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

Page 328 - 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
This answer makes no sense.

I made a list that clearly highlights getting podium placings (and it wasn't exactly a 5 minute-exercise), and all I'm hearing is how stupid he is for going after podium places. If he hadn't gotten so many, I wouldn't have made the list. I know full well that a few of the non-wins represent a missed opportunity, but it's not that many, really.

I was curious how many countries would beat him, and that's pretty much it.

I can also appreciate Cancellara's amazing run of 12 consecutive podiums in monuments that he finished, but I know that other people will claim that "2nd is the first loser" (and yes, I know that Cancellara rode more aggressively than Valverde).
 
So, I did some counting. I counted the amount of podiums in big races all countries have gotten in the time from 2003 to 2021 in the 10 big races (GTs, Monuments, WCRR, Olympic Road Race). I have used results as obtained on the road apart from immediate disqualifications (PR 2006 and the train incident), so official results might disagree. Here is the list:

1: Italy - 91
2: Belgium - 63
3: Spain (excluding Valverde) - 58
4: Alejandro Valverde - 27
4: UK - 27
6: Australia - 26
7: The Netherlands - 24
8: Switzerland - 23
8: Germany - 23
10: France - 22
11: Colombia - 20
12: Slovenia - 14
13: Norway - 13
14: Luxembourg - 12
15: Denmark - 11
15: Russia - 11
15: USA - 11
18: Slovakia - 9
19: Kazakhstan - 8
19: Poland - 8
21: Ecuador, Portugal, Ireland - 4
24: Canada - 3
25: Czechia, Ukraine - 2
27: Lithuania, New Zealand, Sweden, Venezuela, Austria - 1

And yes, I know that you have to weigh victories differently to seconds and thirds in a sober discussion about greatness, but this is still absolutely nuts!


That is crazy.
 
You can disagree, but to me that was symptomatic of the risk-reward preference that Valverde has which is one of the reasons for the podium record.
Reasons for Valverde podium record is that he's almost always there at the end of the biggest one-day races and is always in the contention in the GT's, and it's not that he lacks big wins comparing to other greats of the 21st century.
I could very well tell you that he would not win that Worlds and Lombardia you're talking about had he followed that moves.
 
This is the riders' list:

AlejandroValverde
27​
FabianCancellara
17​
VincenzoNibali
17​
TomBoonen
14​
JoaquimRodríguez
12​
ChrisFroome
11​
PhilippeGilbert
11​
AlbertoContador
9​
JulianAlaphilippe
8​
PeterSagan
8​
PaoloBettini
7​
AlexanderKristoff
7​
TadejPogacar
7​
SamuelSánchez
7​
RigobertoUrán
7​
GregVan Avermaet
7​
AlessandroBallan
6​
DamianoCunego
6​
CadelEvans
6​
NairoQuintana
6​
PrimozRoglic
6​
AndySchleck
6​
NikiTerpstra
6​
AlexandreVinokourov
6​
IvanBasso
5​
ThorHushovd
5​
MichalKwiatkowski
5​
FränkSchleck
5​
GilbertoSimoni
5​
WoutVan Aert
5​
LanceArmstrong
4​
RomainBardet
4​
MichaelBoogerd
4​
RichardCarapaz
4​
Juan AntonioFlecha
4​
AlexandrKolobnev
4​
DanielMartin
4​
MichaelMatthews
4​
DenisMenchov
4​
LucaPaolini
4​
FilippoPozzato
4​
DavideRebellin
4​
CarlosSastre
4​
PeterVan Petegem
4​
FabioAru
3​
EganBernal
3​
MarkCavendish
3​
EstebanChaves
3​
RuiCosta
3​
JohnDegenkolb
3​
DaniloDi Luca
3​
TomDumoulin
3​
ÓscarFreire
3​
JakobFuglsang
3​
SimonGerrans
3​
RobertoHeras
3​
LeifHoste
3​
RafalMajka
3​
StuartO'Grady
3​
AlessandroPetacchi
3​
ThibautPinot
3​
MathieuVan der Poel
3​
SepVanmarcke
3​
ErikZabel
3​
KasperAsgreen
2​
MattiBreschel
2​
AllanDavis
2​
ArnaudDémare
2​
StijnDevolder
2​
CalebEwan
2​
MatthewGoss
2​
HeinrichHaussler
2​
GeorgeHincapie
2​
MarcHirschi
2​
AndreasKlöden
2​
LeviLeipheimer
2​
Miguel ÁngelLópez
2​
EnricMas
2​
NickNuyens
2​
MadsPedersen
2​
RiccardoRiccò
2​
JürgenRoelandts
2​
MicheleScarponi
2​
ZdenekStybar
2​
BenSwift
2​
GeraintThomas
2​
JanUllrich
2​
SteffenWesemann
2​
BradleyWiggins
2​
MichaelWoods
2​
SimonYates
2​
MichaelAlbasini
1​
DavidArroyo
1​
IgorAstarloa
1​
MicheleBartoli
1​
GeorgeBennett
1​
AlbertoBettiol
1​
EdvaldBoasson Hagen
1​
JanezBrajkovic
1​
MarzioBruseghin
1​
DaveBruylandts
1​
MagnusBäckstedt
1​
HughCarthy
1​
DamianoCaruso
1​
MirkoCelestino
1​
SylvainChavanel
1​
GeraldCiolek
1​
Juan JoséCobo
1​
SonnyColbrelli
1​
ThomasDe Gendt
1​
SilvanDillier
1​
ViatcheslavEkimov
1​
DavideFormolo
1​
ÓscarFreire
1​
DarioFrigo
1​
StefanoGarzelli
1​
EnricoGasparotto
1​
DavidGaudu
1​
TaoGeoghegan Hart
1​
AnthonyGeslin
1​
AndréGreipel
1​
José EnriqueGutiérrez
1​
JackHaig
1​
TylerHamilton
1​
RogerHammond
1​
MathewHayman
1​
RyderHesjedal
1​
JaiHindley
1​
TristanHoffman
1​
SerhiyHonchar
1​
DaniloHondo
1​
ChrisHorner
1​
MaximIglinskiy
1​
BobJungels
1​
AndreyKashechkin
1​
WilcoKelderman
1​
AndreasKlier
1​
BernhardKohl
1​
StevenKruijswijk
1​
StefanKüng
1​
YvesLampaert
1​
MikelLanda
1​
FloydLandis
1​
SebastianLangeveld
1​
PabloLastras
1​
AngeloLopeboselli
1​
FranciscoMancebo
1​
FaustoMasnada
1​
IbanMayo
1​
EddyMazzoleni
1​
AxelMerckx
1​
BaukeMollema
1​
DanielMoreno
1​
GianniMoscon
1​
EzequielMosquera
1​
OliverNaesen
1​
RamunasNavardauskas
1​
IsidroNozal
1​
SérgioPaulinho
1​
FrancoPellizotti
1​
Jean-ChristophePéraud
1​
ÓscarPereiro
1​
SantiagoPérez
1​
DarioPieri
1​
WoutPoels
1​
NilsPolitt
1​
YaroslavPopovych
1​
RichiePorte
1​
DiegoRosa
1​
JoséRujano
1​
PaoloSavoldelli
1​
MaximilianSchachmann
1​
StefanSchumacher
1​
IanStannard
1​
JasperStuyven
1​
DylanTeuns
1​
MaartenTjallingii
1​
MatteoTrentin
1​
SébastienTurgot
1​
MichaelValgren
1​
DylanVan Baarle
1​
FrankVandenbroucke
1​
JohanVansummeren
1​
PeterVelits
1​
FlorianVermeersch
1​
JonasVingegaard
1​
AleksanderVlasov
1​
JensVoigt
1​
FabianWegmann
1​
AdamYates
1​
IlnurZakarin
1​
OliverZaugg
1​
 
