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

[Koronin]

Re: Re:

Im okay with that, but I would have preferred a Giro + Vuelta if Landa isn't riding the Giro.

But giro and ardennes don't complement too well

He managed the Giro after the Ardennes just fine two years ago.

 

[Valv.Piti]

No, it isn't perfect for the Ardennes, but not too bad anyways. And I'd rather still have him have a shot at the Giro than getting involved in the Landa-Quintana circus tbh. But I rather think he will ride the Tour and show to the whole world (and not just real cycling-fans, lets be honest) that he is back, if he indeed is back which everything is pointing at right now..

 

[Koronin]

Re:

No, it isn't perfect for the Ardennes, but not too bad anyways. And I'd rather still have him have a shot at the Giro than getting involved in the Landa-Quintana circus tbh. But I rather think he will ride the Tour and show to the whole world (and not just real cycling-fans, lets be honest) that he is back, if he indeed is back which everything is pointing at right now..

You may have a point as to why he wants the Tour this year, to show the world he's back. I'd still rather he did the Giro/Vuelta double. He's said he likes those two better than the Tour. Then the whole Landa/Quintana circus is going to lead to a disaster. Which is actually may be why Movistar wants him there. He's been around long enough that he can ignor it to a point and keep the rest of the team from imploding and get his typical top 5/10 at the Tour. I swear Movistar is sending him to be a referee between those two.

 

[Blanco]

Don Alejandro announced schedule. From Mallorca till Lombardia, from January till October. That's what real champions do!

 

[Velolover2]

I'm glad that he skipped Pais Vasco now that he has already won it. It's a bit overkill. Let Landa target it.

 

[Koronin]

Re:

I'm glad that he skipped Pais Vasco now that he has already won it. It's a bit overkill. Let Landa target it.

Since he's skipping this one this year, maybe he'll finally go to Flanders?

With what he's said about his schedule, looks like it's going to be a typical schedule for him.

 

[Netserk]

I'd like to see him do Paris-Nice again, although he won't.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Meh, I hoped for the Giro. And now that he doesn't ride the Giro I had hoped for 2 races out of PN, TA, Catalunya and Pais Vasco.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re:

I'd like to see him do Paris-Nice again, although he won't.

Yeah, last year was the year to do it. Had he made the splits the first couple of days, he would've won rather easily considering Henao really wasn't THAT good and Contador would have had to make up a significant amount of time on 2017 Valverde in Valverde-terrain. But why not try this year....

 

[Koronin]

Re: Re:

I'd like to see him do Paris-Nice again, although he won't.

Yeah, last year was the year to do it. Had he made the splits the first couple of days, he would've won rather easily considering Henao really wasn't THAT good and Contador would have had to make up a significant amount of time on 2017 Valverde in Valverde-terrain. But why not try this year....

He said something about going back to Strade Bianche this year, so unlikely he races Paris-Nice due to Paris-Nice starting the day after Strade Bianche.
On the other hand this is the one rider who loves to make last minute changes to his calendar so who knows.

 

[Velolover2]

I think Quintana is leading Movistar in T-A but it actually suit Valverde better. He could easily win on top of the Trevi climb and the stage to Filottrano. The short, explosive TT also suit him well and Movistar is a great TTT team.

In PN, there is only really the stage to Sisteron which suit him very well.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Paris Nice is one of the few big holes in his palmares, a big race he should really have won.

 

[Velolover2]

Valdeblore La Colmaine has Porte written all over it, tough.

 

[Koronin]

Re:

I think Quintana is leading Movistar in T-A but it actually suit Valverde better. He could easily win on top of the Trevi climb and the stage to Filottrano. The short, explosive TT also suit him well and Movistar is a great TTT team.

In PN, there is only really the stage to Sisteron which suit him very well.

You're right. Quintana is going to T-A. Valverde said after he raced it for the 2nd time in his career in 2016 that he was never going back to it.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re: Re:

I think Quintana is leading Movistar in T-A but it actually suit Valverde better. He could easily win on top of the Trevi climb and the stage to Filottrano. The short, explosive TT also suit him well and Movistar is a great TTT team.

In PN, there is only really the stage to Sisteron which suit him very well.

You're right. Quintana is going to T-A. Valverde said after he raced it for the 2nd time in his career in 2016 that he was never going back to it.

Was he being a drama queen over the cancelled stage?

 

[Pennino]

What about his plans to add the RVV once to his palmares? Or is he waiting for Peto and GVA to be retired?

 

[WheelofGear]

RVV is too hard for him but he should at least give it a try.

Or a lesser race like E3 or GW now that there is cobbles featured in the Tour.

 

[Valv.Piti]

E-3 Harelbeke is probably the race that suits him the most out of the cobbles, but Id rather just have he focused on what he knows that he can win than doing 2-3 cobbled races. He won't win those, but a top-10 in Flanders would obviously be a big deal for him due to the fact that he is a complete stranger (almost) to those kind of races. Still, I dont care too much for that, altho I must admit it would be intriguing if he chose to race it. But that would come at the expense of other races.

