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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
The problem of Valverde when someone try to rip the race apart is that he waits so he tends to miss the decisive move even if he actually could follow (we've seen also at the recent Strade Bianche).
For this reason I think it's likely that he won't win Liege this year if Nibali decides to put the hammer down to avoid the sprint up to Ans and succeeds to take out a small group.
 
Re: Re:

tobydawq said:
Valv.Piti said:
tobydawq said:
What about Szczyrk (Poland) last year? Or Chieti 2012? Or Longwy 2016? Or Tour of Oman 2013? Or Brabantse Pijl 2013? Or the Tour 2012? Or the European Championships 2016? Or the Tirreno stage last year?

All these point to the fact that he is the best in the world in an uphill finish of a kilometer with about 7-8% average. If that is not puncheur-like terrain, then I don't know what is.
7-8% is too much, he is getting in trouble above 7% against the best riders in the world. Otherwise, I agree that he is the best around 3-6,5% or something like that.

Not if it's just 1 km. The Tour has proven that the past two years.
I'd back a rider like Valverde any day of the week on 1 km, 8%. ANY DAY
 
Re: Re:

Valv.Piti said:
tobydawq said:
Valv.Piti said:
tobydawq said:
What about Szczyrk (Poland) last year? Or Chieti 2012? Or Longwy 2016? Or Tour of Oman 2013? Or Brabantse Pijl 2013? Or the Tour 2012? Or the European Championships 2016? Or the Tirreno stage last year?

All these point to the fact that he is the best in the world in an uphill finish of a kilometer with about 7-8% average. If that is not puncheur-like terrain, then I don't know what is.
7-8% is too much, he is getting in trouble above 7% against the best riders in the world. Otherwise, I agree that he is the best around 3-6,5% or something like that.

Not if it's just 1 km. The Tour has proven that the past two years.
I'd back a rider like Valverde any day of the week on 1 km, 8%. ANY DAY
Depends. Is it 1km straight 8% or 600 at 10% and 400 at 5%? What does the rest of the stage look like? etc etc etc

In any case. This is all semantics really.
 
Re:

Nirvana said:
The problem of Valverde when someone try to rip the race apart is that he waits so he tends to miss the decisive move even if he actually could follow (we've seen also at the recent Strade Bianche).
For this reason I think it's likely that he won't win Liege this year if Nibali decides to put the hammer down to avoid the sprint up to Ans and succeeds to take out a small group.

I think after yesterday's win, Valverde will follow every move of Nibali. somebody else could profit though...
 
Re: Re:

Blanco said:
Nirvana said:
The problem of Valverde when someone try to rip the race apart is that he waits so he tends to miss the decisive move even if he actually could follow (we've seen also at the recent Strade Bianche).
For this reason I think it's likely that he won't win Liege this year if Nibali decides to put the hammer down to avoid the sprint up to Ans and succeeds to take out a small group.

I think after yesterday's win, Valverde will follow every move of Nibali. somebody else could profit though...

I bet you Valverde doesn’t follow him. He’ll hesitate and or wait. Nibali and or Bardet will attack first out of the “big” riders and the other will follow.
 
Re: Re:

Blanco said:
Nirvana said:
The problem of Valverde when someone try to rip the race apart is that he waits so he tends to miss the decisive move even if he actually could follow (we've seen also at the recent Strade Bianche).
For this reason I think it's likely that he won't win Liege this year if Nibali decides to put the hammer down to avoid the sprint up to Ans and succeeds to take out a small group.

I think after yesterday's win, Valverde will follow every move of Nibali. somebody else could profit though...
Valverde doesn't need to chase Nibali. He can send Landa :D
 
Re: Re:

ice&fire said:
Blanco said:
Nirvana said:
The problem of Valverde when someone try to rip the race apart is that he waits so he tends to miss the decisive move even if he actually could follow (we've seen also at the recent Strade Bianche).
For this reason I think it's likely that he won't win Liege this year if Nibali decides to put the hammer down to avoid the sprint up to Ans and succeeds to take out a small group.

I think after yesterday's win, Valverde will follow every move of Nibali. somebody else could profit though...
Valverde doesn't need to chase Nibali. He can send Landa :D
Yeah but then Landa will Landa it up
 
Re: Re:

Jspear said:
Blanco said:
Nirvana said:
The problem of Valverde when someone try to rip the race apart is that he waits so he tends to miss the decisive move even if he actually could follow (we've seen also at the recent Strade Bianche).
For this reason I think it's likely that he won't win Liege this year if Nibali decides to put the hammer down to avoid the sprint up to Ans and succeeds to take out a small group.

I think after yesterday's win, Valverde will follow every move of Nibali. somebody else could profit though...

I bet you Valverde doesn’t follow him. He’ll hesitate and or wait. Nibali and or Bardet will attack first out of the “big” riders and the other will follow.
He'd be crazy to respond to a speculative attack by Nibali. Doing so would be right out of the Sagan school of self destructive tactics.

