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

[Koronin]

Here's more bad news for Bala. Due to overbook they changed his flight to one that goes to Rome, where he then will have to find a car and drive around 3 hours to get to his hotel. The airline would NOT allow other passengers to exchange seats with him (which many were more than willing to do). It says he will get to his hotel somewhere around midnight. Race starts at 10:45 tomorrow morning. He'll be lucky if he gets 6 hours of sleep. Due to all this if he's not anywhere near the podium it won't be a shock.

Here's the article. It's in Spanish:
http://www.marca.com/ciclismo/clasicas-ciclismo/2018/03/02/5a996fb746163f6e2a8b4648.html

 

[WheelofGear]

Riding on his own? Isn't that quite amateurish? With such a big budget, Movistar could rent a helicopter or private jet for their star rider.

It's not like we are in the 80's anymore.

 

[Koronin]

Re:

Riding on his own? Isn't that quite amateurish? With such a big budget, Movistar could rent a helicopter or private jet for their star rider.

It's not like we are in the 80's anymore.

No kidding, esp when this is a last minute change to their lineup. You'd think they could do something better than making him drive 3 hours to get to the hotel where he's never going to get a good night sleep after that and then be expected to compete the next morning. This is not well planned out all. You're right it, it seems like they could do something more. I'm still trying to figure out why he's got such a late flight in the first place.

 

[tobydawq]

The article really doesn't say that he has to drive the car himself...

 

[Blanco]

6 hours of sleep is enough, it's Bala we're talking about We're going for the win!

 

[Koronin]

Re:

6 hours of sleep is enough, it's Bala we're talking about We're going for the win!

Although he's now a fully built in excuse if he has issues tomorrow, yet knowing him he'll never use it as an excuse. He is 37 not 25. However, you're right that he should be able to do ok on 6 hours of sleep sometimes, and since he slept at home last night he should have gotten a good nights sleep.

 

[SHAD0W93]

Sleep is for mortals and Piti is no mortal. He gets his energy from the fear of his opponents. That's why he always has his sprint at the end of a race or not as good on high altitude stages.


On a serious not. Hopefully someone else drives or he has someone to switch off so he can rest.

 

[Koronin]

Re:

Sleep is for mortals and Piti is no mortal. He gets his energy from the fear of his opponents. That's why he always has his sprint at the end of a race or not as good on high altitude stages.


On a serious not. Hopefully someone else drives or he has someone to switch off so he can rest.

Or maybe he instead of being given to us by the cycling gods, he actually is one of the cycling gods.

I agree. I hope the team sent someone to drive him to the team hotel. 3 hours isn't that bad of a drive under normal circumstances (I've done 8 hours by myself on several occasions and have done 12 hours with someone else in the car with me but doing most of the driving), but this isn't normal and he has to race tomorrow.

 

[El Pistolero]

Re:

Here's more bad news for Bala. Due to overbook they changed his flight to one that goes to Rome, where he then will have to find a car and drive around 3 hours to get to his hotel. The airline would NOT allow other passengers to exchange seats with him (which many were more than willing to do). It says he will get to his hotel somewhere around midnight. Race starts at 10:45 tomorrow morning. He'll be lucky if he gets 6 hours of sleep. Due to all this if he's not anywhere near the podium it won't be a shock.

Here's the article. It's in Spanish:
http://www.marca.com/ciclismo/clasicas-ciclismo/2018/03/02/5a996fb746163f6e2a8b4648.html

Seems like an ethical airline. If only the passengers were the same!

 

[rote_laterne]

Re: Re:

3 hours isn't that bad of a drive under normal circumstances (I've done 8 hours by myself on several occasions and have done 12 hours with someone else in the car with me but doing most of the driving), but this isn't normal and he has to race tomorrow.

Driving in the US/Canada is quite different than driving in Europe (automatic vs. stick, wide straight roads vs. curvy narrow roads).
Anyway, Valverde is doing better so far than expected by me.

 

[Koronin]

Re: Re:

3 hours isn't that bad of a drive under normal circumstances (I've done 8 hours by myself on several occasions and have done 12 hours with someone else in the car with me but doing most of the driving), but this isn't normal and he has to race tomorrow.

Driving in the US/Canada is quite different than driving in Europe (automatic vs. stick, wide straight roads vs. curvy narrow roads).
Anyway, Valverde is doing better so far than expected by me.

True, although a 3 hour drive is still not as bad as a 6 or 8 hour drive, but can be taxing with conditions.

I agree, he's doing a lot better than I expected after the travel debacle.

 

[Arredondo]

2nd strongest in the race today, after the amazing Benoot.

But i guess he feels ****** up, because he's lost this race due to hesitation (together with the other big guys).

 

[El Pistolero]

Re:

2nd strongest in the race today, after the amazing Benoot.

But i guess he feels f*cked up, because he's lost this race due to hesitation (together with the other big guys).

He can only win big races when waiting for the final uphill sprint, so I doubt he feels *** up.

