Ion Izagirre

[Arredondo]

Re: Re:

Good on him, thats Rio locked up. 3 stage wins - one in a classic, a prologue and an ITT - plus the ITT in Spain. He has won more than he has done in 5-6 years as a pro this year probably.

If I was Minguez, Valverde and Izagirre would be 100%. Then Id pick 1 of Gorka/Castro/Luis Le for 100% domestique duties and 2 of Contador/Landa/Rodriguez.

I'd scrap the last three and give it to any two of the first three or one plus a Dani Moreno

Interesting thought process. If I would wanna win with Valverde, who is the favourite and the most likely Spanish rider to win, I wouldn't pick Rodriguez and probably not Contador either. But if Landa is Landa 2015 Giro, I'd pick him along with Castro + Gorka/Moreno. That would leave Ion and Castro for the ITT and a squad very much centred around Valverde, but I very much doubt that is what will happen.

Has Landa shown any aptitude as a one day rider? Surely Rodriguez or Moreno would be a safer bet as back up to Valverde

Don't discount Samu Sanchez either. He was very impressive in the Ardennes this year and is hugely popular with other Spanish riders and within the federation, and also would be happy to work as a loyal domestique. Wouldn't be at all surprised to see him make the cut.

Sammy already said he will not go to Rio.

Purito is certain, if he shows good form in the Tour. Minguez always picks him, and he seems confident.

So Valverde, Purito, Izagirre, Lulu and maybe Contador (don't know what his role will be).

Moreno is riding *** this year. Even Jesus Herrada or Erviti would be more logical picks.

 

[DFA123]

Re: Re:

Sammy already said he will not go to Rio.

Purito is certain, if he shows good form in the Tour. Minguez always picks him, and he seems confident.

So Valverde, Purito, Izagirre, Lulu and maybe Contador (don't know what his role will be).

Moreno is riding **** this year. Even Jesus Herrada or Erviti would be more logical picks.

Ah really? I didn't know he had ruled it out. The last I heard from him, he said something like that he will ride Burgos unless he gets the call from Minguez - which I thought was leaving the door open.

Regarding Moreno, I think he will almost certainly go. His form is improving now and he looked pretty good in Asturias - he is also usually super strong towards the end of the season. Plus, like you said about Purito, Minguez is very loyal and he always picks Moreno even when the course doesn't suit him.

 

[Arredondo]

Re: Re:

Sammy already said he will not go to Rio.

Purito is certain, if he shows good form in the Tour. Minguez always picks him, and he seems confident.

So Valverde, Purito, Izagirre, Lulu and maybe Contador (don't know what his role will be).

Moreno is riding **** this year. Even Jesus Herrada or Erviti would be more logical picks.

Ah really? I didn't know he had ruled it out. The last I heard from him, he said something like that he will ride Burgos unless he gets the call from Minguez - which I thought was leaving the door open.

Regarding Moreno, I think he will almost certainly go. His form is improving now and he looked pretty good in Asturias - he is also usually super strong towards the end of the season. Plus, like you said about Purito, Minguez is very loyal and he always picks Moreno even when the course doesn't suit him.

But Asturias is possibly the worst race on the calendar, competition wise, together with Castillia y Leon. Even a Moreno on 70% can win stages there.

He was underperforming in the Dauphiné. He's riding pretty bad all year tbh. I really thought he would be super strong in the classics, maybe even winning Fleche in case Valverde wasn't feeling well himself. But he was nowhere near a good level.

The problem is that in the last two years, there are more Spanish cyclist who are performing really well comparing 5 years ago. And the additional problem there are only 5 places to fill in, instead of 9 on the worlds. You have the common big names (Valverde, Purito, Contador, Sammy and to lesser extent Lulu and Moreno), but the likes of Ion Izagirre (especially him), Landa, Erviti, Jesus Herrada, Plaza are also banging on the door. There's so much choice for Minguez.

And of course Purito is riding fairly poorly this year, but he still has better results then someone like Moreno. Especially his showing in Pais Vasco shows he can still compete with the best. So if some people are in doubt with the fact if Purito has to go to Río: how should we look to the Moreno-case then?

Concerning Sammy: i have read this article on Biciciclismo, where he said he will not go to Rio.

http://www.biciciclismo.com/es/samuel-sanchez-rumbo-a-la-vuelta-16-06-2016

 

[Valv.Piti]

Enough of the Rio talk. Ion will obviously ride, Minguez, no?!

