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

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What will Valverde's impact be the cycling world in 2012

  • Nuclear Holocoust

    Votes: 27 100.0%
  • Total voters
    27
mariposa

mariposa

Aug 21, 2011
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Great race today on a super tough course in very windy conditions. There were a lot of people out on the course, particularly in Cieza Rojas' home town. A much better first part of the route than in last couple of years in my opinion. A shame really that the TV coverage wasn't on that part as the scenery is amazing. I haven't watched any TV coverage yet as Kronin said most of us in Murcia were watching on the road. The local tv station 7RM have a 15 min highlight program on at 13.15 on Monday (local time ). It is Carnaval time at the moment so a lot of coverage given to that. No doubt there will be something on YouTube or the race site eventually. Kudos to all the riders who made it to the end.

I have some photos but no time at the moment to upload to the site recommended by Joe Papp.
 
joe_papp

joe_papp

May 13, 2009
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mariposa said:
...I have some photos but no time at the moment to upload to the site recommended by Joe Papp.
Click to expand...
Oh you are such a tease! lol

Google Photos is also very, very easy to use. Easier than Imgur (assuming you have a Gmail acct.). That's actually the service I use to share albums of photos w/ friends and family. Hope you will eventually have time to post some images...always so nice to see unique pics from an event. cheers!
 
Koronin

Koronin

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Re:

Arredondo said:
He isn't planned on riding Strade?

It's always nice to see him there.
Click to expand...


I think it's tentatively on his calendar. He's basically only done a tentative calendar this year due to not knowing how the knee was going to react to racing. Although he has said a couple of times that his plan is to go back to a more classics heavy calendar this year compared to what he raced last year. It would make sense that Strade Bianche is on it although who knows if Milan/San Remo or Flanders is or isn't (he said Flanders is tentatively on it).
 
Koronin

Koronin

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Just read a brief article talking about Bala's comeback. The team is saying they are hoping he'll be fine by April for the Ardennes and they still can't believe he's where he's at already. Basically just said, it's Alejandro he always amazes us. When the reported asked the team how much longer he's going to race the response was until he's 50 if his body will let him. That seems to be what he wants to do. I remember he was half joking last year saying maybe he'd race til he's 50. Seems he was being more serious about that than joking and seems he still thinks that. Sure I'd love to see him race that long, but it seems like that's asking a bit much. Then again this is Alejandro we're talking about.
 
Koronin

Koronin

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I agree that he'll definitely be around at least through 2020. After the last Olympics he said he wanted to go to one more Olympics. So I'd be completely shocked if he's not racing through 2020 and probably a year or two more than that. I do think it's very likely he will race into his 40's. 50 seems unlikely, but apparently he's still saying maybe to that.
 
joe_papp

joe_papp

May 13, 2009
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I know the Tour is ages away but just wanted to share the current lines from PaddyPower for the TdF 2018...

Tour De France 2018 | Outrights | Betting Without Froome

Richie Porte - 15/8

Nairo Quintana - 23/10

Vincenzo Nibali - 4/1

Romain Bardet - 6/1

Geraint Thomas - 6/1

Fabio Aru - 11/1

Alejandro Valverde - 13/1

Rigoberto Uran - 13/1

Ilnur Zakarin - 14/1

Jakob Fuglsang - 14/1

Daniel Martin - 17/1

Bauke Mollema - 17/1

Warren Barguil - 33/1

Thibaut Pinot - 33/1

Wouter Poels - 33/1

Rafal Majka - 40/1

Steven Kruijswijk - 50/1

Adam Yates - 50/1

Primoz Roglic - 60/1

Wilco Kelderman - 90/1

Bob Jungels - 90/1

Julian Alaphilippe - 100/1

Ion Izaguirre - 100/1

Tejay Van Garderen - 150/1

Louis Meintjes - 175/1

George Bennett - 175/1

source: https://www.paddypower.com/cycling/tour-de-france-2018
date: 2/22/2018
 
Koronin

Koronin

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Re:

Blanco said:
Looks like Don Alejandro means business in Abu Dhabi, but he can't afford to loose more than 30-40sec in TT to Dumoulin and Dennis
Click to expand...

