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

[Lexman]

he should try to get the sprint bonus seconds before the climb tomorrow...

 

[Bot. Sky_Bot]

Re: Re:

So if our Lady is fighting with hurricane Florence (really, good luck), it means no posts?

Things indeed look critical. I am off to a trip to Hamburg in the weekend and will try to avoid spoilers, so I shall not be contributing either.

And good luck with everything to Koronin. I hope you've decided to get away if you live in the impact zone.

I have the same during 2 final weeks of TdF (holiday). Really no information, came back home, watched ca. 30 hours of recording TdF in 2days, hoping that it would be Froome....and.. you know.
So it might me Quintana who will win..

 

[tobydawq]

Re: Re:

So if our Lady is fighting with hurricane Florence (really, good luck), it means no posts?

Things indeed look critical. I am off to a trip to Hamburg in the weekend and will try to avoid spoilers, so I shall not be contributing either.

And good luck with everything to Koronin. I hope you've decided to get away if you live in the impact zone.

I have the same during 2 final weeks of TdF (holiday). Really no information, came back home, watched ca. 30 hours of recording TdF in 2days, hoping that it would be Froome....and.. you know.
So it might me Quintana who will win..

And you really succeeded in not getting any information? That's pretty impressive.

It's difficult for me to avoid that. I haven't exactly designed my social media to not inform me of cycling results, and I often write with friends about races. I guess I'll have to "forget" to charge my phone

 

[Red Rick]

Re:

he should try to get the sprint bonus seconds before the climb tomorrow...

No chance the break gets caucht before the climb

 

[Blanco]

Re: Re:

he should try to get the sprint bonus seconds before the climb tomorrow...

No chance the break gets caucht before the climb

I think there's a chance. Movi will ride hard for bonus seconds on this stage, both at intermediate sprint and at the finish. If Yates fades in the process even better, if not we have a huge day on Saturday.

 

[Bot. Sky_Bot]

Re: Re:

So if our Lady is fighting with hurricane Florence (really, good luck), it means no posts?

Things indeed look critical. I am off to a trip to Hamburg in the weekend and will try to avoid spoilers, so I shall not be contributing either.

And good luck with everything to Koronin. I hope you've decided to get away if you live in the impact zone.

I have the same during 2 final weeks of TdF (holiday). Really no information, came back home, watched ca. 30 hours of recording TdF in 2days, hoping that it would be Froome....and.. you know.
So it might me Quintana who will win..

And you really succeeded in not getting any information? That's pretty impressive.

It's difficult for me to avoid that. I haven't exactly designed my social media to not inform me of cycling results, and I often write with friends about races. I guess I'll have to "forget" to charge my phone

First, absolutely no TV. Second no so common websites. For me only that ones with information concerning let say politics/what is going on in the world. And I have my private cyclings bets with my friends but they know - no information.
And it works. But 2 weeks of TdF in 2 days was reeaally exhausting..

 

[Axis]

Re:

They need to crack Yates, not scrap a few seconds etc.

Crack Yates for 30s-1min at least.

Vamos Valverde!!!

 

[Koronin]

Skybot, thanks. We evacuated. Not as worried about the wind (due to it being a Cat 2/3) as we are the rain. The rain is not good.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Told you. Valv. Piti... Told you...

 

[Scarponi]

If he had this chance at 32 he wins , even the great Piti can’t stop the pain at 38. The form he had in some of those Vueltad 2010-14 hr wins this race easily

 

[Axis]

<3

 

[Blanco]

Re:

If he had this chance at 32 he wins , even the great Piti can’t stop the pain at 38. The form he had in some of those Vueltad 2010-14 hr wins this race easily

You're probably right. But what annoys me the most is the way he rides sometimes, when not feeling good, like today. I mean how to call that ride when Quintana dropped to wait for him? What the hell was that? He literally hide behind the wheels, while his man is waiting 20-30m up front! He lost at least 20 sec to Yates there, in couple of hundred meters For Christ sake just ride!!!

 

[IndianCyclist]

Re: Re:

If he had this chance at 32 he wins , even the great Piti can’t stop the pain at 38. The form he had in some of those Vueltad 2010-14 hr wins this race easily

You're probably right. But what annoys me the most is the way he rides sometimes, when not feeling good, like today. I mean how to call that ride when Quintana dropped to wait for him? What the hell was that? He literally hide behind the wheels, while his man is waiting 20-30m up front! He lost at least 20 sec to Yates there, in couple of hundred meters For Christ sake just ride!!!

