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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
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?

Beating Pozzovivo in a tragic sprint in Roma Maxima :D
 
Great week of racing for Valverde in terms of getting some race rhythm, he was good today and was obviously much better on La Molina than Vallter (La Molina also fits him better, but still).

Next sunday, my favourite rider in my favourite race. Really can't wait. I hope for a some top-10, still don't think he is peaking and it isn't a super optimal race for Valverde.
 
Looked much better today but it wasn't exactly a hard climb. I don't really buy that he has declined greatly when he was beating a booming Roglic and a wide number of GC riders on a MTF about a month ago. But he will never be a factor in the Giro since he has lost the ability to perform in the real mountains.. He should try to collect as many stage wins as possible instead of a (likely) low top 10 in the GC.

And I don't know what to except of him in Dwars and Ronde. The flemish hills might be better for him than longer climbs these days. I remember him being great on Knokteberg last year. A top 10 is possible in Dwars but not in De Ronde.. not this year.
 
I'm excited to see him race De Ronde, but the way he's racing this year, I really don't expect much from him. Which is sad as if this had been any previous year I would have had the expectation that he could make the final group in which the winner would be ultimately decided as he did at Dwars last year.

I do not believe this is a decline. Not with the way he raced both last year and the way he raced the one stage that he actually won.

Some of the stages/races he looks to be in race shape but nothing much more than that. I also believe having this jersey has changed his mentality at least for this year.
 
Re:

SHAD0W93 said:
Yea, he should definitely do the Giro for as many stages and maybe the points and mountain jerseys because why not. Then stages in Vuelta and try for Worlds and GdL.
I think Movistar's main aim will be to win the Giro with Landa. As long as he stays in contention, then Valverde might not have freedom to go for mountain jersey and breakaways.
 
Re: Re:

DFA123 said:
SHAD0W93 said:
Yea, he should definitely do the Giro for as many stages and maybe the points and mountain jerseys because why not. Then stages in Vuelta and try for Worlds and GdL.
I think Movistar's main aim will be to win the Giro with Landa. As long as he stays in contention, then Valverde might not have freedom to go for mountain jersey and breakaways.
Problem is there are 4 much bigger favorites at the moment - Dumoulin, Rogla, Bernal and Yates. Couple that with the fact that we have a decent amount of time trial kilometres and yes, I know they are hilly, but those 4 riders are very good to exceptional under those circumstances. It also depends on how Landa feels, but evidently he seems to have gotten over his crashes, but I also remember him rushing back in 2016 where had had a shitty Giro and then a very subpar Tour at this first year at Sky.
 
Re: Re:

Valv.Piti said:
DFA123 said:
SHAD0W93 said:
Yea, he should definitely do the Giro for as many stages and maybe the points and mountain jerseys because why not. Then stages in Vuelta and try for Worlds and GdL.
I think Movistar's main aim will be to win the Giro with Landa. As long as he stays in contention, then Valverde might not have freedom to go for mountain jersey and breakaways.
Problem is there are 4 much bigger favorites at the moment - Dumoulin, Rogla, Bernal and Yates. Couple that with the fact that we have a decent amount of time trial kilometres and yes, I know they are hilly, but those 4 riders are very good to exceptional under those circumstances. It also depends on how Landa feels, but evidently he seems to have gotten over his crashes, but I also remember him rushing back in 2016 where had had a ****** Giro and then a very subpar Tour at this first year at Sky.
Yeah, it's definitely a long shot. But I think Movistar are so obsessed with GC that they won't be chasing king of mountains or purely stage hunting until a top 5 is impossible for one of their riders.

A top form Landa would be good for the race though; but he would need every bit of support from Valverde and Carapaz to get close to winning I think.
 
Re: Re:

Velolover2 said:
Koronin said:
Red Rick said:
Think most of Landa's evil plans for Giro victory should require Valverde in breakaways anyway.


That requires somehow getting it across to Valverde that he needs to lose time so the other favorites will let him go out in the breaks.
He will lose enough time on stage 13 to realize that.


At that point you're almost 2/3rds of the way through the race.
 
Today when asked one of Movistar's directors has stated that Valverde's form is behind last years on purpose due to racing the Giro this year. That his form is fine when you realize he's got to extend his spring by a month.

