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

[wheresmybrakes]

Landa must be jumping up and down with joy at maybe not having to dom for AV at the Giro. Hopefully he can have a good shot at it without having to play a bit part supporting someone who has no chance at GC.

 

[tobydawq]

Landa must be jumping up and down with joy at maybe not having to dom for AV at the Giro. Hopefully he can have a good shot at it without having to play a bit part supporting someone who has no chance at GC.

Yeah, he was never going to be Valverde's domestique for this race.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Landa must be jumping up and down with joy at maybe not having to dom for AV at the Giro. Hopefully he can have a good shot at it without having to play a bit part supporting someone who has no chance at GC.

Keep pushing that shitty and tiring Landa-agenda, its nauseating at this point. Wont make it any more true.

 

[Koronin]

Except for the fact that Landa has stated a few times he likes racing with Alejandro because he learns from him and wants to learn from him. If anything he's going to be disappointed.

 

[Amazinmets87]

Re:

Except for the fact that Landa has stated a few times he likes racing with Alejandro because he learns from him and wants to learn from him. If anything he's going to be disappointed.

Seems like a disingenuous reply. Every rider wants what's best for them; it's human nature.

 

[Koronin]

Re: Re:

Except for the fact that Landa has stated a few times he likes racing with Alejandro because he learns from him and wants to learn from him. If anything he's going to be disappointed.

Seems like a disingenuous reply. Every rider wants what's best for them; it's human nature.

Landa seems to be one to not hide his feelings about things. So I'd say his comments are truthful that he is learning from Alejandro when racing with them.

 

[roundabout]

Learns what? They raced 1 stage race together during their time at Movistar. And Landa is hardly some neo with 7 years and 10 GT starts (including some as leader) experience prior to joining Movistar.

 

[Blanco]

Valverde was not going to ride Il Giro for the GC, so why would Landa be happy about the absence of one of the strongest helpers he could possibly get?!

 

[Nirvana]

Landa must be jumping up and down with joy at maybe not having to dom for AV at the Giro. Hopefully he can have a good shot at it without having to play a bit part supporting someone who has no chance at GC.

Already at the first press conference of the year (before Mallorcan races) Valverde said clearly that he wouldn't have ridden anymore a GT for the GC and that this year he would have ridden the Giro as a domestique for Landa (and the Vuelta only to go for stages), there wasn't any doubt about that.

The only thing that i fear is that being forced to miss the Giro to recover from the injury means that Unzue could force him to ride again the Tour against his will. I think already last year was clear that he didn't want to ride in France and he also started clearly out of shape probably to enlight that.

 

[Koronin]

Re:

Learns what? They raced 1 stage race together during their time at Movistar. And Landa is hardly some neo with 7 years and 10 GT starts (including some as leader) experience prior to joining Movistar.

You'd have to ask Landa, but he specific said he wanted to race with Valverde more because racing with him showed that he still has a lot to learn.

[quote="wheresmybrakes":21uz2lyt]Landa must be jumping up and down with joy at maybe not having to dom for AV at the Giro. Hopefully he can have a good shot at it without having to play a bit part supporting someone who has no chance at GC.

Already at the first press conference of the year (before Mallorcan races) Valverde said clearly that he wouldn't have ridden anymore a GT for the GC and that this year he would have ridden the Giro as a domestique for Landa (and the Vuelta only to go for stages), there wasn't any doubt about that.

The only thing that i fear is that being forced to miss the Giro to recover from the injury means that Unzue could force him to ride again the Tour against his will. I think already last year was clear that he didn't want to ride in France and he also started clearly out of shape probably to enlight that.[/quote]

I'm afraid that could happen as well. I have a feeling that if he's forced to race the tour when he's made it very clear he doesn't want to that he'll do the same thing as last year and show up totally out of shape again and possibly even try to show up in even worse shape to prove his point that he doesn't want to be there.

 

[ice&fire]

He might even start following the Bananito training regime

 

[Tim Booth]

03/05/2019 08:59
Alejandro Valverde will not take the start of the Giro d'Italia on May 11 in Bologna. The Movistar team announced on Friday that the reigning world champion "has not recovered at the pace he needed from bone edema in the sacrum"
https://as.com/ciclismo/2019/05/03/giro_italia/1556866559_960442.html

Movistar:
Alejandro Valverde to skip Giro d’Italia
https://movistarteam.com/en/2019-05-03/alejandro-valverde-skips-2019-giro-italia


Valverde:
https://twitter.com/alejanvalverde?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1124203957595848704&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wielerflits.nl%2Fnieuws%2Fgiro-2019-alejandro-valverde-verschijnt-niet-aan-de-start%2F

 

[Valv.Piti]

Oh well, this might be for the better. I hope he does something like Dauphine, San Sebastian, Burgos and Vuelta like he did in 2009 and skipping the Tour. Then he should also be fresh for the WC and Lombardia.