It's a 12KM ITT, it's unlikely Don Alejandro would loose that much time in that short of a TT even with it being flat and not technical. He's not a bad ITTer and the Vuelta ITT a couple years ago that was around 25-30KM he lost less than a minute to Dumoulin. He was the only GC rider that was even close to a minute of Dumoulin's time. Also Don Alejandro gained an time bonus today in the intermediate sprint.
 
Velolover2

Velolover2

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Re:

Blanco said:
Looks like Don Alejandro means business in Abu Dhabi, but he can't afford to loose more than 30-40sec in TT to Dumoulin and Dennis
Click to expand...
He can easily drop Dennis by a minute on the climb. I don't even see him as a competitor. He is hyped up, but has never really showed anything on longer, steepish climbs.

Dumo on the other hand.
 
Koronin

Koronin

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Re:

Blanco said:
Just realized that Valverde out sprinted Mark Renshaw for the bonus. Not bad at all.. :cool:
Click to expand...

Valverde's got a very good sprint on him and when he was younger at times would mix it up with the sprinters. He's also fast enough to be a good leadout man for one of the top sprinters. His sprint just isn't fast enough to beat the top sprinters. There have been races he'll give his team's sprinter a leadout for a stage win.
 
burning

burning

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Re: Re:

Koronin said:
Blanco said:
Just realized that Valverde out sprinted Mark Renshaw for the bonus. Not bad at all.. :cool:
Click to expand...

Valverde's got a very good sprint on him and when he was younger at times would mix it up with the sprinters. He's also fast enough to be a good leadout man for one of the top sprinters. His sprint just isn't fast enough to beat the top sprinters. There have been races he'll give his team's sprinter a leadout for a stage win.
Click to expand...

https://www.procyclingstats.com/race/volta-a-catalunya/2015/stage-2

He did more than just a leadout :p
 
Koronin

Koronin

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Re: Re:

burning said:
Koronin said:
Blanco said:
Just realized that Valverde out sprinted Mark Renshaw for the bonus. Not bad at all.. :cool:
Click to expand...

Valverde's got a very good sprint on him and when he was younger at times would mix it up with the sprinters. He's also fast enough to be a good leadout man for one of the top sprinters. His sprint just isn't fast enough to beat the top sprinters. There have been races he'll give his team's sprinter a leadout for a stage win.
Click to expand...

https://www.procyclingstats.com/race/volta-a-catalunya/2015/stage-2

He did more than just a leadout :p
Click to expand...


That one he was sprinting for. I don't think their sprinter was at that race. Andalucia 2015 he gave Laboto a leadout on 2 or 3 stages. However, your link does prove he's more than willing to get involved in sprints, although usually more likely in partial field sprints or in full field sprints without many or any of the top sprinters.
 
GuyIncognito

GuyIncognito

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He used to do it far far more when he was younger. His first pro race he got in on the bunch sprint and got a placing. As far as I can recall his first noteworthy result - as a neo pro as well - was outsprinting Zabel for 4th behind a break of 3 at the 2002 Vuelta
 
Koronin

Koronin

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Re:

GuyIncognito said:
He used to do it far far more when he was younger. His first pro race he got in on the bunch sprint and got a placing. As far as I can recall his first noteworthy result - as a neo pro as well - was outsprinting Zabel for 4th behind a break of 3 at the 2002 Vuelta
Click to expand...


This is part of why it seems part of the peloton actually thought he was a sprinter when he turned pro. In the biography written about him (came out last year), his manager was asked "Isn't it a bit ambitious for a sprinter to think he can win la Vuelta." This was in 2002 after he was pulled out of the Vuelta (preset) he said he was going to come back and win it the next year. 2003 got his first podium. His manager at the time responded with a we'll see.

Yes, you're right when he was younger did get involved in full field sprints more than he does now. He still has the sprint speed to be up there and get involved when he chooses to.
 
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