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

[Red Rick]

My guess is that Piemonte was the plan if he hadn't been good yesterday.

 

[King Boonen]

Re:

Pictures for the person that asked:

It's a shame they didn't get a bike with the bands sorted in time. I'm assuming they're doing one because the Movistar blue basically matches the top band on the jersey, so makes it easy to turn on it's side, keep the fork and headtube blue and paint the rest of the bands on the frame.

 

[Koronin]

Re: Re:

Pictures for the person that asked:

It's a shame they didn't get a bike with the bands sorted in time. I'm assuming they're doing one because the Movistar blue basically matches the top band on the jersey, so makes it easy to turn on it's side, keep the fork and headtube blue and paint the rest of the bands on the frame.

I would hope they'll get him one for next year. You're right with the top band matching the blue they use for their colors you'd think they could come up with a really cool looking bike.

 

[Nirvana]

I've read on the Italian forum that yesterday Radiocorsa had a long interview with him, I'll try to find some replay or at least an exscript, apparently he talked also about next year programs.

 

[Koronin]

A transcript would be great if you can find that.

 

[Tim Booth]

Re: Re:

It's a shame they didn't get a bike with the bands sorted in time. I'm assuming they're doing one because the Movistar blue basically matches the top band on the jersey, so makes it easy to turn on it's side, keep the fork and headtube blue and paint the rest of the bands on the frame.

his bike for Il Lombardia
https://twitter.com/Movistar_Team/status/1050697109824004096

 

[Koronin]

New bike is cool. Although I would expect a bit different design for next year's bike as they'll have more time to play with the design.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Hopefully they'll fix the jersey for next year as well. That light blue color really doesn't look good.

 

[GuyIncognito]

Re:

A transcript would be great if you can find that.

Mostly fluff questions about how it feels to wear the jersey, recognition on the streets, ceremonies, who are the main candidates for Lombardia, etc. You can guess all those questions and their respective answers.

Now, the more interesting bits:

- Knew he was throwing away any chance of winning Milano-Torino by attacking but felt he had to honor the jersey

- Next year's calendar depends on the team's approval but he'd like to do Abu Dhabi ( ), Murcia, Catalunya and the Giro, skip the Tour. No mention of any other races, positive or negative. Doesn't want to retire without doing another Giro. This last part wasn't because he was speaking with italian media, he said the same to ciclismoafondo today.

Hopefully they'll fix the jersey for next year as well. That light blue color really doesn't look good.

Yeah, I'm shocked the UCI allowed that. To be clear for those who may not have noticed, Movistar changed the hue of the rainbow's blue stripe to the sponsor's shade of blue

 

[Koronin]

Re: Re:

A transcript would be great if you can find that.

Mostly fluff questions about how it feels to wear the jersey, recognition on the streets, ceremonies, who are the main candidates for Lombardia, etc. You can guess all those questions and their respective answers.

Now, the more interesting bits:

- Knew he was throwing away any chance of winning Milano-Torino by attacking but felt he had to honor the jersey

- Next year's calendar depends on the team's approval but he'd like to do Abu Dhabi ( ), Murcia, Catalunya and the Giro, skip the Tour. No mention of any other races, positive or negative. Doesn't want to retire without doing another Giro. This last part wasn't because he was speaking with italian media, he said the same to ciclismoafondo today.

Hopefully they'll fix the jersey for next year as well. That light blue color really doesn't look good.

Yeah, I'm shocked the UCI allowed that. To be clear for those who may not have noticed, Movistar changed the hue of the rainbow's blue stripe to the sponsor's shade of blue

I already know the answers to part of first set due to other comments he's made along with talking with mutual friends.

Why Abu Dhabi? I'd rather him go back to Andalucia. I doubt the team would even think of preventing him from racing Murcia as that's his home race. I think most of us would prefer he skips the Tours. He's said that before. TY for the interesting points of the interview.

 

[Nirvana]

Re: Re:

A transcript would be great if you can find that.

Mostly fluff questions about how it feels to wear the jersey, recognition on the streets, ceremonies, who are the main candidates for Lombardia, etc. You can guess all those questions and their respective answers.

