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

[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.

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

Made worse by Sagan not winning.

I agree with you on that. I also happen to agree with both Nibali and Valverde on what they were saying about it. For some reason Nibali got all the attention and most people seemed to have ignored or not even noticed Valverde's comments.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Yeah, that was really a downer, especially after his great climbing in Andalucia just prior to the race.

 

[Tonton]

Pinot would have won that TA.

 

[Jspear]

Pinot would have won that TA.

Lol of course you think that!

 

[Valv.Piti]

The legend will return to racing this week, probably on the 26th of January at Mallorca! Finally, the long wait to see him back in action is over.... He will race with Bennati, Amador, Arcas, Carretero, Rosón, Erviti and Rojas and I hope, nay, expect a victory in one of the races for Don Alejandro.
Edit: And Mikel Landa will also join in. Exciting times!

 

[mariposa]

The legend will return to racing this week, probably on the 26th of January at Mallorca! Finally, the long wait to see him back in action is over.... He will race with Bennati, Amador, Arcas, Carretero, Rosón, Erviti and Rojas and I hope, nay, expect a victory in one of the races for Don Alejandro.
Edit: And Mikel Landa will also join in. Exciting times!

Yes can't wait! Valencia next week as well and then Murcia - both of which i can watch live. May be able to get to Andalucia to see Landa as well which would be great.

 

[Valv.Piti]

The legend will return to racing this week, probably on the 26th of January at Mallorca! Finally, the long wait to see him back in action is over.... He will race with Bennati, Amador, Arcas, Carretero, Rosón, Erviti and Rojas and I hope, nay, expect a victory in one of the races for Don Alejandro.
Edit: And Mikel Landa will also join in. Exciting times!

Yes can't wait! Valencia next week as well and then Murcia - both of which i can watch live. May be able to get to Andalucia to see Landa as well which would be great.

Aaaw.... Damn, I would like to watch Valverde on his home roads in Murcia. Never seen him live - watched the Tour twice in 2009 and 2011 (TTT and Pramartino) which he unfortunately couldn't participate in......

 

[Koronin]

The wait is almost over. I'm excited for him to be back racing. Wish I could fly to Spain to watch these races. I've only gotten to see one race in person and that was the 2015 Worlds in Richmond. Richmond is about a 4 hour drive from where I live.
If all the reports of his recovery are accurate it shouldn't take him long to be winning again. If he can pull of a win at Mallorca, I think that cements not just his legend, but also his myth.
Welcome back Don Alejandro!
Two pictures from Movistar's twitter account of our Bala!
https://twitter.com/Movistar_Team/status/955783651433832450

 

[mariposa]

The legend will return to racing this week, probably on the 26th of January at Mallorca! Finally, the long wait to see him back in action is over.... He will race with Bennati, Amador, Arcas, Carretero, Rosón, Erviti and Rojas and I hope, nay, expect a victory in one of the races for Don Alejandro.
Edit: And Mikel Landa will also join in. Exciting times!

Yes can't wait! Valencia next week as well and then Murcia - both of which i can watch live. May be able to get to Andalucia to see Landa as well which would be great.

Aaaw.... Damn, I would like to watch Valverde on his home roads in Murcia. Never seen him live - watched the Tour twice in 2009 and 2011 (TTT and Pramartino) which he unfortunately couldn't participate in......

I will try and get some photos. I'm not the greatest photographer in the world though they usually end up blurred as I decide to cheer instead of keeping still.

 

[Valv.Piti]

The legend will return to racing this week, probably on the 26th of January at Mallorca! Finally, the long wait to see him back in action is over.... He will race with Bennati, Amador, Arcas, Carretero, Rosón, Erviti and Rojas and I hope, nay, expect a victory in one of the races for Don Alejandro.
Edit: And Mikel Landa will also join in. Exciting times!

Yes can't wait! Valencia next week as well and then Murcia - both of which i can watch live. May be able to get to Andalucia to see Landa as well which would be great.

Aaaw.... Damn, I would like to watch Valverde on his home roads in Murcia. Never seen him live - watched the Tour twice in 2009 and 2011 (TTT and Pramartino) which he unfortunately couldn't participate in......

I will try and get some photos. I'm not the greatest photographer in the world though they usually end up blurred as I decide to cheer instead of keeping still.

Thanks, that would be great.

Will you be standing on Bermejo?

 

[Serpentin]

The new season is finally here! I think Bala will be strong in Mallorca. Beautiful roads there. Go and see a Race live, you don`t see anything comparing to the TV but the atmosphere is great.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Well we never get to see anything on TV from Mallorca anyways, unless it has changed this year. The hilly races would be a good watch, I reckon..

