Miguel Ángel Lopez Discussion Thread

[Scarponi]

That was an epic fail. He can never be GT winner material if he doesn't improve his TTs at once, but I suspect it will always be a weakness. A shame, because his peak climbing is pretty much unrivalled, as we witnessed on top of la Loze and in the second week of the 2017 Vuelta.

His peak climbing though barely makes enough time to matter. Will never win a GT

 

[DFA123]

They can't afford him

Bold career choice by MAL if he has priced himself out of staying at the team. No-one leaves Astana and becomes better, especially not GC specialists.

 

[Escarabajo]

Bold career choice by MAL if he has priced himself out of staying at the team. No-one leaves Astana and becomes better, especially not GC specialists.

It is rumored that he is going to Bora. I guess Lopez was already asking for a pay raise and Vino is having money issues and had to let him go. This rumor has been going on even before the Tour started anyway. I am surprised it was public so late.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

It is rumored that he is going to Bora. I guess Lopez was already asking for a pay raise and Vino is having money issues and had to let him go. This rumor has been going on even before the Tour started anyway. I am surprised it was public so late.

As others have said, it will be very interesting to see how Bora support him. I mean, he will have great support in crosswinds but...

 

[Bolder]

Would be a great pick up for Bora, IMO. I think a change will be good for Superman, I would hate to think that 2018 was as good as he can be. His climbing is a joy to watch.

 

[Escarabajo]

This sounds strange but Lopez for Movistar!!

El destino de Miguel Ángel López en 2021 sería el Movistar Team

El futuro de Miguel Ángel López que parecía tomar un rumbo hacia el Bora o AG2R en 2021, podría dar un vuelco inesperado, ante un aparente interés del Movistar Team por contar con los servicios del escalador boyacense de 26 años. Según ha podido establecer la periodista española Nieves Moya...

www.revistamundociclistico.com

I don't know why. Don't understand. Could be the sponsors who have to push for a Colombian GT rider. They are big in Colombia.

 

[Koronin]

This sounds strange but Lopez for Movistar!!

El destino de Miguel Ángel López en 2021 sería el Movistar Team

El futuro de Miguel Ángel López que parecía tomar un rumbo hacia el Bora o AG2R en 2021, podría dar un vuelco inesperado, ante un aparente interés del Movistar Team por contar con los servicios del escalador boyacense de 26 años. Según ha podido establecer la periodista española Nieves Moya...

www.revistamundociclistico.com

I don't know why. Don't understand. Could be the sponsors who have to push for a Colombian GT rider. They are big in Colombia.

My only guess would be that (if I remember correctly) the team is required to have 3 Colombians on the roster and after letting Betancur go they only have 2 on their roster for next year. Otherwise this makes no sense at all. With Mas and Soler the only GT Lopez would be given leadership of is the Giro.

 

[tobydawq]

Supermán López avisa: ‘No voy a ser el remplazo de Nairo en el equipo’

El ciclista colombiano Miguel Ángel López analiza sus objetivos para esta temporada con el Movistar Team

www.eltiempo.com

Nice interview but in Spanish.

He is still recovering from his Giro crash and in combination with a bout of Covid in January he hasn't been able to train much yet and he has not yet met his teammates because of the disease. He thinks he will make his season debut in the Tour of the Alps or Romandie.

He makes it sound like he has never had a say in which GTs he rides and says that the Giro suits him well on paper this year but the team wants him to do the Tour and Vuelta (he would probably not be able to reach peak condition for the Giro in any case).

He doesn't have much to say about his terrible, terrible LPDF TT or his problems with Movistar's ride in the 2019 Vuelta and as I understand it he is not too impressed with UCI's new rules.

Finally, he says that he has had similar thoughts to Dumoulin regarding taking a break or stopping altogether because of pressure, sacrifice, fatigue and injuries.

 

[barmaher]

Thanks very much for that. MAL always strikes me as an interesting case study as a high-level athlete. He seems to have bundles of talent, and he has clearly been very successful in his profession, but....

It must be frustrating, particularly in a sport with such high physical and time demands as cycling to work as hard as he does, and still come up a little bit short. And as he reaches the age where we would expect to see him achieve GT wins, he drops slightly. And he also sees stiffer competition from kids like Pogacar, Bernal, Evenepoel, etc.

It must be hard to stay motivated at the level necessary to stay at the top. I am not surprised he has the heeby jeebies like Dumoulin.

 

[tobydawq]

Thanks very much for that. MAL always strikes me as an interesting case study as a high-level athlete. He seems to have bundles of talent, and he has clearly been very successful in his profession, but....

It must be frustrating, particularly in a sport with such high physical and time demands as cycling to work as hard as he does, and still come up a little bit short. And as he reaches the age where we would expect to see him achieve GT wins, he drops slightly. And he also sees stiffer competition from kids like Pogacar, Bernal, Evenepoel, etc.

It must be hard to stay motivated at the level necessary to stay at the top. I am not surprised he has the heeby jeebies like Dumoulin.

He must be a little smarter than Dumoulin and knows that he can't make millions of euros a year in a different profession. Or at least prioritise differently.

 

[Escarabajo]

I read somewhere else the same thing, that he will start late in the season. In any case he will go to the Tour a little undercooked.

It sounds like the competition now demoralizes him with the likes of Pogacar, Bernal, Evenepoel, etc . After seeing Pogacar performance last year I noticed a lot of riders being demoralized, including Bernal himself. This year being the number 1 rider to beat will be interesting. As for Lopez and Movistar, it always was an odd match.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

I read somewhere else the same thing, that he will start late in the season. In any case he will go to the Tour a little undercooked.

