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: 28 100.0%

  • Total voters
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Nov 16, 2013
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Valv.Piti said:
Wait, thats in Aalborg and on some of my training roads if I want it to hurt badly after a long ride.

I thought it was pan-flat up in the cold north.
 
Aug 3, 2015
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tobydawq said:
Valv.Piti said:
Wait, thats in Aalborg and on some of my training roads if I want it to hurt badly after a long ride.

I thought it was pan-flat up in the cold north.
These are some 0,5 km at around 8-10%, typical flanders climbs.
 
Oct 14, 2017
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Don't know about there, but where I live on the North Carolina coast is definitely pan flat. The biggest "climb" is a man made bridge out to the barrier islands.
 
Jun 20, 2015
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Gotta say that article by Neal Rodgers article on Valverde was self-indulgent journalism at its finest - A pointless article that could have been written back in 2012.
 
Sep 11, 2016
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Koronin said:
He said after the race that he can now be at peace when he retires. He really needed this race. So happy he finally got it.
Yesterday he was saying he could race again now if someone could find him a race to go to. I'd love to see him win Lombardia in the rainbow jersey. That would be so fitting. Plus it would tie his personal record for most wins in a season that he set in 2003.

I actually still wonder if he does decide to race la Vuelta after the Olympics just because he loves that race so much.

Apart from the ones who won maybe 1 or 2 races in a season etc, is there any other rider who tied their personal record for number of wins in a season, 15 years apart? Does that not say something?
 
Jun 18, 2015
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All this anglo-saxon media hysterics need to put a mirror in front of themselves and calm down a little bit.

After they have calmed down, they then need to read, watch and learn about the sport they are writing about.

Then maybe they can stop saying things like that now the sport has changed, this era is magically cleaner, there are fewer riders "doping" and so on.

If only they would give us 1 Euro each time we have heard that...
 
May 15, 2011
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I'm no Valverde fan, but damn, folk would rather see Michael Woods whose palmares fits on a post-it note as the World Champion than one of the biggest cycling champions of all time? Cut the ***, please
 
Feb 20, 2012
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LaFlorecita said:
I'm no Valverde fan, but damn, folk would rather see Michael Woods whose palmares fits on a post-it note as the World Champion than one of the biggest cycling champions of all time? Cut the ***, please
I don't think being a big name means you necessarily have to root for them.

*** it would've been hilarious if Tom Leezer had won in 2016.
 
Oct 14, 2017
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LaFlorecita said:
I'm no Valverde fan, but damn, folk would rather see Michael Woods whose palmares fits on a post-it note as the World Champion than one of the biggest cycling champions of all time? Cut the ***, please


I'm beginning to think in some of these cases they just want a rider that speaks English (or at least does interviews in English). They need to get over themselves and realize that Spanish is widely spoken language and no one is required to do interviews in English.
 
May 15, 2011
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Red Rick said:
LaFlorecita said:
I'm no Valverde fan, but damn, folk would rather see Michael Woods whose palmares fits on a post-it note as the World Champion than one of the biggest cycling champions of all time? Cut the ***, please
I don't think being a big name means you necessarily have to root for them.

**** it would've been hilarious if Tom Leezer had won in 2016.
If a low profile rider is your fave then sure, root for him. But you can't deny Valverde is a much more deserving World Champion than Woods would have been.
 
Feb 20, 2012
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LaFlorecita said:
Red Rick said:
LaFlorecita said:
I'm no Valverde fan, but damn, folk would rather see Michael Woods whose palmares fits on a post-it note as the World Champion than one of the biggest cycling champions of all time? Cut the ***, please
I don't think being a big name means you necessarily have to root for them.

**** it would've been hilarious if Tom Leezer had won in 2016.
If a low profile rider is your fave then sure, root for him. But you can't deny Valverde is a much more deserving World Champion than Woods would have been.
I don't think there's a thing like being entitled to win something.

In fact, if Woods or Bardet had tactically outmanouevred Valverde I would consider them more deserving than him, like in 2013.
 
Apr 17, 2013
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I find that it is always nice to have a great rider win the world championship. At least we are going to see the world champion show off the stripes honorably and take some wins the following year. It is also usually the case that a big rider wins the world championship. At least if you look up the latest winners, the only name that stands out slightly is Rui Costa, whose biggest feats were 2 Tour de Suisse wins and a few Tour stage wins before his WC title. Actually by this logic, I should be happy that Breschel didn't win in 2010. Not sure I am though...
 
Nov 16, 2013
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Moscon and Poels winning would be bad because they are Sky-bots but Leezer winning would be nice?
 
May 15, 2011
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Red Rick said:
I don't think there's a thing like being entitled to win something.
Of course not, you have to win it to earn it. However it is a World Championship, which by default means the winner is the best in the world. Now this doesn't work that way in cycling for many reasons, but a high profile winner ensures the jersey keeps its value.
 
Aug 3, 2015
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But guys, come on, Woods would be the better 'story'! You gotta remember he speaks english and was very good at running a few years back! Please, Valverde wearing the jersey instead of a one trick without any palmarés is most definitely better for cycling. I hate mediocre world champions, thankfully we havent seen too many lately.
 
