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

[tobydawq]

Re:

Very classic Valverde win. For the first win in the Rainbow stripes a classic Valverde win is really the way it should happen.
He does seem to really like those long sprints.

In post stage comments he said he was just riding the climb at his own pace and knew exactly where he needed to attack to go chase down the leading group. Something about going harder earlier would have wasted too much energy or something. He said he was just waiting for the same spot as last year to go chase down the leaders.

That may be, but he was a bit lucky that the others didn't require him to take the lead, because if they had slowed down the gap could have gotten too big to close just like that. In the end, he made himself look pretty imperious, though.

I think he needs to finish in the top 2 tomorrow if he is going to win overall (unless if he will hunt bonus seconds on the remaining flat stages).

 

[Koronin]

Re: Re:

Very classic Valverde win. For the first win in the Rainbow stripes a classic Valverde win is really the way it should happen.
He does seem to really like those long sprints.

In post stage comments he said he was just riding the climb at his own pace and knew exactly where he needed to attack to go chase down the leading group. Something about going harder earlier would have wasted too much energy or something. He said he was just waiting for the same spot as last year to go chase down the leaders.

That may be, but he was a bit lucky that the others didn't require him to take the lead, because if they had slowed down the gap could have gotten too big to close just like that. In the end, he made himself look pretty imperious, though.

I think he needs to finish in the top 2 tomorrow if he is going to win overall (unless if he will hunt bonus seconds on the remaining flat stages).

Good point.

I agree with that he needs bonus seconds tomorrow. Whether or not he can get them is going to be determined by how many of actual sprinters can get up that climb.

 

[tobydawq]

Re: Re:

Very classic Valverde win. For the first win in the Rainbow stripes a classic Valverde win is really the way it should happen.
He does seem to really like those long sprints.

In post stage comments he said he was just riding the climb at his own pace and knew exactly where he needed to attack to go chase down the leading group. Something about going harder earlier would have wasted too much energy or something. He said he was just waiting for the same spot as last year to go chase down the leaders.

That may be, but he was a bit lucky that the others didn't require him to take the lead, because if they had slowed down the gap could have gotten too big to close just like that. In the end, he made himself look pretty imperious, though.

I think he needs to finish in the top 2 tomorrow if he is going to win overall (unless if he will hunt bonus seconds on the remaining flat stages).

Good point.

I agree with that he needs bonus seconds tomorrow. Whether or not he can get them is going to be determined by how many of actual sprinters can get up that climb.

It probably depends more on the position going into the climb. That was what kept Cort from winning there last year. Perhaps there will be gaps in the front too. That usually happens. So Roglic needs to stay close to the front. I think Ewan has a huge advantage here because he is so light yet can still put out some monstrous power. On the other hand, he cannot benefit as much from his aero position.

 

[Tonton]

So much for "the curse of the rainbow jersey" . Dominant performance today, koronin gets the CQ points, all in all, a very good day .

 

[Koronin]

Re: Re:

Very classic Valverde win. For the first win in the Rainbow stripes a classic Valverde win is really the way it should happen.
He does seem to really like those long sprints.

In post stage comments he said he was just riding the climb at his own pace and knew exactly where he needed to attack to go chase down the leading group. Something about going harder earlier would have wasted too much energy or something. He said he was just waiting for the same spot as last year to go chase down the leaders.

That may be, but he was a bit lucky that the others didn't require him to take the lead, because if they had slowed down the gap could have gotten too big to close just like that. In the end, he made himself look pretty imperious, though.

I think he needs to finish in the top 2 tomorrow if he is going to win overall (unless if he will hunt bonus seconds on the remaining flat stages).

Good point.

I agree with that he needs bonus seconds tomorrow. Whether or not he can get them is going to be determined by how many of actual sprinters can get up that climb.

It probably depends more on the position going into the climb. That was what kept Cort from winning there last year. Perhaps there will be gaps in the front too. That usually happens. So Roglic needs to stay close to the front. I think Ewan has a huge advantage here because he is so light yet can still put out some monstrous power. On the other hand, he cannot benefit as much from his aero position.

Ewen and Viviani are my two picks of sprinters who could/might be there at the finish. Yeah, Valverde does need to be well positioned going into the final climb. He mentioned something about that today. His comment was something along the lines of needing to be well positioned because there can be small gaps and time losses on the finishing climb and he needs to make sure he's at the front to prevent time losses.

