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

[sir fly]

Tailored.

 

[Koronin]

Re:

He really loves his stripes, doesn't he. Hahah gotta love it

Thought you'd like it. His brother-in-law posted this. The Worlds were a nice very early Christmas present.

 

[Koronin]

Here's a link to the upload to YouTube of the documentary RTVE did for Alejandro. The first part is the Worlds and his injury recovery. At some point they then go into his entire racing career from his childhood through his pro career. Obviously it's in Spanish and no subtitles. Hopefully eventually there will be one with subtitles. I watched it, but my Spanish esp to understand spoken Spanish (vs reading it) is horrible.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhdaY9jOjww&feature=share

edited to add: the documentary is just over an hour long.

 

[LaFlorecita]

It is a Photoshop, no?

 

[Koronin]

Re:

It is a Photoshop, no?

I think so, but it's still pretty good. His brother-in-law is the one who actually did it.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

It is a Photoshop, no?

I think so, but it's still pretty good. His brother-in-law is the one who actually did it.

It would be great for a Christmas card

 

[Koronin]

Re: Re:

It is a Photoshop, no?

I think so, but it's still pretty good. His brother-in-law is the one who actually did it.

It would be great for a Christmas card

I agree, it definitely would be.

 

[sir fly]

Re: Re:

It is a Photoshop, no?

I think so, but it's still pretty good. His brother-in-law is the one who actually did it.

It doesn't really matter whether it's designed or authentic.
The good faith is what counts.

 

[Valv.Piti]

After 2 months of not reading cycling related news, reading CN, Twitter etc., Im now officially excited about the new season. My complete yearly absence from the cycling world from medio october-december does that to me. Mallorca cannot come soon enough

 

[yaco]

Season starts from Jan 1 to 3 with the Bay Crits in Australia, then straight onto the Aussie National Championship from January 4.

 

[Nirvana]

Theoretically the new season starts the Monday after the end of Tour of Guangxi because UCI considers the season ended after the last WT race. If you look at the 2019 calendar on UCI website you can see that Tour of Hainan the last week of October was de jure already a 2019 race.

 

[Koronin]

After 2 months of not reading cycling related news, reading CN, Twitter etc., Im now officially excited about the new season. My complete yearly absence from the cycling world from medio october-december does that to me. Mallorca cannot come soon enough

Mallorca will be here soon.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re:

Season starts from Jan 1 to 3 with the Bay Crits in Australia, then straight onto the Aussie National Championship from January 4.

If you actually would make a decent attempt to understand what am I saying................

 

[Koronin]

Movistar just released some pictures of Alejandro's new bike for 2019.

 

[Breh]

Almost 2019 and he still doesn't know how to dab

 

[Red Rick]

Re:

Almost 2019 and he still doesn't know how to dab

And I for one can only applaud that

 

[Valv.Piti]

Not much longer until his first races. I read somewhere that some of the races have gotten even harder, so thats a bit interesting. Also, have I misunderstood or will these races (or some of them) be shown on ES? If so thats great.

 

[Koronin]

Re:

Not much longer until his first races. I read somewhere that some of the races have gotten even harder, so thats a bit interesting. Also, have I misunderstood or will these races (or some of them) be shown on ES? If so thats great.

It looks like no "flat" true sprinter stages this year. Although I don't expect him to race all 4 days, likely his usually 2-3 days. Don't know if it's being shown on TV or not. It would be nice if they are going to at least show some of it.

 

[tobydawq]

Re:

Not much longer until his first races. I read somewhere that some of the races have gotten even harder, so thats a bit interesting. Also, have I misunderstood or will these races (or some of them) be shown on ES? If so thats great.

Unfortunately only a highlight package in the evening.

 

[Blanco]

So we have a new route for Liege. The old one is better for Bala, but I think he has a good chance in this one too. I like this change of the route, serious racing will start much earlier, already on Wanne/Stockeau/Haut Levee, race will explode on La Redoute like in the old days, and we should have a small group at the finish, or even a solo rider. The way I see it, Bala, Ala and Kwiat are the main favorites, but also riders like Gilbert or even Van Avermaet and Sagan will have a decent shot.

 

[hammerthaim]

Bala to begin a fast but graceful fade into retirement at the end of this season. A giro stage win and victory in Amstel to be highlights.