If it comes to a drag race in Ans, then history suggests Valverde should win comfortably. He absolutely should be riding for that scenario, using his team to control the race. The more chaotic and open the race, the more chance that it gets decided by tactics or riders racing against other riders. Valverde will want a scenario where the strongest wins, not the one who times his attack best out of a five man group.
 
Re:

Red Rick said:
What does Valverde's team look like anyway? Cause it might be pretty depleted from the last few years.
For the Ardennes?

I think they are only missing Moreno, Herrada and Sutherland from last year. Landa will replace one of them, and I guess then they will choose between Roson, Oliveira, Carapaz, Anacona, Amador and Sutterlin. Depending on form, availability and whether they think they need more rouleurs or climbers.
 
I thought I heard Quintana would ride, but PCS suggest he will call it a spring after Catalunya and Pais Vasco and ditch the Ardennes and/or Romandie. I have no problem with that.

Landa should ride and be very strong, one of the best lieutenants in the peloton. Much better than Moreno.

Soler is scheduled as well. Was bad in the Ardennes last year, lets see how much use he will be of.

Betancur should be pretty strong, very well suited for the Ardennes and looks to be in very decent shape at this point.

No idea about the rest - but a team with a strong Landa and Betancur (!!) should do pretty well, I think. Whoops, I completely forgot about Carapaz - Liege Bastogne Liege is right up his alley, I will look forward to him there. Rosón could potentially also be very good in such a race.
 
Re:

Valv.Piti said:
I thought I heard Quintana would ride, but PCS suggest he will call it a spring after Catalunya and Pais Vasco and ditch the Ardennes and/or Romandie. I have no problem with that.

Landa should ride and be very strong, one of the best lieutenants in the peloton. Much better than Moreno.

Soler is scheduled as well. Was bad in the Ardennes last year, lets see how much use he will be of.

Betancur should be pretty strong, very well suited for the Ardennes and looks to be in very decent shape at this point.

No idea about the rest - but a team with a strong Landa and Betancur (!!) should do pretty well, I think. Whoops, I completely forgot about Carapaz - Liege Bastogne Liege is right up his alley, I will look forward to him there. Rosón could potentially also be very good in such a race.

I agree with this. I have no idea why they are even thinking of sending Quintana in the first place. He's completely useless in the Ardennes. Landa can at least be useful and Soler can be useful esp with one set of Ardennes having been raced last year.

One other thing people are forgetting. Quickstep with Alaphilippe are going to want the race to come down to that drag frace on the Arns as well. Alaphilippe WANTS to beat Valverde in that setting. So they should be more than happy to help Movistar control the race. The other thing is you also have UAE with Dan Martin basically also wanting the exact same finish. You very well could have three teams wanting the exact same type of finish for their leaders thus giving Movistar two other teams to help.
 
Yeah, no point in bringing Quintana really, he is pretty poor in these races. We are talking Froome-poor (I still believe him to be a better one-day racer than him on the right route, lets wait for this year's WC), even Contador is better. ;) They could field a pretty good team if Betancur, Soler and Carapaz are going well, with Landa, and two workhorses.
 
Agreed. Froome is bad enough in one day races, Quintana is worse. I could have sworn the team had said they would never send him to a one day race again after the disaster of the last time they did. Contador could do better as long as he wasn't who the team was riding for. He said something about the 2015 Worlds being useless to send him because there was no way he could be of much help on that type of course to Valverde. To fill out the team, say they take Soler, Carapaz, Betencur (if he's ready), and Landa to support Valverde, I'd add Erviti and Rojas as to two main workhorses. I'd be shocked if Erviti specifically isn't going. Depending on how Betencur is he could be swapped out for Fernandez again depending on how Fernandez is.
 
Blanco said:
Koronin said:
LiquidCrystalDynamic said:
Pencil him in for the Ardennes Triple.


Definitely a double, and we can hope for finally winning Amstel.

I told you he's fast ;) Definitely not slower than Gilbert, Kwiatkowski and Van Avermaet. Didn't saw them winning reduced bunch sprints lately... :p

True, although it was him claiming they are faster than he is. (Then again he's also joking they added horsepower to his knee when they repaired it). Don't always see them getting involved in reduced bunch sprints either. Although with Valverde and reduced brunch sprints it seems to depend on his mindset at the time. Part of the time he involved (same with full field sprints like yesterday) and sometimes he doesn't. I think it depends on how many top tier sprinters are around. He appears to still have the speed of a 2nd tier sprinter.
 
Well despite the removal of Vallter, he still looks pretty much invincible after today. It really must suck for him since Im sure he has prepared himself well as always and would have loved to put on a show behind his amazing team of climbers, but it is what is is. La Molina can now be raced more aggressively, as can stage 5 and stage 7, so Im sure we will get to see a lot more of Valverde in different terrains.
 

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