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

Page 258 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.

What will Valverde's impact be the cycling world in 2012

  • Nuclear Holocoust

    Votes: 27 100.0%

  • Total voters
    27
Re: Re:

tobydawq said:
Koronin said:
tobydawq said:
Pretty convenient to link to an article hidden behind a pay wall so it's impossible for the rest of us to assess whether it actually supports your propaganda or if a translation to English exaggerates its points (you have previously stated that you don't read Spanish).

Part of it isn't behind a paywall and I don't have access to what is as I don't have a subscription to it, hence the reason I know part is behind a paywall. As I said half of it is not.

El entrenamiento lo he hecho prácticamente igual, pero en lo que quizá sí me he relajado un poco es en el ansia de victoria. Eso sí que es verdad.

Google translate's translation: The training I did practically the same, but in what perhaps I have relaxed a bit is in the desire for victory. That is true.

El año pasado venía con muchísima ansia después de la caída. Quería ver si era el mismo Alejandro. Y esta temporada es diferente. Estoy ahí, delante y atento, aunque no con esa obsesión de ganar como sea. Claro que quiero ganar, ¡por supuesto! Pero el chip me ha cambiado un poco en ese sentido.

Google translate: Last year I came with a lot of anxiety after the fall. I wanted to see if it was Alejandro himself. And this season is different. I am there, in front and attentive, although not with that obsession to win anything. Of course I want to win, of course! But the chip has changed me a bit in that sense.

Sorry, I didn't read the last section which was fading into white, I just assumed what you referred to was further below.

His performance on Jebel Hafeet still tells me that he can have a good season. And I definitely don't think he will skip Flanders.


It was that last section that faded to white. Had to copy and past the last part of it to see what was there. I'd love to know what was further below.

I think he can have a good season if he wants to. I'm not sure he really cares one way or other. I know he's made a few comments since the end of last season that for whatever time he has left to race he just wants to have fun. It's really just going to depend on him.
 
Re: Re:

Tim Booth said:
Koronin said:
Apparently he's decided that 2021 is going to be his final season. He is going to race two more years and then retire at the end of 2021.
https://demarrajeweb.com/2019/03/29/valverde-en-el-2021-me-retiro/
the entrevista a El Periodico
https://www.elperiodico.com/es/ciclismo/20190329/ciclismo-entrevista-alejandro-valverde-volta-catalunya-7380655

Thanks!

Nice interview. Love where he's talking about his training rides with his friends and buying his brother an electric bike for their training rides.
 
That's a long way in advance to be honest. Not sure what i should be expecting from him at this point. I believe he's finished as a GT rider and Alaphilippe is coming for him in the classics.

Ronde Van Vlaanderen is interesting for him, but I honestly think it's too late in his career to be a legit threat in them.

OG and Lombardia are the last holes in his resume, but both will be very hard to fill. Not sure what he still wants to do in GTs except stagehunt.
 
Something is obviously wrong with him. It might be age, it might be something mental, it might be sickness, it might be a slow build-up to the Giro. Only time will tell.

While it's safe to say, that he would have been dropped by Yates/Quintana/Bernal on a 2000 metres high mountain no matter what. He should still have finished inside the top 10.

But an underdog role is the Ardennes would be good for him. With Alaphilippe being the clear favorite for all 3 classics, there will be less pressure and Ala will be the one who is forced to respond to attacks.
 
Re:

Velolover2 said:
Something is obviously wrong with him. It might be age, it might be something mental, it might be sickness, it might be a slow build-up to the Giro. Only time will tell.

While it's safe to say, that he would have been dropped by Yates/Quintana/Bernal on a 2000 metres high mountain no matter what. He should still have finished inside the top 10.

But an underdog role is the Ardennes would be good for him. With Alaphilippe being the clear favorite for all 3 classics, there will be less pressure and Ala will be the one who is forced to respond to attacks.
Maybe he's been bulking up a bit - going all in for Flanders.
 
Re:

Velolover2 said:
If he is focusing on De Ronde, he definitely should.

He is nearly 1.80 m, so he is not as small as most climbers but his light weight will be a huge problem on power sections like the Kwaremont.
Kwiatkowski melting on the last Kwaremont has been as much a feature as Porte winning Willunga Hill in the last years.
 
Re:

Red Rick said:
That's a long way in advance to be honest. Not sure what i should be expecting from him at this point. I believe he's finished as a GT rider and Alaphilippe is coming for him in the classics.

Ronde Van Vlaanderen is interesting for him, but I honestly think it's too late in his career to be a legit threat in them.

OG and Lombardia are the last holes in his resume, but both will be very hard to fill. Not sure what he still wants to do in GTs except stagehunt.

It is. Although he did leave himself a small out with saying in principle (basically probably). Every other rider or athlete for that matter seems to decide either the year they are racing or for the next year not to plus years down the road, which makes this odd. Plus he also has no idea what he's going to do after he retires where most guys do have some direction.

He said after la Vuelta last year that his best days of GC riding in Grand Tours are over, but that he still wanted one more shot at la Vuelta.

Velolover2 said:
Something is obviously wrong with him. It might be age, it might be something mental, it might be sickness, it might be a slow build-up to the Giro. Only time will tell.