Reasons for Valverde podium record is that he's almost always there at the end of the biggest one-day races and is always in the contention in the GT's, and it's not that he lacks big wins comparing to other greats of the 21st century.
I could very well tell you that he would not win that Worlds and Lombardia you're talking about had he followed that moves.

Well, he certainly did not win by doing what he did. And pretending that he did everything right in those finales like you seem to be doing looks like an attempt to rewrite history.
 
I made a list that clearly highlights getting podium placings (and it wasn't exactly a 5 minute-exercise), and all I'm hearing is how stupid he is for going after podium places. If he hadn't gotten so many, I wouldn't have made the list. I know full well that a few of the non-wins represent a missed opportunity, but it's not that many, really.

I was curious how many countries would beat him, and that's pretty much it.

I can also appreciate Cancellara's amazing run of 12 consecutive podiums in monuments that he finished, but I know that other people will claim that "2nd is the first loser" (and yes, I know that Cancellara rode more aggressively than Valverde).

Great, Cancellara won 5 monuments during that time, but you only mentioned a podium run. Is there some sort of complex that you have regarding wins?
 
Great, Cancellara won 5 monuments during that time, but you only mentioned a podium run. Is there some sort of complex that you have regarding wins?

No, but 5 wins out of 12 races isn't a run. 12 consecutive races without being off the podium is off the charts (whether he won 0, 5 or 11 of those is not important for that point) and un-parallelled in modern cycling.

Is there some sort of complex that you have regarding podiums?
 
Well, he certainly did not win by doing what he did. And pretending that he did everything right in those finales like you seem to be doing looks like an attempt to rewrite history.
No, I'm not pretending he did everything right, but you, and I for that matter, just don't know if he would get those wins had he did what you think he should.
At that Worlds, for example, Purito himself said that Valverde told him to attack 3-4 km's from the end because he was dead. His main mistake was that he fell asleep on Nibali's wheel, and didn't react to Costa in time. After was late, he couldn't close that gap, and eve if he somehow could, he wouldn't won that sprint.
At Lombardia, we have Gilbert who was forcing at Bergamo Alta and looked pretty strong with a teammate, and not just ordinary one, but Samu Sanchez, another strong rider. So we have Valverde, looking mainly at Gilbert cause he's the fastest beside him, plus with a teammate. Martin goes, Gilbert and Samu does nothing, Valverde looks for a couple of seconds to them, and BAM, the race is lost. He can close it maybe, but there's no way he will win a sprint after that.
Cycling finales are complicated, you must react in split second, and you can't always react right. Sometimes you win, sometimes don't. But Bala had his fair share of wins, he can't complain.
 
No, I'm not pretending he did everything right...

He did so well. What a career. Of course he could've done better under more favorable circumstances, but he could've also done worse!! I find it difficult to fault Valverde...amazing palmares, well-compensated, well-regarded by his peers, and resilience and longevity that seem unlikely to be matched in near-term.
 
Am I to understand that Shadow thinks that Gerrans was a far superior rider to Valverde or what is going on here?
No, that he didn’t exclusively bank on his sprint like Gerrans. He’s won solo or with attacking. Then everyone always brings him down for missing the movies but if he worked, it’s no guarantee he wins the sprint.