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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%

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    27
Remember his first Worlds podium was in 2003 and his win was in 2018 (2014 was his last podium before last year) and those have been on different types of courses and against different types of riders as well. As you can see his values that podium record which of course is now 7.


Thinking about the biggest things still missing from his palmares has to be Lombardia, the Olympics, maybe Amstel and Strade Bianche, and Paris-Nice. Then of course the record for LBL where he needs one more victory to tie Merckx.
Still amazed he hasn’t snagged a Amstel with his sprint and climbing ability. Just must be that slightly outside his fav terrain race everyone has
 
He is a legend in my opinion too. Of course I'm going to remember him until my death but He could be much more legendary if He had the courage to go all out in some situations. Legends are also made of historic rides like the one we saw in 98 with pantani and Ullrich. For example, active riders who are legends: Froome - I will remember finestre, Ventoux (his win and his run, Pena Cabarga. These were freacking moments in cycling.
Gilbert - 2017 Route de Flandres, 2018 Paris Roubaix, 2011 Liege.
Nibali - That win in tre cime di lavaredo, His fantastic ride in milan san remo and that mini roubaix in the tour. These were iconic moments. From Valverde, the only iconic moment that comes to my is the 2013 worlds, where valverde and purito delivered the win to Rui. Others can say courchevel but Lance wasn't racing and worried about valverde. There isn't a moment where I can say " Oh what a solo from valverde" (in big races of course). This is what makes me sad, valverde is probably the biggest talent I saw in the last 20 years but the fact that he relies so much on his sprint and his love for podiums didn't help to increase his legacy.


One part that may have contributed to this is that he also has suffered most of his career from a lack of confidence in his own abilities.
 
Truly disgusting how the UCI conspired against Movistar to prevent even the possibility of Valverde taking the red jersey during stage 19. No way to explain it other than the UCI being desperate to prevent someone as old and "controversial" as Valverde (even though he's the reigning WC) from winning a GT ahead of fresh-faced young stars like Roglic, Pogačar. or even a fading MAL.

At least Valverde ensured his podium and runner-up status with such an intuitive, courageous effort in the final 3km today.

Frankly, I can't say that it doesn't please me to see Quintana ejected from the podium, and the white jersey mercilessly stripped from López's back. The insults MAL hurled at Valverde and Movistar yesterday, plus Quintana's generally-treasonous riding, were reprehensible. López being reduced to begging forgiveness for his angry attacks at Valverde and Movistar via Twitter was just deserts.

Valverde seems like he's truly the greatest consistent results-producer of his generation and we're fortunate as fans to have had such a noble champion to root for. A consummate professional, capable of winning races and satisfying his sponsors all season long ... admirable.
 
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Truly disgusting how the UCI conspired against Movistar to prevent even the possibility of Valverde taking the red jersey during stage 19. No way to explain it other than the UCI being desperate to prevent someone as old and "controversial" as Valverde (even though he's the reigning WC) from winning a GT ahead of fresh-faced young stars like Roglic, Pogačar. or even a fading MAL.

At least Valverde ensured his podium and runner-up status with such an intuitive, courageous effort in the final 3km today.

Frankly, I can't say that it doesn't please me to see Quintana ejected from the podium, and the white jersey mercilessly stripped from López's back. The insults MAL hurled at Valverde and Movistar yesterday, plus Quintana's generally-treasonous riding, were reprehensible. López being reduced to begging forgiveness for his angry attacks at Valverde and Movistar via Twitter was just deserts.

Valverde seems like he's truly the greatest consistent results-producer of his generation and we're fortunate as fans to have had such a noble champion to root for. A consummate professional, capable of winning races and satisfying his sponsors all season long ... admirable.

I do tip my hat to you on this one. Fine work.
 
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Maybe he thought he and Quintana had a deal to go together. He did a gesture when realising that nobody was on his wheel.

