Serpentin said:
Koronin said:
As we were talking about Bala and Strade Bianche it seems unlikely he's going for two reasons. Reason one being that according to a tweet by one of the members of the Movistar management Valverde has never been on their list of riders to go to Strade Bianche in the first place. He said the entire team is aware of his desire to go. They said a decision will be made tomorrow. Reason two is that he along with apparently a large number of the peloton ended up ill after the race in Abu Dhabi apparently due to differences in the food there vs in Europe.
You should come to europe. Watching a race Live is great. You don´t get to see anything compared to the TV but the atmosphere is great if you are a fan :razz:
Maybe it`s a good thing that he is ill now. I want him fresh for the coming stage races and Flèche and Liege.
Think he has a shot at the Tour. With Froome (maybe) gone the race is open. And some favorites will be gone after the opening week. He need to keep his head cool the first week and don`t do a stupid thing like in last years TT. Landa Valverde podium would be dream scenario. Quintana should really go to the giro instead.
I'm going to eventually get there. The only race we've (we is myself and my husband) have been to was the 2015 Worlds in Richmond. Valv.Piti posted some of the photos my husband took several pages back on this thread. Unfortunately right now we need to get some debt paid down/off before we can afford to fly to Europe to watch some races (and go sight seeing while we're there). Plus we need passports. (Yeah in that since typical American who doesn't own a passport.)
If he's going to get sick, I agree I'd rather it be now and he's fully recovered by the Ardennes where he's already beat most of the peloton on the start line.
The Tour is going to be interesting with how it plays out with Movistar regardless of anyone else who is in the race. That situation could end up in a total disaster. I won't be shocked if the cobbles play a much bigger role than people are thinking, esp within this team. Quintana is going to struggle. Landa is racing a couple of the semi classics because he's not raced cobbles. Valverde can handle himself on them as he's proven when he's raced some of the semi classics on cobbles before. Still hoping he may race Flanders this year esp since Movistar has said they are sending all three of their riders to cobbled races just to the cobbles before the Tour.
Flanders makes the most sense to send Alejandro to esp since he keeps claiming he's going to race it.