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Wiggins was pursuit World Champion at 23, Olympic Champion at 24 and at 26/28 was absolutely dominant on the track, it's only his focus switching toward road racing that came rather late in his career.
Something rather silly regarding the thread-title; he's not "coming home"! Hopefully he is home, coz he's not allowed to leave!
That would be a given. We're getting close to having riders enter pro teams and WT teams that are younger than Valverde's career. He has teammates who have said they don't know the pro peloton without him in it.
I didn't realize that Wiggins is the same age as Alejandro. Yes he had a nice career, more on track than road.
That's true enough. Back when Valverde was podiuming Vueltas and WCRRs.
I was more alluding to his road career, but it's evident that Wiggins had another focus back then.
Funny enough this has been virtually his entire career. He started doing that in 2003 and he's doing doing that. Just with a ton of wins and other podiums along the way.
Just add his 3 years at the amateur level and he has teammates who were born after he aged out of the Junior category. Add in his years at the Junior level and we're talking riders who were born in 1997 or after.
Movistar has been doing interviews through their instagram page with their own riders. Today they talked to Alejandro. Alejandro has admitted that not only is he considering extending his career by another year. In the interview from what I could tell it sounds like when Spain lifted some restrictions to allow kids outside that he took Pablo out for a bike ride. To me this is more than just thinking about doing so. Here's the brief summary from Marca:
www.marca.com
Here's the interview:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nc5oAjDgzPk
Valverde no descarta ahora alargar el chicle de su formidable carrera hasta 2022
Cambio de planes. Que Alejandro Valverde está hecho de otra pasta es algo que sabemos todos. Su larga y exitosa carrera así lo atestigua. Con todo,...
www.marca.com
Here's the interview:
Last edited:
Do you mean considering extending another year past next year if cycling is cancelled?
At this point it sounds like he's considering extending his career through 2022 regardless of how much racing does or doesn't happen for the rest of this year.
Good for cycling, need as much star power as we can get post Covid.
I agree. Cycling is going to need their current stars post Covid while new stars emerge.
In Alejandro's case every time he's force away from the sport it ends up extending his career. Also I think this shows that now that he's had time to think he's not as ready to retire as he thought he was. He knows it's inevitable and he's eventually going to have no choice but to retire. Right now he can push it back a little. I also think he has something planned that he wants to do to celebrate his retirement with his fans and he likely can't do it the way he wants to in an Olympic year.
Riding 85% of the year for 25 years would take a toll on anyone physically and mentally. Most of the older pros in every sport seem to be prolonged by a big break somewhere along the line.
True. Although he hasn't actually said it, there are now reports in Spain that he may be considering racing through 2023, however, as I said I have no heard him actually say it. Apparently he has started to discussion racing through 2022 with Mr Unzue. Which means it's more than just thinking about it, if he's talking to Mr Unzue about racing another year it more likely than not that is going to happen.
Is Movistar happy about just getting the odd win in a season and a potential podium in a GT with Valverde or do you think they would be better trying to persuade him to take a backroom role in the team and get somebody in who has a better chance on getting more wins? If Movistar have to rely on a 40 year old to get wins for them then there is something wrong with the running of the team. There are some decent riders out of contract coming up and I think Movistar could do better. Yes, he has done well for the team over his career but there has to come a time when the Team decides when someone has had his time and not the rider. Unless he has the final say in all team affairs.
? Despite having a "down year," Valverde finished 5th in the UCI points standings in 2019. So unless Movistar signs Alaphilippe or Roglic, replacing Valverde won't result in an improvement.
That 40 year old rider still finished 5th in the UCI points in an off year. That 40 year rider the year before had his 2nd most win total for a season. That 40 year old rider in a down year still had a ton of podium finishes including in both a monument and a Grand Tour. The team it's self said about 4 years ago when asked, to replace Valverde it would take between 2 and 4 riders minimum because they will never find another rider like him. It's not exactly easy to replace him. Also is seems you've missed that Movistar signed Enric Mas during the off season. They are putting a lot of hope into him being the future of the team. They are hoping to bet on him for Grand Tours. However, they also want him to have the safety net of Valverde and Enric Mas himself is excited to learn from Valverde and at the same time have leadership opportunities. Enric Mas has already shown some of his leadership abilities during the team meetings when he went to the non Spanish speaking riders to help them integrate into the team. One of the things Valverde has always done at team meetings is introduce himself to the new riders, especially the young riders and talk with them. Due to many new riders this year not knowing Spanish Mas offered to be a translator. So it's actually likely that the team is finding their new leader whom they are starting to build a team around.