Also an interesting comment in an interview with Valverde. He said his big goal/objective for this season is la Vuelta. Also made a comment about (I think the first stage) starting near his house and really looking forward to that.
 
Re:

Red Rick said:
Thought that top 10 would be a great result to start with, now I'm not entirely sure he'll make the first major selection on the first Kwaremont/Pater double.

If he had the form of the last two years it would be. But he doesn't have a chance at doing anything with the form he currently has. His form isn't much better right now than the form he showed up at the Tour with last summer. It's really disappointing how he's decided to race this season.
 
Re:

Red Rick said:
Thought that top 10 would be a great result to start with, now I'm not entirely sure he'll make the first major selection on the first Kwaremont/Pater double.

Why?

He seemed quite good to me today. Maybe he was not on the front line when Benoot and Jungels went. Anywhere else in the race, it was difficult to really make a difference.
 
Re: Re:

Koronin said:
Red Rick said:
Thought that top 10 would be a great result to start with, now I'm not entirely sure he'll make the first major selection on the first Kwaremont/Pater double.

If he had the form of the last two years it would be. But he doesn't have a chance at doing anything with the form he currently has. His form isn't much better right now than the form he showed up at the Tour with last summer. It's really disappointing how he's decided to race this season.
I'm holding my horses until the Ardennes at least. If he fails there, it's only a few weeks to the Giro anyway.

I do not think the drop is that sudden though. I thought he was clearly worse last year than before his 2017 Tour crash, and his Worlds win and 2 sprint wins in the Vuelta were his only highlights after Catalunya, and neither do I think his Worlds win was the best he's ever been in a one day race.
 
Re: Re:

Red Rick said:
Koronin said:
Red Rick said:
Thought that top 10 would be a great result to start with, now I'm not entirely sure he'll make the first major selection on the first Kwaremont/Pater double.

If he had the form of the last two years it would be. But he doesn't have a chance at doing anything with the form he currently has. His form isn't much better right now than the form he showed up at the Tour with last summer. It's really disappointing how he's decided to race this season.
I'm holding my horses until the Ardennes at least. If he fails there, it's only a few weeks to the Giro anyway.

I do not think the drop is that sudden though. I thought he was clearly worse last year than before his 2017 Tour crash, and his Worlds win and 2 sprint wins in the Vuelta were his only highlights after Catalunya, and neither do I think his Worlds win was the best he's ever been in a one day race.


It's not just age or decline as you don't drop that drastically from what he was doing last year to this year. I really believe his mentally is very different this year. The way he's racing this year I can't see him doing anything at the Ardennes. He's way, way off where he needs to be and I don't think it's possible to get that form between now and then.
 
He has gone from winning many races to top 5'ing many races. Of course that is not a massive drop in performance if you look at it physiologically, and he isn't way, way, way, way off form.

They say he aims to time his form for a bit later in the year. But he has never done that before and I have my doubts about if he can win something big this year. But he turns 39 in less than three weeks and this had to happen sometime.
 
Re:

tobydawq said:
He has gone from winning many races to top 5'ing many races. Of course that is not a massive drop in performance if you look at it physiologically, and he isn't way, way, way, way off form.

They say he aims to time his form for a bit later in the year. But he has never done that before and I have my doubts about if he can win something big this year. But he turns 39 in less than three weeks and this had to happen sometime.


He did once, which was 2016. Yet his form was still better than it is right now.

The only reason this isn't his worst season is because in 2002 he didn't win a single race.

At this point I have my doubts he's going win anything else this year the way he's been racing big or not.
 
Re: Re:

Koronin said:
tobydawq said:
He has gone from winning many races to top 5'ing many races. Of course that is not a massive drop in performance if you look at it physiologically, and he isn't way, way, way, way off form.

They say he aims to time his form for a bit later in the year. But he has never done that before and I have my doubts about if he can win something big this year. But he turns 39 in less than three weeks and this had to happen sometime.


He did once, which was 2016. Yet his form was still better than it is right now.

The only reason this isn't his worst season is because in 2002 he didn't win a single race.

At this point I have my doubts he's going win anything else this year the way he's been racing big or not.

The year where he murdered the entire field with a 7 kilometre attack on a long climb in Ruta del Sol? Allright.

And he really hasn't been as bad this year as you keep saying. Maybe you should rewatch his Abu Dhabi stage win. That is NOT something a lot of people can do and shows that he is still going very strongly.
 

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