While it's safe to say, that he would have been dropped by Yates/Quintana/Bernal on a 2000 metres high mountain no matter what. He should still have finished inside the top 10.

But an underdog role is the Ardennes would be good for him. With Alaphilippe being the clear favorite for all 3 classics, there will be less pressure and Ala will be the one who is forced to respond to attacks.

Thank you. I've been saying something is off with him since this season started. Something just hasn't looked or felt right. Still no idea what it is. I'm starting to wonder if it's actually got more to do with finally winning the one race he's always wanted. He finally got the Worlds and now he maybe just doesn't have a direction? In that interview he says having the Rainbow jersey feels like he already has a leaders jersey in every race he goes. Who knows, for him that sounds like his "cruse of the rainbow jersey".
 
Serpentin said:
I hope he is aiming for a BIG peak instead of being fairly competitive throughout the season. Maybe the ilness he had affected him more than we know. The old Alejandro would have sprinted today.


You're right. The old Alejandro would have been up there for the sprint today. I really don't think he has the same motivation he had before. Something is missing this year.
 
Re: Re:

Red Rick said:
Velolover2 said:
If he is focusing on De Ronde, he definitely should.

He is nearly 1.80 m, so he is not as small as most climbers but his light weight will be a huge problem on power sections like the Kwaremont.
Kwiatkowski melting on the last Kwaremont has been as much a feature as Porte winning Willunga Hill in the last years.
True. Hill specialists can be excellent in the lesser cobbled classics but the real Flanders is another animal. A fine performance in Dwars or E3 doesn't necessarily make you a favorite for De Ronde.
 
Many riders after a big victory want to enjoy the fruits of their labor. eg. G has not been his usual self after his TDF victory.
Might be a couple of kilos heavier than race weight to race for GC. In MSR he was pretty fine. If he is sick he should not be racing. If not this year then next year he will come back in top form.
 
Re:

IndianCyclist said:
Many riders after a big victory want to enjoy the fruits of their labor. eg. G has not been his usual self after his TDF victory.
Might be a couple of kilos heavier than race weight to race for GC. In MSR he was pretty fine. If he is sick he should not be racing. If not this year then next year he will come back in top form.


You do have a good point. He keeps saying he just wants to enjoy the rainbow jersey and have fun. In this last interview (posted here). He makes a comment that having the rainbow jersey is like already having the leaders jersey at every race he goes to.
 
He may well be out there enjoying his worlds success, but at least he could try and justify the wearing of the jersey. I can understand G enjoying himself to the point of looking like Mr Blobby but he did win the biggest GT, which in my eyes takes a lot more to win than a glorified one day race. I believe he's won bigger races in his career than the worlds, so either his illness was more serious than we think, he is in a big decline or he really can't be bothered since he won the jersey, which if so, is disrespecting the jersey. Hope he gets better soon though.
 
wheresmybrakes said:
He may well be out there enjoying his worlds success, but at least he could try and justify the wearing of the jersey. I can understand G enjoying himself to the point of looking like Mr Blobby but he did win the biggest GT, which in my eyes takes a lot more to win than a glorified one day race. I believe he's won bigger races in his career than the worlds, so either his illness was more serious than we think, he is in a big decline or he really can't be bothered since he won the jersey, which if so, is disrespecting the jersey. Hope he gets better soon though.

Glorified??? What bigger wins?
 
He worked extremely hard to get back from his injury, and had a very good year with finally winning WC. I think we just seeing the start of a decline (which there can be a lot of reasons for). He still at a very high level, but if he has lost that 1% he not winning as many races this year probably. Hopefully he will hit a peak for the Ardennes and then another peak in the fall.
 
Re:

Salvarani said:
He worked extremely hard to get back from his injury, and had a very good year with finally winning WC. I think we just seeing the start of a decline (which there can be a lot of reasons for). He still at a very high level, but if he has lost that 1% he not winning as many races this year probably. Hopefully he will hit a peak for the Ardennes and then another peak in the fall.
Yep; let's not forget that he peaked a bit too early last year as well - absolutely dominating from January to March, but perhaps slightly on his way down by the time the Ardennes came around. Probably because he was so anxious about returning to form after his injury.

Now with his plans to challenge at both the Ardennes and the Grio, he simply has to come in a bit undercooked in the early part of the season. The next couple of months will really tell us whether he is starting a permanent decline, or whether he has just aimed to peak later this season.
 
tobydawq said:
wheresmybrakes said:
He may well be out there enjoying his worlds success, but at least he could try and justify the wearing of the jersey. I can understand G enjoying himself to the point of looking like Mr Blobby but he did win the biggest GT, which in my eyes takes a lot more to win than a glorified one day race. I believe he's won bigger races in his career than the worlds, so either his illness was more serious than we think, he is in a big decline or he really can't be bothered since he won the jersey, which if so, is disrespecting the jersey. Hope he gets better soon though.

Glorified??? What bigger wins?


This.


Also the Worlds is the one race he's wanted since he was a very young child. It's the one race he always talked a bout winning and the one race he wanted more than any other race on the calendar.

He also is extending his spring campaign by a month to race the Giro and last year right after Liege he said his body needed a break due to having basically been at a peak since February through April. To race the Giro he could not do that. This is very unlikely showing any real decline.
 

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