It sounds like the competition now demoralizes him with the likes of Pogacar, Bernal, Evenepoel, etc . After seeing Pogacar performance last year I noticed a lot of riders being demoralized, including Bernal himself. This year being the number 1 rider to beat will be interesting. As for Lopez and Movistar, it always was an odd match.

Has he ever given an explanation for his turd of an ITT in the TDF? He did so well in the ITT in Algarve, and he said he had trained on his ITT bike very much in order to improve his ITT. And in Algarve he did the same time as Schachmann, and only 25s behind Dennis i think. He beat a lot of proven ITT guys. And then in the TDF, it was like he was worse than ever. With him being the best only 2 days before on one of the hardest stages, i find it hard to believe that he was completely cooked. Maybe after Algarve he thought he had done enough work on the ITT bike and neglected it again?

I mean, if he continues to bleed time in ITT's, i can understand he gets demoralized, but it seems that's pretty much his own doing, because in Algarve he showed he CAN do very good ITT's.

 

[Escarabajo]

He also did very well in the ITT at the Giro the previous year. He did excellent.

The last ITT at the Tour is a weird beast. It is really more about recovery than anything else TBF. Maybe he didn't recovered from his previous days efforts

 

[tobydawq]

He also did very well in the ITT at the Giro the previous year. He did excellent.

The last ITT at the Tour is a weird beast. It is really more about recovery than anything else TBF. Maybe he didn't recovered from his previous days efforts

What, no? He did terribly in the San Marino TT.

Logic, he addresses it in the interview and says it was simply a bad day. He had no strength on the flat part, hoped it would come on the climb but then felt even worse there.

 

[ice&fire]

Dropping from the podium in the PDBF ITT was a major blow, but I'll take his stage win and 6th place in GC over the dull 5th place of his now teammate Mas.

 

[Bolder]

Thanks very much for that. MAL always strikes me as an interesting case study as a high-level athlete. He seems to have bundles of talent, and he has clearly been very successful in his profession, but....

It must be frustrating, particularly in a sport with such high physical and time demands as cycling to work as hard as he does, and still come up a little bit short. And as he reaches the age where we would expect to see him achieve GT wins, he drops slightly. And he also sees stiffer competition from kids like Pogacar, Bernal, Evenepoel, etc.

It must be hard to stay motivated at the level necessary to stay at the top. I am not surprised he has the heeby jeebies like Dumoulin.

I agree, excellent insight. I hope he continues to fight for GT podiums, as he's one of my favorite riders.

 

[Koronin]

Supermán López avisa: ‘No voy a ser el remplazo de Nairo en el equipo’

El ciclista colombiano Miguel Ángel López analiza sus objetivos para esta temporada con el Movistar Team

www.eltiempo.com

Nice interview but in Spanish.

He is still recovering from his Giro crash and in combination with a bout of Covid in January he hasn't been able to train much yet and he has not yet met his teammates because of the disease. He thinks he will make his season debut in the Tour of the Alps or Romandie.

He makes it sound like he has never had a say in which GTs he rides and says that the Giro suits him well on paper this year but the team wants him to do the Tour and Vuelta (he would probably not be able to reach peak condition for the Giro in any case).

He doesn't have much to say about his terrible, terrible LPDF TT or his problems with Movistar's ride in the 2019 Vuelta and as I understand it he is not too impressed with UCI's new rules.

Finally, he says that he has had similar thoughts to Dumoulin regarding taking a break or stopping altogether because of pressure, sacrifice, fatigue and injuries.

Interesting. Thanks.

With the recovery from both injuries and Covid the Giro likely wouldn't work for him this year anyway, so there's that. I do wonder if one reason they didn't want to send him to the Giro is because they didn't want to send him and Soler together to a GT. This goes back to Movistar's original plan of letting Soler prove whether or not he can lead a GT at the Giro.

Hope he's able to fully recover from both injuries and Covid.

 

[Escarabajo]

What, no? He did terribly in the San Marino TT.

Logic, he addresses it in the interview and says it was simply a bad day. He had no strength on the flat part, hoped it would come on the climb but then felt even worse there.

Thanks, you helped me decipher the enigma: It is one good followed by one bad one!!!

Giro d'Italia 2019 Stage 1 (ITT) results

Primož Roglič is the winner of Giro d'Italia 2019 Stage 1 (ITT), before Simon Yates and Vincenzo Nibali. Primož Roglič was leader in GC.

www.procyclingstats.com

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

What, no? He did terribly in the San Marino TT.

Logic, he addresses it in the interview and says it was simply a bad day. He had no strength on the flat part, hoped it would come on the climb but then felt even worse there.

I only just noticed i missed your earlier post where you already talked about that. I thought Escarabajo's post was the first new post.

 

[Pinot's goat]

Dropping from the podium in the PDBF ITT was a major blow, but I'll take his stage win and 6th place in GC over the dull 5th place of his now teammate Mas.

Mas came out of lockdown in terrible condition and as result was always hanging on and never had the legs to attack until the Glieres, his end result of 5th was actually really impressive given the circumstances.

 

[johnymax]

Lopez is a rider I have a difficult time figuring out. There were times when I thought of him as the best climber in the world or at least as the most feared one, when he was on a good day. But those good days aren't as frequent as I'm expecting them to be. Even in a single GT, he can be a world-beater one day and not even among the 5 best climbers the next day. It's also true that he's had a lot of bad luck in GTs. But still, I was positive he'll win a GT someday, now I'm not too sure anymore.