I think the P-N route is great for Valverde. Pretty much every Paris-Nice route is, heck, pretty much every one week stage race is a great route for Valverde when we ignore Dauphine and Suisse. With Quintana doing T-A, I really hope he rides, but maybe he liked training ahead of Catalunya better than racing after last year's masterpiece

 

[DFA123]

Re:

E-3 Harelbeke is probably the race that suits him the most out of the cobbles, but Id rather just have he focused on what he knows that he can win than doing 2-3 cobbled races. He won't win those, but a top-10 in Flanders would obviously be a big deal for him due to the fact that he is a complete stranger (almost) to those kind of races. Still, I dont care too much for that, altho I must admit it would be intriguing if he chose to race it. But that would come at the expense of other races.

I think the P-N route is great for Valverde. Pretty much every Paris-Nice route is, heck, pretty much every one week stage race is a great route for Valverde when we ignore Dauphine and Suisse. With Quintana doing T-A, I really hope he rides, but maybe he liked training ahead of Catalunya better than racing after last year's masterpiece

I think it would be great to see him race Flanders or some other cobbled classic, but surely that's the kind of plan best left for his last season as a kind of swansaong. There's such a risk of crashing though at the sharp end, that it doesn't seem worth it and risk his shot at the Ardennes.

Didn't he miss P-N lat year because of illness? In which case surely he'll go for either that or Strade Bianche instead of a dedicated training block. I agree that he'd have a great chance at P-N, but I guess he might be put off by the potential for cold weather - it doesn't seem like a race that he's ever really warmed to.

 

[Netserk]

The primary problems with cobbled races are the narrow roads and the positional battle on the flat. He's just no Kwiat when it comes to that (so it's not just about size, though that matters greatly), but obviously no Alberto either. Sure, most bergs are too short for him to drop others, but if they were on big, wide roads, he wouldn't get dropped (as easily) either. Despite what some think they saw when he raced Dwaars and E3, he will never feature at the pointy end of a cobbled race.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Yeah, he planned to race it last year, got sick and then raced Pais Vasco instead. So while I love Strade Bianche and obviously would like my favourite rider to race that race, he really has unfinished business in Paris-Nice. You are right about the weather tho, thats not really his cup of tea, to put it mildly... so I guess both Landa and Quintana are racing Pais Vasco and since he won last year, he decided only to race Catalunya again. Which is understable since he has been the strongest rider the last 2 times he has ridden it and won 5 (?) stages.

 

[DFA123]

Re:

Yeah, he planned to race it last year, got sick and then raced Pais Vasco instead. So while I love Strade Bianche and obviously would like my favourite rider to race that race, he really has unfinished business in Paris-Nice. You are right about the weather tho, thats not really his cup of tea, to put it mildly... so I guess both Landa and Quintana are racing Pais Vasco and since he won last year, he decided only to race Catalunya again. Which is understable since he has been the strongest rider the last 2 times he has ridden it and won 5 (?) stages.

I wonder if he's factoring in the end of the season into his schedule. Last spring was great, entering loads of races and winning them all. But this year, surely the big goals (apart from LBL) are the Vuelta, Worlds and Lombardia. So perhaps he's taking a bit of a lighter work load in spring, with the aim of really peaking in September. I think the last few years, he's always been running out of steam a bit post Vuelta.

 

[Koronin]

Re: Re:

I think Quintana is leading Movistar in T-A but it actually suit Valverde better. He could easily win on top of the Trevi climb and the stage to Filottrano. The short, explosive TT also suit him well and Movistar is a great TTT team.

In PN, there is only really the stage to Sisteron which suit him very well.

You're right. Quintana is going to T-A. Valverde said after he raced it for the 2nd time in his career in 2016 that he was never going back to it.

Was he being a drama queen over the cancelled stage?

LOL, yes although not as bad as Nibali. He also said that the race was a complete and total waste of his time.

 

[tobydawq]

Re: Re:

I think Quintana is leading Movistar in T-A but it actually suit Valverde better. He could easily win on top of the Trevi climb and the stage to Filottrano. The short, explosive TT also suit him well and Movistar is a great TTT team.

In PN, there is only really the stage to Sisteron which suit him very well.

You're right. Quintana is going to T-A. Valverde said after he raced it for the 2nd time in his career in 2016 that he was never going back to it.

Was he being a drama queen over the cancelled stage?

LOL, yes although not as bad as Nibali. He also said that the race was a complete and total waste of his time.

To be fair, it was a complete disgrace...

Made worse by Sagan not winning.

 

[Koronin]

He's mentioned going back to Strade Bianche this year.

He does need to maybe race slightly less in the spring to be a bit fresher for the end of the season. Maybe Movistar is trying to figure out how to get him to the Worlds with less than 85 race days instead of around 90 race days. Truthfully just that by it's self may allow him to be just enough fresher than normal to win both it and Lombardia.