May 15, 2011
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Cance > TheRest said:
I find that it is always nice to have a great rider win the world championship. At least we are going to see the world champion show off the stripes honorably and take some wins the following year. It is also usually the case that a big rider wins the world championship. At least if you look up the latest winners, the only name that stands out slightly is Rui Costa, whose biggest feats were 2 Tour de Suisse wins and a few Tour stage wins before his WC title. Actually by this logic, I should be happy that Breschel didn't win in 2010. Not sure I am though...
Rui Costa was a decently big name in those years though.
 
May 15, 2011
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tobydawq said:
Moscon and Poels winning would be bad because they are Sky-bots but Leezer winning would be nice?
Although it would have been hilarious for a moment, it would have been Woods winning, squared, in terms of ridiculousness. Fortunately it didn't happen.
 
Nov 16, 2013
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Libertine Seguros said:
People are forgetting how 'out there' a winner Óscar Freire was in 1999.

I was just about to post that from 1999 to 2003 we had three comparably very low-profile winners in Freire (the first time), Vainsteins and Astarloa. At least I hadn't heard about Astarloa when he won but at that time I was 11 and could only watch the Tour, so he might have been more well-known to others. Vainsteins too for that matter.
 
Aug 13, 2011
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Koronin said:
Don't know about there, but where I live on the North Carolina coast is definitely pan flat. The biggest "climb" is a man made bridge out to the barrier islands.

Yea, Vegas has a lot of 50-300 ft long hills with like 3-8%. There is a 20 mile road that is 4-10% so fun to go down. Red Rock is pretty good for cycling. Vegas helps you handle the heat, cold, and rain when it finally does because it pours but the drivers are very bad.

On Valverde I hope he wins GdL to end the year. AGR, FW, LBL, CSS, and 3 Giro and Vuelta stages with points and KoM jersey. I don't see why everyone wants to see him ride the cobbles as there is no point know.
 
Apr 17, 2013
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LaFlorecita said:
Cance > TheRest said:
I find that it is always nice to have a great rider win the world championship. At least we are going to see the world champion show off the stripes honorably and take some wins the following year. It is also usually the case that a big rider wins the world championship. At least if you look up the latest winners, the only name that stands out slightly is Rui Costa, whose biggest feats were 2 Tour de Suisse wins and a few Tour stage wins before his WC title. Actually by this logic, I should be happy that Breschel didn't win in 2010. Not sure I am though...
Rui Costa was a decently big name in those years though.
He was not a nobody, that's for sure. But in a battle against Nibali, Valverde and Rodriguez, he was surely the outsider that ran away with it. And I don't think anybody has ever really considered Rui Costa the greatest (or even one of the top 3 greatest) cyclist in the world at any point throughout his best days. Unlike the rest of recent winners who have all been given that stamp at some point. Anyway, the point is just that Valverde is clearly one of those with a "best rider in the world"-stamp, so I like him as a new world champion rather than, say, Woods.
 
Aug 3, 2015
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Rui Costa has never really been a top-10 cyclist - maybe in 2013, but thats about it. Before winning the Worlds definitely not. That was without a doubt his best year, once he moved to Lampre he was decent and got lots of great placements in one week races, but never really found that TdF or Worlds shape.
 
Jun 7, 2010
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tobydawq said:
Libertine Seguros said:
People are forgetting how 'out there' a winner Óscar Freire was in 1999.

I was just about to post that from 1999 to 2003 we had three comparably very low-profile winners in Freire (the first time), Vainsteins and Astarloa. At least I hadn't heard about Astarloa when he won but at that time I was 11 and could only watch the Tour, so he might have been more well-known to others. Vainsteins too for that matter.

Vainsteins was very-very good at the time.

http://cqranking.com/men/asp/gen/rider_palm.asp?riderid=158&year=2000&all=0&current=0

Edit: Freire was sketchy as *** though - that he got selected and then making the final selection
 
Nov 16, 2013
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roundabout said:
tobydawq said:
Libertine Seguros said:
People are forgetting how 'out there' a winner Óscar Freire was in 1999.

I was just about to post that from 1999 to 2003 we had three comparably very low-profile winners in Freire (the first time), Vainsteins and Astarloa. At least I hadn't heard about Astarloa when he won but at that time I was 11 and could only watch the Tour, so he might have been more well-known to others. Vainsteins too for that matter.

Vainsteins was very-very good at the time.

http://cqranking.com/men/asp/gen/rider_palm.asp?riderid=158&year=2000&all=0&current=0

Yeah, that's a high tally but he didn't really seem to have had any big wins before the Worlds and I have just heard older people than me speaking about it coming a bit out of nowhere. He certainly showed consistency in that season, though, but crumbled very shortly after (that of course has nothing to do with his status at the time of the win).
 
Apr 17, 2013
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Valv.Piti said:
Rui Costa has never really been a top-10 cyclist - maybe in 2013, but thats about it. Before winning the Worlds definitely not. That was without a doubt his best year, once he moved to Lampre he was decent and got lots of great placements in one week races, but never really found that TdF or Worlds shape.
To be fair, his 2014 season as world champion was almost as good as his 2013 season, if you go by positions rather than wins. But I agree about the general point. He sticks out.