Either way, extremely frustrating to watch. Just try it. On the other hand, there was no chance to reel back three minutes.

Oh well. Second pæace is much, much better than I had hoped before the race, and even if Pogacar probably deserved that place a bit more (three stage victories and a disastrous opening TTT), Valverde has ridden very well and not been remotely close to cracking like last year.

Hopefully, his form will not dissipate too much before Lombardia.
 
I think he had expected between 2 and 4 riders to come with him including Quintana and when he realized no one had come with him he wasn't going to continue on.

Very happy he was able to keep his 2nd place today. From what I've gathered he did say something about his radio not working today and didn't actually know how far Pogacar was from him until fans on the last climb told him he was in danger of losing his 2nd place.

I do think the 3 strongest and most consistent riders are the 3 on the podium. I did not expect Pogacar do even attempt what he did today, but it was exciting to watch and I'm happy for him that he did get the 3rd podium spot. How many times do we get to see the oldest and youngest rider in a Grand Tour on the podium together. This Vuelta podium in many ways may be very symbolic of the passing of the torch from Valverde's generation to the younger two generations.

Nice bonus for my wedding anniversary to have Alejandro secure his record breaking Vuelta podium today.
 
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Maybe he thought he and Quintana had a deal to go together. He did a gesture when realising that nobody was on his wheel.

Either way, extremely frustrating to watch. Just try it. On the other hand, there was no chance to reel back three minutes.

Oh well. Second pæace is much, much better than I had hoped before the race, and even if Pogacar probably deserved that place a bit more (three stage victories and a disastrous opening TTT), Valverde has ridden very well and not been remotely close to cracking like last year.

Hopefully, his form will not dissipate too much before Lombardia.
But they don't talk to each other? They are teammates so how is possible to see valverde making that silly attack? I'm not blaming valverde but what the hell is movistar doing? this is beyond me. And they were even worse by losing 1 minute to pogacar in 4 km
 
What are his chances to podium Worlds. I really think this race will be a carnage. No way this will end in a sprint of more than 10 riders.

His chances are as good as they were in Richmond. There are other riders who are bigger favorites and would have been bigger favorites regardless of how la Vuelta played out. Remember he raced for GC in la Vuelta last year and lost the podium on the final week and was fine for the Worlds. This year's Worlds course is somewhere between Richmond and Amstel so is more favorable to riders like Gilbert, Sagan, MvdP, Van Avermaet and other riders like them.
 
Truly disgusting how the UCI conspired against Movistar to prevent even the possibility of Valverde taking the red jersey during stage 19. No way to explain it other than the UCI being desperate to prevent someone as old and "controversial" as Valverde (even though he's the reigning WC) from winning a GT ahead of fresh-faced young stars like Roglic, Pogačar. or even a fading MAL.
Have to agree that it looks that way. The UCI is a complete joke, regardless.

I'm not mad, though, but it sure killed the suspense. The resulting drama would have been much better, too. As well as the payback.
 
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He is in great shape but he doesn't stand a chance in the Worlds.

His sprint isn't what it used to be so I want to see him on the offensive in Lombardia and the Italian classics. He is actually good at digging deep but it rarely happens because he can rely on his fast acceleration. But not any longer.. especially not now with the presence of a certain Julian.

I'd like to see Nibs and Valverde drop the rest on Muro di Sormano.
 
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His chances are as good as they were in Richmond. There are other riders who are bigger favorites and would have been bigger favorites regardless of how la Vuelta played out. Remember he raced for GC in la Vuelta last year and lost the podium on the final week and was fine for the Worlds. This year's Worlds course is somewhere between Richmond and Amstel so is more favorable to riders like Gilbert, Sagan, MvdP, Van Avermaet and other riders like them.
Think they're worse than in Richmond. Valverde isn't as explosive as he was back then. His sprint is worse. The route isn't so hard that pure climbing ability helps very much. It's well possible it gets terrible weather.
 

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