 

[Midnightfright]

Re:

Bala to begin a fast but graceful fade into retirement at the end of this season. A giro stage win and victory in Amstel to be highlights.

It's not supposed to sound like a dig but I don't see Bala riding out gracefully in top. He loves the whole process of cycling to much, I think he will happily continue riding for several years even as his abilities diminish

 

[Koronin]

Re: Re:

Bala to begin a fast but graceful fade into retirement at the end of this season. A giro stage win and victory in Amstel to be highlights.

It's not supposed to sound like a dig but I don't see Bala riding out gracefully in top. He loves the whole process of cycling to much, I think he will happily continue riding for several years even as his abilities diminish

I agree with this. He just love racing too much. He's made comments in the past that as long as he's having fun he intends to keep racing. 3 years ago, I think it was, he made a comment that even in the future if he's no longer capable of winning races, he still has a lot he can offer a team. This is why I can see him racing for another 3-5 years, but likely on 1 or 2 year contracts instead of his standard 3 year contracts. Also last year showed no real signs of him starting his decline. The big area we may have seen it in is the mountains in the 3rd week of a Grand Tour.

 

[hammerthaim]

Re: Re:

I agree with this. He just love racing too much. He's made comments in the past that as long as he's having fun he intends to keep racing. 3 years ago, I think it was, he made a comment that even in the future if he's no longer capable of winning races, he still has a lot he can offer a team. This is why I can see him racing for another 3-5 years, but likely on 1 or 2 year contracts instead of his standard 3 year contracts. Also last year showed no real signs of him starting his decline. The big area we may have seen it in is the mountains in the 3rd week of a Grand Tour.

I think with the worlds win he may be changing his mind on this a bit. Having achieved it all and such. Good points though. He may not retire this year but I predict his abilities will wane.

 

[Koronin]

Re: Re:

I agree with this. He just love racing too much. He's made comments in the past that as long as he's having fun he intends to keep racing. 3 years ago, I think it was, he made a comment that even in the future if he's no longer capable of winning races, he still has a lot he can offer a team. This is why I can see him racing for another 3-5 years, but likely on 1 or 2 year contracts instead of his standard 3 year contracts. Also last year showed no real signs of him starting his decline. The big area we may have seen it in is the mountains in the 3rd week of a Grand Tour.

I think with the worlds win he may be changing his mind on this a bit. Having achieved it all and such. Good points though. He may not retire this year but I predict his abilities will wane.

He's already said he wants another contract and the last time he commented said he wants to race at least through 2021. As for his decline I expect it will be a gradual decline simply because of the type of rider he is and the way he races. 3 years ago he was asked what he had left to race for. His response was there are still a few races I haven't won. He's now one 2 of the 4 he specifically mentioned. However, he also said it's now more chasing history and having fun than it is having to prove anything. In a way what's really crazy with him the two big things that took him so long to get he had to let go of those dreams and then he achieved them. In 2014 he said that was his last shot at the Tour podium and he got it the following year. After his injury at the 2017 Tour he gave up on his Worlds obsession to a point and then he won the one race he wanted more than anything. From what some of his friends have said, the Worlds was the one race he always talked about winning as a child, it's the one race he wanted more than anything. So yes he finally has that one missing piece, that one race he's wanted since he was a child. However, he also still just loves to race. What we've seen with him in the later part of his career is that the more relaxed he is, the less pressure he puts on himself, the better he races and he makes less mistakes. One big thing to remember is when he crashed at the 2017 Tour, he's said the reason he was screaming was because he was scared his career was over and he wasn't ready to leave. He's said he wasn't in any pain at the time, he was just scared he's never race again and he couldn't come to terms with that. I think what's changed with him isn't the Worlds win, but that injured that forced him to realize he's eventually going to have to retire from this level of racing. Yes, I said this level of racing as I'm not sure it would surprise anyone if when he does retire from the pro peloton that he doesn't go home and start racing in some of the Cat 1 or Masters races, just because it's who he is and it's too much of his DNA. Granted this off season he's spent some of his training days taking out his new U-23 team or a few riders on that team to train with him. (Granted he rarely does training rides by himself as he almost always has at least 1-2 friends or his brother with him on his training rides.)