GC Chances are compromised. The team probably didn't learn the lesson after the 2016 Tour where (for their own admission) Valverde was in better shape than Quintana.

Valverde also said something about conserving energy by not going with Yates.

At this point I don't think they are ever going to learn that they can't rely on Quintana and they need to just move on. Valverde is in better shape and even with his not riding TTs to his full capabilities right now he's still a much better time trialist than Quintana can ever hope to be. The type of climbs in the Vuelta are so much better suited to Valverde than to Quintana it's not even funny.

He'll never fully commit to helping Quintana, however any helping Quintana hurts his own changes and team for whatever reason hasn't figured out that they should not be doing this BS.