Tour is up and Ion is selected. Will he be kept in contention until the Pyrenees? I'd like to see that.

 

[DFA123]

Re:

Enough of the Rio talk. Ion will obviously ride, Minguez, no?!

Tour is up and Ion is selected. Will he be kept in contention until the Pyrenees? I'd like to see that.

It will be interesting to see how Movistar will best use him. He's probably not going to be able to out climb or put the Sky train into difficulty. Perhaps on something like Ventoux or Beixalis he could put a hard dig in early to get rid of the likes of Thomas and Poels and leave Quintana 1v1 with Froome - but Valverde might be better suited to that role and it would be difficult to get rid of Landa anyway.

I hope they try to use Ion positively though, and not just to stay with Quintana as long as possible to help him if he gets into difficulty. He's in such great form now that it would be a shame not to have him proactively trying to make the race in some stages.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re: Re:

Enough of the Rio talk. Ion will obviously ride, Minguez, no?!

Tour is up and Ion is selected. Will he be kept in contention until the Pyrenees? I'd like to see that.

It will be interesting to see how Movistar will best use him. He's probably not going to be able to out climb or put the Sky train into difficulty. Perhaps on something like Ventoux or Beixalis he could put a hard dig in early to get rid of the likes of Thomas and Poels and leave Quintana 1v1 with Froome - but Valverde might be better suited to that role and it would be difficult to get rid of Landa anyway.

I hope they try to use Ion positively though, and not just to stay with Quintana as long as possible to help him if he gets into difficulty. He's in such great form now that it would be a shame not to have him proactively trying to make the race in some stages.

Agree on all points.

Such a good and versatile rider, but it remains to be seen how good he is in the 'real' mountains. Considering he has never been close to the level he has now, I really do hope and believe he will be good. But he is still a bit more of a rouleur type, so I think he will have a tough time on some of the hard, up and down mountain stages.

 

[AlexNYC]

Izagirre seems to be losing time on purpose during the first week. He will be a very flexible weapon for Movistar in the Pyrenees and the Alps, also possibly a dark horse for the first ITT.

 

[DFA123]

Been very disappointed with Ion so far this Tour. Looks like he peaked for Romandie and Swiss and now his form has fallen off a cliff. He's been of almost no help to Valverde and Quintana so far, and didn't put in an amazing TT considering he was obviously tagetting the stage.

Maybe he has been saving a lot (along with the rest of Movistar!) for these last few days in the Alps, but I'm not too hopeful about that. I thought with the form he had coming into the race, he would be a real weapon and could work with Valverde to disrupt the Sky train, but he's been miles away from that level so far.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re:

Been very disappointed with Ion so far this Tour. Looks like he peaked for Romandie and Swiss and now his form has fallen off a cliff. He's been of almost no help to Valverde and Quintana so far, and didn't put in an amazing TT considering he was obviously tagetting the stage.

Maybe he has been saving a lot (along with the rest of Movistar!) for these last few days in the Alps, but I'm not too hopeful about that. I thought with the form he had coming into the race, he would be a real weapon and could work with Valverde to disrupt the Sky train, but he's been miles away from that level so far.

He worked extremely hard the two first couple of days with Oliveira and Erviti, he was used much more as a rouleur than a climber. But with Moreno sucking D and a couple of DNF's, its looking very grim now

 

[gunara]

Come on, he just won a stage Wonder if it's possible for him to still improve his climbing and have a serious go for GC at the Vuelta someday, where the TT should often suit him. It's difficult in a team with Valverde and Quintana I know, but I still see him as one of riders who's already had too few chances in big races, he deserve some, he's not worse a GC potential than - say - Dumoulin. Right, I might sound like Movistar need to have another boring GC guy

 

[Moviestar]

Ion is finishing very strong. Wouldn't be surprised if he will play a role in Rio in a few weeks.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re:

Ion is finishing very strong. Wouldn't be surprised if he will play a role in Rio in a few weeks.

He definitely will, question is if he will do in the RR. Never really done anything in classics to my knowledge, but he has been immense the last 3 days. What turned it around I have no idea, but very uplifting performance in this very bleak race.