Now, the more interesting bits:

- Knew he was throwing away any chance of winning Milano-Torino by attacking but felt he had to honor the jersey

- Next year's calendar depends on the team's approval but he'd like to do Abu Dhabi ( ), Murcia, Catalunya and the Giro, skip the Tour. No mention of any other races, positive or negative. Doesn't want to retire without doing another Giro. This last part wasn't because he was speaking with italian media, he said the same to ciclismoafondo today.

Have you found a video or a text of the interview?
I searched the Raisport website but i found only this little preview.
http://www.raisport.rai.it/dl/raiSport/media/Il-mondiale-secondo-Valverde-4b4ba391-e53a-4150-9bdf-7f9d0778ba0e.html

 

[Moviestar]

Valverde finishes as no.1 at the UCI Worldrankings.

 

[Red Rick]

I think the peaking for 9 months a year may be a bit done, but he did get the big one right this time.

 

[Valv.Piti]

A bit disappointing obviously, but in hindsight theres nothing to say really. Its understandable, he is only human. Theres no doubt in my mind he would have done better without the WC win, probably finished 3rd, but no way to follow Pinot today even with an optimal prep. Everything after the Worlds was always meant to be a bonus

 

[Brullnux]

The curse of the raibow jersey strikes again.

Joking aside, does this WC win actually maybe take some of his motivation for training away for next year? It was the one he's always wanted, so it may mean he is now more relaxed and won't have another year long peak.

 

[Red Rick]

Re:

The curse of the raibow jersey strikes again.

Joking aside, does this WC win actually maybe take some of his motivation for training away for next year? It was the one he's always wanted, so it may mean he is now more relaxed and won't have another year long peak.

I don't think motivation has ever been a problem for him.

 

[Climbing]

I simply think that how the race exploded early and this course in general aren't too well suited for Valverde.
And mostly too many distraction after the Worlds, hard to concentrate and train well after such a huge win.
Told you that his form looked to go down in Mi-To.
He'll certainly try next year, if it comes in Bergamo it's even better for him imho.

 

[Koronin]

Motivation has never been a problem for him. The team's psychologist when asked specifically about motivating him, said Valverde is the easiest person on the planet to motivate. All you have to do is hand him his bike, tell him when the race starts and point him in the direction of the start line. This industry wouldn't need guys like me if everyone was as easy to motivate as him. He's said multiple times he just loves to race, so motivation isn't going to be an issue. He still loves racing and winning the WC isn't going to change that. If anything the last of the pressure on him has been removed and he is fully free to race without anymore pressure at all.

He said after today's race that he's not at all disappointed and couldn't be after the great season he's had. I'm of the opinion his head is still in the clouds from having won the WC and it's going to take some time for him to come back to earth. By the start of next year he'll be back to his normal self.

 

[tobydawq]

I think he has gone through this whole season without one single crash. I wonder how rare that is in the professional peloton.

 

[Koronin]

Re:

I think he has gone through this whole season without one single crash. I wonder how rare that is in the professional peloton.

That's impressive. I think you're right. He did say something about the only way he would have been disappointed with today's result was if he had crashed and had to DNF.

 

[Koronin]

Thought you all would like to see this picture from before Lombardia today.

 

[hrotha]

So I gather the UCI hasn't hanged anyone yet for that jersey. Figures.

 

[Koronin]

Re:

So I gather the UCI hasn't hanged anyone yet for that jersey. Figures.

They had to have gotten it approved. Although I expect some tweaking of it for next year. Somehow they managed to get the UCI to approve the blue stripe being the same as their sponsors color.

As for the rainbow curse, yeah, Sagan proved it's not real. I except BalaArcoíris to get his average of 8 wins next year. (Arcoíris is the Spanish word for rainbow.)

 

[Hugo Koblet]

It doesn't look like the same color to me. It looks like the same color normally used for the worlds jersey imo.

 

[Red Rick]

I deleted those posts, go complain in the clinic if you want to complain about that.