Movistar asked some of their riders and staff for a picture from their youth and have posted those pictures with a recent picture. Here is the picture Alejandro provided.
And who's stopping them from winning? Valverde? How?
You saw Movistar without Valverde in 2010/2011. You saw them in 2017 after Valverde's injury. Did they won something? Barely...
He'll be the leader only at La Vuelta (and not the sole leader), so other two GT's are up for grabs. At one-week races Valverde will probably be a leader at Catalunya and UAE, so plenty of other races for rest of them. At one-day races, well.., it's still Bala's playground. He's still one of the best in the peloton, and no one in Movistar comes close, but apart from Ardennes and Lombardia they can look for success.
It seems Alejandro's plans for this shorted season will be:
Strade Bianche, MSR, Tour, Worlds, Fleche Wallone, LBL, Vuelta.
Strade Bianche, MSR, Tour, Worlds, Fleche Wallone, LBL, Vuelta.
I agree. I also think he will add Lombardia, but typically he doesn't mention it when doing his calendar so with a shortened season it only makes sense he doesn't mention it.
He did say he thinks he'll be fine because it never takes him that long to get into race shape, but he does think others will struggled and then he thinks some have been training too hard during this lock down. He's also interested in seeing how many riders either end their season after the Tour or don't go for a second peak because of the short off season.
He did say in the interview that he's going to the Tour as support for Mas and Soler. Then plans on going after the Vuelta. I guess it's possible that he may be about the only rider in the peloton even looking at la Vuelta as a main target.
Il Lombardia overlaps with La Vuelta so that is likely out.
The schedule itself is good and I want to see Bala racing as much as possible. However, I still think it's a bad idea that riders race outside of a small closed bubble before the Tour. Everyone has been in isolation and now is starting from close to zero with 3 1/2 months to plan. Therefore, it's very possible to create a controlled, closed environment for the Tour. Mixing outside that closed group (Italian races, Nationals) unnecessarily risks everything. And I seriously doubt the Giro and Vuelta are completed without COVID positives. I hope I'm wrong!
The schedule itself is good and I want to see Bala racing as much as possible. However, I still think it's a bad idea that riders race outside of a small closed bubble before the Tour. Everyone has been in isolation and now is starting from close to zero with 3 1/2 months to plan. Therefore, it's very possible to create a controlled, closed environment for the Tour. Mixing outside that closed group (Italian races, Nationals) unnecessarily risks everything. And I seriously doubt the Giro and Vuelta are completed without COVID positives. I hope I'm wrong!
You need racing KMs in your legs before the Tour and it's 100% impossible for riders to get that without leaving the country they live in. If you don't want people racing outside the country they live in before the Tour then scrap the season right now because they need racing before the Tour. Also remember everyone needs different types of training. There are rights who have said they need training camps and altitude camps while Alejandro is saying he won't even start getting into race shape until sometime in July but still needs some racing before a Grand Tour.
They just need a bubble around the teams where ever they are racing, but that'll be hard to do. Let's see what NASCAR manages over the next couple of weeks. They are more a guinea pig than Korea baseball is.
Lombardia overlapping la Vuelta would be a good reason he wouldn't be racing it.
The problem isn't related to the country one is racing. The problem is racing and mixing with people outside of the Tour bubble. Racing the Dauphine is controllable and good. Racing Strade Bianche, MSR and the Nationals is not; there will be too many non-Tour related people involved. If more races are needed, then add some warm-up races that involve only the World and same Pro Teams as the Tour.
No need to scrap the Tour, everyone just needs to be more creative in the lead-up. They (UCI, ASO and the teams) have more than 3 months to prepare, so it shouldn't be too difficult to get it right. But if they mess up the Tour, THEN the whole season will be lost.
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