 

[mariposa]

I will try and get some photos. I'm not the greatest photographer in the world though they usually end up blurred as I decide to cheer instead of keeping still.[/quote]
Thanks, that would be great.

Will you be standing on Bermejo?[/quote]

No too cold up there for me. I have ridden half way up the climb and watched the race in the past and was absolutely frozen in full winter gear including 4 layers. There was fog on the Bermejo last year as well. I will be at the start and the finish though and a couple of places enroute.

 

[Tim Booth]

The legend will return to racing this week, probably on the 26th of January at Mallorca!

First race 25th of January - startlist
http://www.cyclingfever.com/editie.html?detp=view&_ap=startlijst&editie_idd=Mjg0OTY=

 

[GuyIncognito]

Re:

Well we never get to see anything on TV from Mallorca anyways, unless it has changed this year. The hilly races would be a good watch, I reckon..

We get highlights. And they're on youtube.

 

[Koronin]

Re:

Well we never get to see anything on TV from Mallorca anyways, unless it has changed this year. The hilly races would be a good watch, I reckon..

Movistar has said (they were asked) that there is no TV coverage or at least no live TV coverage, just some highlights.

 

[Koronin]

I will try and get some photos. I'm not the greatest photographer in the world though they usually end up blurred as I decide to cheer instead of keeping still.

Thanks, that would be great.

Will you be standing on Bermejo?[/quote]

No too cold up there for me. I have ridden half way up the climb and watched the race in the past and was absolutely frozen in full winter gear including 4 layers. There was fog on the Bermejo last year as well. I will be at the start and the finish though and a couple of places enroute.[/quote]

Any pictures would be great. Unfortunately I've tried to upload a couple of photos to this thread, but it won't let me. I have a few pictures my husband took from the 2015 Worlds I know people here would love to see. (He took a ton of pictures of Alejandro specifically for me.)

Valv.piti, maybe I can send them to you and have you post them?

 

[Valv.Piti]

Sure, go ahead and send them to me, I'll do my best to post them.

 

[Koronin]

Re:

Sure, go ahead and send them to me, I'll do my best to post them.

Ok. I'll get some of them sent to you later this evening.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Here are some of Koronin's photos from Richmond in 2015. A race that really didn't suit him at all, but he still managed to get 5th.

 

[Koronin]

Thank you, I appreciate you posting them. That course did not suit him at all. As you can see from the pictures we picked a spot where we saw them twice per lap. I will be forever grateful that he came over here to race a course that didn't suit him as it was truly my once in a lifetime opportunity to see him race. He did manage to get a 5th and was so close to a podium.

 

[Netserk]

And he did absolutely nothing during the race to increase his own or his team's chance of winning the event. Good old Valverde.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re:

And he did absolutely nothing during the race to increase his own or his team's chance of winning the event. Good old Valverde.

Yeah, he should have attacked on the 2nd last lap. Im surprised to why all the flat roads after the small climbs didn't encourage him (or anyone else for that matter) to do anything before the last lap. :lol:

 

[Koronin]

Re: Re:

And he did absolutely nothing during the race to increase his own or his team's chance of winning the event. Good old Valverde.

Yeah, he should have attacked on the 2nd last lap. Im surprised to why all the flat roads after the small climbs didn't encourage him (or anyone else for that matter) to do anything before the last lap. :lol:

The cobbled climb wasn't that steep or long and the climb right before they turned onto the finishing straight was maybe a quarter of a mile at the most. I walked it several times on Friday during the U-23 race. There were no other climbs at all on the course. What would have him do? That course was not suited to his abilities.
I will give a very funny story. The last lap we moved from where we were to where the feed area was as there was a TV. Most of the Spanish team was sitting on their bikes watching the TV infront of the fence while us fans were behind the fence. After the finish and Alejandro finishing 5th I looked at them and they looked at me (I was wearing a Spanish Champions Movistar Jersey) and shrugged. They had no clue if they were supposed to be happy or disappointed with that result. The riders in front of me were Purito, Erviti, Izagirre, Herrada, and Moreno.

 

[Netserk]

Re: Re:

And he did absolutely nothing during the race to increase his own or his team's chance of winning the event. Good old Valverde.

Yeah, he should have attacked on the 2nd last lap. Im surprised to why all the flat roads after the small climbs didn't encourage him (or anyone else for that matter) to do anything before the last lap. :lol:

And what did he do on the last lap?

I know, I know, he would have jeopardised the extremely important 5th place...