I've heard issues with this, which I mentioned as well. This gearing issue needs to get fixed or the team needs to dump SRAM and just buy what they need or something because they have riders having health issues due to wrong parts.
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I've heard issues with this, which I mentioned as well. This gearing issue needs to get fixed or the team needs to dump SRAM and just buy what they need or something because they have riders having health issues due to wrong parts.
Red Rick
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Bonimenier
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Might be material, but obviously not being to able compete for victories after years and years of wins can be frustrating as well. Hard to say if he's not winning because he is unhappy and frustrated or if it is the other way around.
If the reasons are due to the gearing giving him problems, then it's very likely that until that is fixed he's going to be frustrated and unhappy. If the link posted above is correct that the wrong gearing is giving him physical and muscular problems, that is going to cause major frustration and unhappiness.
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From what I've seen from Abu Dhabi he really doesn't seem so frustrated, during stage 1 he was showed smiling and winking at the camera multiple times, laughing loudly with other riders and in general relaxed at the back of the peloton. Even in stage 3 when he was dropped early I didn't notice any strange attitude and he did his usual sprint in the last hundred of meters despite being far back.
He also started UAE with a different gearing than he's had for previous races. He started UAE with a monoplate on his bike. Likely the first step in trying to appease him and get him the gearing he wanted. So it's likely he wasn't as unhappy showing up as he had been while in Spain.
Rumors are the mechanics were swapping out his gearing during the night before today's stage.
Rumors are the mechanics were swapping out his gearing during the night before today's stage.
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Here's the confirmation from Dani Navarro about the gearing problems causing Valverde and others a lot of problems.
www.marca.com
Dani Navarro: "Yo sufrí esos desarrollos en 2019 y se nota mucho"
El asturiano Dani Navarro se muestra feliz por el inicio de temporada: "Bien, la verdad que estoy bien. He hecho un invierno y vamos poco a poco....
www.marca.com
Red Rick
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Valverde apparently admitted his injury before LBL and Giro was due to him trying and failing a wheelie.
Naturally, Dutch media pretending he tried to imiated VdP
Naturally, Dutch media pretending he tried to imiated VdP
Yeah this was on the Movistar documentary, he admitted to crashing 3 days before Leige trying to do a VdP wheelie.
So basically he just confirmed the perception that he still has the mindset of a young pro.
Red Rick
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I'll just use the same data point to fit my hypothesis, that he's tactically weak.
Joking ofcourse. But it's not the smartest move
Definitely not. But he literally said "I tried to do like van der Poel", so it's hard to bash the Dutch media for that one
I'll just use the same data point to fit my hypothesis, that he's tactically weak.
Joking ofcourse. But it's not the smartest move
I don't think anyone can argue with that.
As for being a good or poor tactician, well sometimes he's very good with tactics and other times he's good at making "rookie" mistakes.
This might be a great way to show how long of a career Valverde has had. This is a tweet from Iñigo Elosegui. This picture he posted is of himself and Alejandro from 10 years ago. This year they are teammates.
View: https://twitter.com/ini_elosegui/status/1249641634934984706
View: https://twitter.com/ini_elosegui/status/1249641634934984706
Here's an interview with Alejandro this week. It's in Spanish (obviously). The big takeaways from what in this are that he doesn't believe there will be any racing this year. He's lost motivation to train right now (although that likely is partly because he has to train on rollers or with the trainer which he rarely does and almost always is out on the roads with friends, finally being on Zwift may help with that). He said if they race la Vuelta in Nov they can't race it in northern Spain and will have to rework the entire race in southern Spain. He's also reconsidering when he's going to retire and could very well extend his career.
www.elmundo.es
Alejandro Valverde: "Veo muy negro que este año podamos correr"
Al otro lado del teléfono, la voz de Alejandro Valverde transmite hastío e incertidumbre. Desde su encierro en Murcia percibe que la temporada podría darse por perdida,
www.elmundo.es
Tons of articles in Spanish cycling publications today to celebrate Alejandro's birthday. Here are two of the articles. Yes they are in Spanish.
www.lavanguardia.com
www.laopiniondemurcia.es
Alejandro Valverde, 40 tacos y en la élite
La retirada llegará, es ley de vida. Las fuerzas van mermando poco a poco...” Si algún deportista sufre por el confinamiento ese es Alejandro Valverde Belmonte. Este
Valverde, leyenda en activo
Tres personas allegadas al deportista de Las Lumbreras hablan con LA OPINIÓN para celebrar sus 40 cumpleaños
In wishing Alejandro a Happy Birthday his home race (Vuelta a Murcia) posted this podium photo from 2004.
Valverde Team-Terra Fecundis posted this podium picture of Alejandro from a race win in 1997 at Klasika Gipuzkoa. One of his many victories as a Junior.
So, today it's Wiggins' 40th birthday, three days younger than Alejandro.
A guy who had his best years rather late in his career, yet it seems like forever ago that he was on the scene.
It really speaks volumes about Valverde's longevity.
A guy who had his best years rather late in his career, yet it seems like forever ago that he was on the scene.
It really speaks volumes about Valverde's longevity.
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