 

[Laplaz]

Re:

Oh well, this might be for the better. I hope he does something like Dauphine, San Sebastian, Burgos and Vuelta like he did in 2009 and skipping the Tour. Then he should also be fresh for the WC and Lombardia.

Exactly. Should focus on Vuelta + WC + Lombardia. Inespecially Lombardia, which he still didn't win.

 

[Blanco]

Re: Re:

Oh well, this might be for the better. I hope he does something like Dauphine, San Sebastian, Burgos and Vuelta like he did in 2009 and skipping the Tour. Then he should also be fresh for the WC and Lombardia.

Exactly. Should focus on Vuelta + WC + Lombardia. Inespecially Lombardia, which he still didn't win.

I agree, Lombardia win would cement his place as one of the greatest classics riders...

 

[Koronin]

Re:

Oh well, this might be for the better. I hope he does something like Dauphine, San Sebastian, Burgos and Vuelta like he did in 2009 and skipping the Tour. Then he should also be fresh for the WC and Lombardia.

I agree with this. I hope that's the schedule he follows, or something similar. Just no Tour. I really hope they don't force him to go to the Tour when he's been clear about not wanting to go there. He deserves the chance to concentrate on getting ready for the Vuelta and then Lombardia.

I'm also not really surprised by this announcement when literally everything says this injury takes a minimum of 3 weeks to heal and he had maybe two weeks between date of injury and the start of the Giro. Also this injury seems to normally take closer to 2 months to really heal. Hopefully he takes the time to fully reset himself.

 

[Serpentin]

No update on the race program yet ?

 

[Koronin]

Re:

No update on the race program yet ?

Why would there be at this point? His injury takes a minimum of 3 weeks to heal. 3 weeks from the injury is this Thursday. If he really doesn't want to race the Tour and insists that he's not going to there would be no reason to change anything on his schedule anyway. Heck BEFORE the Ardennes his 2nd half of the season race program wasn't set anyway.

 

[Serpentin]

Re: Re:

No update on the race program yet ?

Why would there be at this point? His injury takes a minimum of 3 weeks to heal. 3 weeks from the injury is this Thursday. If he really doesn't want to race the Tour and insists that he's not going to there would be no reason to change anything on his schedule anyway. Heck BEFORE the Ardennes his 2nd half of the season race program wasn't set anyway.

Hope they make him go to the tour.

 

[Koronin]

Re: Re:

No update on the race program yet ?

Why would there be at this point? His injury takes a minimum of 3 weeks to heal. 3 weeks from the injury is this Thursday. If he really doesn't want to race the Tour and insists that he's not going to there would be no reason to change anything on his schedule anyway. Heck BEFORE the Ardennes his 2nd half of the season race program wasn't set anyway.

Hope they make him go to the tour.

So you get a repeat of last year where he intentionally shows up well out of race shape? At 39 years old he has the RIGHT to pick and choose what races he does and does NOT go to. If he really wants one more attempt at la Vuelta to go after GC the BEST thing to do is for him to SKIP the Tour. Forcing him to go to a race he doesn't want to be at is the best way to ensure he won't give any kind of results. That is exactly what we saw last year at the Tour. Very BAD idea.

 

[Serpentin]

Re: Re:

No update on the race program yet ?

Why would there be at this point? His injury takes a minimum of 3 weeks to heal. 3 weeks from the injury is this Thursday. If he really doesn't want to race the Tour and insists that he's not going to there would be no reason to change anything on his schedule anyway. Heck BEFORE the Ardennes his 2nd half of the season race program wasn't set anyway.

Hope they make him go to the tour.

So you get a repeat of last year where he intentionally shows up well out of race shape? At 39 years old he has the RIGHT to pick and choose what races he does and does NOT go to. If he really wants one more attempt at la Vuelta to go after GC the BEST thing to do is for him to SKIP the Tour. Forcing him to go to a race he doesn't want to be at is the best way to ensure he won't give any kind of results. That is exactly what we saw last year at the Tour. Very BAD idea.

I´m kidding. Why do you get so upset because someone asks about his race programme? Calm down.

 

[Koronin]

Wasn't upset when you originally asked. However, it won't be a full 3 weeks from the date of the injury until tomorrow. I doubt they'll make any decision on what races he's doing for the 2nd half of the season until sometime in June.

 

[Koronin]

Looks like his injury has healed and he's back training again.

(The link to Movistar's post on twitter) https://twitter.com/Movistar_Team/status/1132514355441033216

 

[Oude Geuze]

I laughed out loud at this convo, one of the more funny exchanfes I have seen on here tbh lol

Good to se him back, powered by Volvo aparently

 

[Koronin]

It appears the 2nd half of this season will be the same as last year. Thus telling me that this is a total and complete waste of a season and may as well call it his worst season of his entire career as I don't see it getting any better.