 

[Alexandre B.]

He ****** this up tactically, even if Benoot was probably head and shoulders ahead of everyone.

 

[WheelofGear]

2nd strongest today. But the trio was too far ahead for him to do anything about it.

The entire list of favorites didn't took Benoot seriously.

 

[Koronin]

Re:

2nd strongest in the race today, after the amazing Benoot.

But i guess he feels f*cked up, because he's lost this race due to hesitation (together with the other big guys).

I doubt he got enough sleep. Actually from what Natalia said the debacle was even worse. (I'm friends with Natalia's sister). Natalia said what the airline offered was a flight to Rome that wouldn't land until after 8pm, then it was a 6 hour bus ride to the team hotel. They wouldn't offer them anything else. They ended up having to pay for a much later flight to Florence (which they did get) but still didn't get to the hotel until after midnight. Oh and obviously Natalia and their kids were with Alejandro. She is NOT happy about the travel debacle at all.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re: Re:

2nd strongest in the race today, after the amazing Benoot.

But i guess he feels f*cked up, because he's lost this race due to hesitation (together with the other big guys).

He can only win big races when waiting for the final uphill sprint, so I doubt he feels **** up.

Yeah... you could see he was disappointed when he crossed the line. Valverde was a very marked man today and given Bora had numbers and decided to do absolutely nothing with them, it was hard to race any more aggressively than he did.

Good race for Alejandro today, as always a pleasure to watch the sport's best rider in action!

 

[roundabout]

Re: Re:

2nd strongest in the race today, after the amazing Benoot.

But i guess he feels f*cked up, because he's lost this race due to hesitation (together with the other big guys).

I doubt he got enough sleep. Actually from what Natalia said the debacle was even worse. (I'm friends with Natalia's sister). Natalia said what the airline offered was a flight to Rome that wouldn't land until after 8pm, then it was a 6 hour bus ride to the team hotel. They wouldn't offer them anything else. They ended up having to pay for a much later flight to Florence (which they did get) but still didn't get to the hotel until after midnight. Oh and obviously Natalia and their kids were with Alejandro. She is NOT happy about the travel debacle at all.

What's next, a 9 hour bus ride?

It's 3 hours from Rome to Siena by bus. Period.

 

[DFA123]

Re: Re:

2nd strongest in the race today, after the amazing Benoot.

But i guess he feels f*cked up, because he's lost this race due to hesitation (together with the other big guys).

I doubt he got enough sleep. Actually from what Natalia said the debacle was even worse. (I'm friends with Natalia's sister). Natalia said what the airline offered was a flight to Rome that wouldn't land until after 8pm, then it was a 6 hour bus ride to the team hotel. They wouldn't offer them anything else. They ended up having to pay for a much later flight to Florence (which they did get) but still didn't get to the hotel until after midnight. Oh and obviously Natalia and their kids were with Alejandro. She is NOT happy about the travel debacle at all.

What's next, a 9 hour bus ride?

It's 3 hours from Rome to Siena by bus. Period.

You'd think someone could have picked him up from the airport, or send a taxi. It's like 2h30m by car iirc: quite a bit less if you drive at the same speed as the locals! Maybe it was complicated by his wife and kids fancying a short break to Tuscany though - in which case he only has himself to blame really!

 

[LaFlorecita]

Maybe if he'd traveled alone instead of with his wife and 3? 4? 5? kids it would have been easier to find a solution...

Edit: what DFA said

 

[Koronin]

Re: Re:

2nd strongest in the race today, after the amazing Benoot.

But i guess he feels f*cked up, because he's lost this race due to hesitation (together with the other big guys).

I doubt he got enough sleep. Actually from what Natalia said the debacle was even worse. (I'm friends with Natalia's sister). Natalia said what the airline offered was a flight to Rome that wouldn't land until after 8pm, then it was a 6 hour bus ride to the team hotel. They wouldn't offer them anything else. They ended up having to pay for a much later flight to Florence (which they did get) but still didn't get to the hotel until after midnight. Oh and obviously Natalia and their kids were with Alejandro. She is NOT happy about the travel debacle at all.

What's next, a 9 hour bus ride?

It's 3 hours from Rome to Siena by bus. Period.

That's what Natalia said they were being told and given as the only thing the airline would do for them.

 

[Koronin]

You both have a good point that maybe if he'd gone alone instead of having his wife and kids (I'm going to guess all 4 kids) with him it would have been easier. In that case that is partly his fault.

 

[rick james]

Love it, it’s always soneones else’s fault when Valverde doesn’t win

 

[Koronin]

Re:

Love it, it’s always soneones else’s fault when Valverde doesn’t win

Really? I said considering his travel debacle yesterday (which was pretty disastrous) 4th place is impressive. If he wouldn't have had that debacle yesterday, it's possible, even likely he would have been on the podium.

 

[Netserk]

It wasn't really a lack of legs that costed him a podium place, so I doubt that.