 

[Koronin]

So much for "the curse of the rainbow jersey" . Dominant performance today, koronin gets the CQ points, all in all, a very good day .

Well I think Sagan proved there wasn't a real curse. Bala had a funny comment when asked about that. He said "What curse? Oh that curse, I forgot about it."

 

[Blanco]

He's downplaying his chances again, like so many times. I'm pretty sure he's going for the win today, and he knows he has a fair chance.

 

[Red Rick]

Re:

He's downplaying his chances again, like so many times. I'm pretty sure he's going for the win today, and he knows he has a fair chance.

Turns out it was way too short for Valverde. I'm surprised Roglic did so well.

 

[Flamin]

Re: Re:

He's downplaying his chances again, like so many times. I'm pretty sure he's going for the win today, and he knows he has a fair chance.

Turns out it was way too short for Valverde. I'm surprised Roglic did so well.

He wasn't really on a level playing field with Roglic because of the crash that held him up.

 

[Koronin]

Re: Re:

He's downplaying his chances again, like so many times. I'm pretty sure he's going for the win today, and he knows he has a fair chance.

Turns out it was way too short for Valverde. I'm surprised Roglic did so well.

He got caught out by a crash and had to use a lot of energy to catch the peloton inside the last 6 KM.

 

[Salvarani]

Re: Re:

He's downplaying his chances again, like so many times. I'm pretty sure he's going for the win today, and he knows he has a fair chance.

Turns out it was way too short for Valverde. I'm surprised Roglic did so well.

Think he would have won or at least top 3, if not held up in that crash

 

[Velolover2]

I think he would have been 2nd if it wasn't for the crash. He couldn't have beaten Ewan no matter what.

 

[Blanco]

Re: Re:

He's downplaying his chances again, like so many times. I'm pretty sure he's going for the win today, and he knows he has a fair chance.

Turns out it was way too short for Valverde. I'm surprised Roglic did so well.

Really? Nothing to do with that crash and chase after that

 

[yaco]

Strange comments about Valverde - You can only guess RR didn't watch the stage.

 

[Scarponi]

Regardless if % suits him or not I don’t think I can remember when Valverde was so far back on a uphill sprint

 

[Koronin]

Regardless if % suits him or not I don’t think I can remember when Valverde was so far back on a uphill sprint

Well he was sick. He said that before the stage started he was just hoping to not lose anytime and wasn't sure if he could even manage to do that. He has a fever and didn't sleep much last night.

 

[Scarponi]

Regardless if % suits him or not I don’t think I can remember when Valverde was so far back on a uphill sprint

Well he was sick. He said that before the stage started he was just hoping to not lose anytime and wasn't sure if he could even manage to do that. He has a fever and didn't sleep much last night.

All good I missed that, the time zones in Aus make it hard to keep up with pre stage talk. He did very well to keep
Up then

 

[Koronin]

Regardless if % suits him or not I don’t think I can remember when Valverde was so far back on a uphill sprint

Well he was sick. He said that before the stage started he was just hoping to not lose anytime and wasn't sure if he could even manage to do that. He has a fever and didn't sleep much last night.

All good I missed that, the time zones in Aus make it hard to keep up with pre stage talk. He did very well to keep
Up then

No problem. He and the team didn't say anything about his being sick until after the race was over and not sure how many interviews he actually did. He doesn't do as many interviews when he's sick.

 

[Red Rick]

Re:

Strange comments about Valverde - You can only guess RR didn't watch the stage.

I watched


Part of it.


There were 118m to go when I tuned in.

 

[Koronin]

Thought all of you would enjoy this picture that someone recently posted in a group I belong to. This is the 2004 Spanish Worlds team.

 

[tobydawq]

Will he really not do Strade?

 

[Koronin]

Re:

Will he really not do Strade?

No idea. He was supposed to go to it, but he said on Twitter his next objective is Catalonia.

 

[Serpentin]

Is he riding Itzulia ?

 

[Blanco]

Re:

Is he riding Itzulia ?

No. My guess is Catalunya, Dwars, Ronde, Amstel, Fleche, Liege, Il Giro...

 

[Max Rockatansky]

Re: Re:

Will he really not do Strade?

No idea. He was supposed to go to it, but he said on Twitter his next objective is Catalonia.

PCS still has Strade and Sanremo in his calendar.