 

[Armchair cyclist]

Impressive chin-scar on the podium today: put Yates' kite-inflicted scar to shame. Is that new, or an old face-plant?

 

[ice&fire]

Re:

Come on, he just won a stage Wonder if it's possible for him to still improve his climbing and have a serious go for GC at the Vuelta someday, where the TT should often suit him. It's difficult in a team with Valverde and Quintana I know, but I still see him as one of riders who's already had too few chances in big races, he deserve some, he's not worse a GC potential than - say - Dumoulin. Right, I might sound like Movistar need to have another boring GC guy

He was given a chance at a GT last year. He was worst than Amador.

 

[gunara]

Re: Re:

Come on, he just won a stage Wonder if it's possible for him to still improve his climbing and have a serious go for GC at the Vuelta someday, where the TT should often suit him. It's difficult in a team with Valverde and Quintana I know, but I still see him as one of riders who's already had too few chances in big races, he deserve some, he's not worse a GC potential than - say - Dumoulin. Right, I might sound like Movistar need to have another boring GC guy

He was given a chance at a GT last year. He was worst than Amador.

Yeah, there is also Amador in the pecking order, but I don't mean the multi-mountained Giro with many long climbs, snow, and fresher GC opponents anyway.

 

[hoerpi]

As an Euskaltel fan it is really nice to see all the young prospects from when the team folded perform. But it also makes me a bit sad, because Ion would've been the undisputed leader of the team after Samu and it would have been very interesting to see what a team of Gorka, Ion, Landa and Nieve would be capable of.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re:

As an Euskaltel fan it is really nice to see all the young prospects from when the team folded perform. But it also makes me a bit sad, because Ion would've been the undisputed leader of the team after Samu and it would have been very interesting to see what a team of Gorka, Ion, Landa and Nieve would be capable of.

Same, but I still doubt he would have been much of a GT-rider, altho the last 3 days in the Alps must be very uplifting for him. I always hoped he would ride the Vuelta instead of the Tour this year in a protected role, but guess Ill have to wait for next year in either the Giro or Vuelta.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Ion Izagirre-thread

Not a rider who get a lot of attention (partly due to him being a bit Zubeldia-esque), but has progressed steadily year by year and is one of the best week long stage racers around. He has a very reasonable schedule again this year where he has included the Ardennes and rode very well in Amstel. Liege should suit him better and he could actually do very well there considering there's no Don Alejandro no more.

Will also race Romandie where he will be one of the favourites to get the maximum out of his spring. Then he will take a break and head to Tour de Suisse where he won an absolutely amazing time trial last year. Was a godly performance.

But the thing Im most intrigued about is TdF. I don't think he will go into the race 'just' to hunt stages, the race lacks big mountain stages so he could potentially find himself in a very good position. The lack of time trial mileage is a minus tho as thats his strongest weapon, primarily the hilly ones where he is one of the absolute best in the world when in shape.

 

[Blanco]

After that catastrophic first day in the mountains he's looking better and better for the Tour. I predict top 10 easily, and maybe some stage win also if he finds himself in the contention at the top of the climb before finishing descent.

 

[Cance > TheRest]

Definitely not going to be easy for Izagirre to finish in the Tour top 10 because of his GT leaders inexperience. But I cross my fingers that he can keep the level that he often has in one week races. Then top 10 is attainable.

 

[May0maniac]

The heat could hurt him durning the Tour, he's usually better when it's cooler and also when the riders have to deal with bad weather.

 

[Valv.Piti]

The Tour route should suit Ion nicely, he can definitely stay in the top-10 and I think he will try that. He climbed better than I expected yesterday, he really knows his limit and once his diesel got going, he was even relatively close to Spilak in the end, great ride!

Now, if not for that bad day, he would probably have been the favourite now, but thats easy to say...

 

[DFA123]

Valverde's crash has grabbed the headlines, but it's equally disappointing to see Izagirre have to abandon. I know someone who rides with him when he's at home and they said he was absolutely flying going into the Tour, following his great Ardennes campaign, and was really confident of a top 10, maybe even top 5 position.

I guess he won't even have the Vuelta to aim for if he recovers, with Nibali sure to be leader. :sad:

 

[GuyIncognito]

Does anybody know his condition?
Hopefully he's not badly hurt. It's incredible that there's not even any footage!

 

[yaco]

It's the second ITT he has crashed out in 2017.