He lost most of the time when he waited for Quintana who punctured
Although he should have just rode within his limits. It didn't benefit when he accelerated repeatedly to follow MAL, Mas etc

 

[Cance > TheRest]

Too bad he was off his game today

 

[Rollthedice]

Re: Re:

If he had this chance at 32 he wins , even the great Piti can’t stop the pain at 38. The form he had in some of those Vueltad 2010-14 hr wins this race easily

You're probably right. But what annoys me the most is the way he rides sometimes, when not feeling good, like today. I mean how to call that ride when Quintana dropped to wait for him? What the hell was that? He literally hide behind the wheels, while his man is waiting 20-30m up front! He lost at least 20 sec to Yates there, in couple of hundred meters For Christ sake just ride!!!

Afraid to blow up, loose the podium?

 

[Koronin]

Re: Re:

If he had this chance at 32 he wins , even the great Piti can’t stop the pain at 38. The form he had in some of those Vueltad 2010-14 hr wins this race easily

You're probably right. But what annoys me the most is the way he rides sometimes, when not feeling good, like today. I mean how to call that ride when Quintana dropped to wait for him? What the hell was that? He literally hide behind the wheels, while his man is waiting 20-30m up front! He lost at least 20 sec to Yates there, in couple of hundred meters For Christ sake just ride!!!

Afraid to blow up, loose the podium?

Most likely. Don't get his waiting for Quintana, he should have just continued to ride his own pace and not worry about anyone else. He's not going to go into the red so unlikely to fully blow up. However, I'd definitely say afraid to lose the podium. He wants that record.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Oh well. Just not good enough on long climbs, unfortunately. As pointed out that would probably have been a bit different in 12-14, but theres that. Even Valverde to Valverde, age is just not a number on these type of climbs. He must hate this climb.

Told you. Valv. Piti... Told you...

Still ahead of Steven K. Thats the most important.
:razz:

 

[wheresmybrakes]

The last few days have taken their toll and I've a feeling he will lose big time tomorrow.

 

[Velolover2]

His youthful kick is still powerful enough to beat Peter Sagan and Kwiatkowski on short climbs and outkick Yates on ultra-steep climbs. But it's like he is missing a lot of the things that would have made him competitive in races such as the Northern classics and aggressive one-day races (like Lombardia and the Worlds).

Risk-taking, timing, alertness, the ability to read the race. For an elder statesman, he isn't the most wise. It's not always about being the best.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Re:

Too bad he was off his game today

He wasn't. Just his usual weakness on long climbs that go above 2000m.

 

[Koronin]

Re: Re:

Too bad he was off his game today

He wasn't. Just his usual weakness on long climbs that go above 2000m.

Agreed. This was more just his usual has issues with altitude and sheds time. As long as tomorrow isn't at as high of altitude it's likely he'll be fine.

Having said that it's also likely that he's wrapped up the green jersey at this point.

 

[Kwibus]

Re: Re:

Too bad he was off his game today

He wasn't. Just his usual weakness on long climbs that go above 2000m.

I said the same at work today, always glad that my so called cycling knowledge proofed to be true

 

[del1962]

Re: Re:

Too bad he was off his game today

He wasn't. Just his usual weakness on long climbs that go above 2000m.

I thought he would be ok, I thought it might only be on high altitude stages with multiple long climbs

Anyway probably cumulative effects of the race don't help at his age, he is no papa Horner

 

[Cance > TheRest]

Re: Re:

Too bad he was off his game today

He wasn't. Just his usual weakness on long climbs that go above 2000m.

I agree today didn't suit him as well as the steeper climbs in the Cantabrian mountains.

But it wasn't even 2000 meters today.

And just because the climbs are longer and at higher altitude, it doesn't automatically mean that Valverde has to crack. It just increases the likelihood of a bad day, which I think was what we saw today. So in a way, he was off his game.

 

[del1962]

Re: Re:

Too bad he was off his game today

He wasn't. Just his usual weakness on long climbs that go above 2000m.

I agree today didn't suit him as well as the steeper climbs in the Cantabrian mountains.

But it wasn't even 2000 meters today.

And just because the climbs are longer and at higher altitude, it doesn't automatically mean that Valverde has to crack. It just increases the likelihood of a bad day, which I think was what we saw today. So in a way, he was off his game.

2025m