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Miguel Ángel Lopez Discussion Thread

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I am embarrassed for Lopez on this and I think people laying this at the door of Movistar is ridiculous

Sure there maybe issues in the team dynamics but can someone tell me a team where there is not ?

Lopez missed the crucial move and let Haig and other leaders get away from him,,,his own fault
He chases for ages but the gap only grew to when it was up to 3 minutes
Then maybe Movistar suggested that his riding at the front by himself was not working and maybe stop and force others to chase like UAE

The gap was very high when his Movistar team mate caught up but it was too late to chase then and gap was over 7 minutes
So Lopez abandoned the race. I am sure he was upset as so many riders are in every race all the time when things dont go their way and they lose wins or podiums but they dont abandon GTs at the eleventh hour

And now he and his father in law and the Colombian press are throwing the blame at the feet of the team and everyone else but the truth is he behaved unprofessionally and childishly and this just makes him look worse. Why cant he own his behavior

If he was upset and was overcome he could have still got back on his bike and finished the race and everyone would have understood
How many cyclists would give their right arm to race the Vuelta
I guess I know now even though he is a great climber why he will never win a GT
 
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I am embarrassed for Lopez on this and I think people laying this at the door of Movistar is ridiculous

Sure there be issues in the team dynamics but can someone tell me a team where there is not ?

Lopez missed the crucial move and let Haig and other leaders get away from him,,,his own fault
Without team dynamics Lopez doesn’t lose it. We have seen this before with this team. They are obviously Spanish centric. Quintana and Carapaz got out. Now Lopez gets cranky.

I think Lopez has a recovery problem which also explains the 2020 TdF. Lopez feeling flat after getting himself in a podium position and put under big pressure to chase on a tricky stage. But Movistar are the common denominator. Without Movistar weirdness Lopez doesn’t lose it.
 
Without team dynamics Lopez doesn’t lose it. We have seen this before with this team. They are obviously Spanish centric. Quintana and Carapaz got out. Now Lopez gets cranky.

I think Lopez has a recovery problem which also explains the 2020 TdF. Lopez feeling flat after getting himself in a podium position and put under big pressure to chase on a tricky stage. But Movistar are the common denominator. Without Movistar weirdness Lopez doesn’t lose it.

I get what you're saying, but who exactly was supposed to help Lopez if he was expecting help? The others in that group had no reason to help. The rest of Movistar's team (besides Mas) was well behind. No way Mas was dropping back and risking that podium spot. Unfortunately by the time he started chasing it was unlikely he was going to be able to catch them with multiple riders helping. Remember the team is down 3 riders due to injuries which includes the only two climbers they brought for help.
 
Without team dynamics Lopez doesn’t lose it. We have seen this before with this team. They are obviously Spanish centric. Quintana and Carapaz got out. Now Lopez gets cranky.

I think Lopez has a recovery problem which also explains the 2020 TdF. Lopez feeling flat after getting himself in a podium position and put under big pressure to chase on a tricky stage. But Movistar are the common denominator. Without Movistar weirdness Lopez doesn’t lose it.
I think you are correct that movistar is Spanish centric and MAL likely has a recovery problem. I think however he'll have issues wherever he rides and I don't think today's incident can be blamed on the team, unless they went above and beyond their regular questionable tactics. Basically he missed the move, did not have the legs/head to follow, and then was killing himself pulling in the group and not making any headway. Maybe the team provided him with a reality check?

I would wonder if their coaching was sub par, but it turns out if it is a question of coaching (training) then that goes to his father-in-law. Perhaps his nutritional strategies need work though?
 
You can’t blame him being Colombian on a Spanish team. He’s been riding for himself the whole Vuelta. When he was left behind from his own actions he had no one and the team riders were behind. He should have saw everyone but Bernal went in the group and needed to close it if Bernal wasn’t. The team literally couldn’t do anything and when Rojas got up to the group he rode his heart out. I can agree with others that they probably told him to wait for Rojas to catch up in order for him to get a breather. No one in the group was helping and the lesser classification riders had no reason to ride as everyone ahead was already ahead of them. Just had bad luck but he still could have finished the race and awarded himself and team with a 6th or 7th after the TT. That’s still a good result.
 
I've seen a lot of discussion about yesterday's stage 20 and almost everywhere they were saying Lopez had no chance to bring back the group after he missed the move. But...if I remember correctly, he started chasing on false flat when he was about 5-10s behind. But in front it was only Mader pulling so it was basically a one vs one. Or am I missing something? Did Haig also do some work at the front? If it was a situation only Mader vs Mal, if Lopez does one of his accelerations, he's right there immediately. Soon after, when the gap was still about 20-25s, they reached a climb. I'm sure there were also some 6% sections in there where Lopez usually indeed becomes Superman. But the gap was just getting bigger and bigger. So I have two possible conclusions. One, he was weak and on a very bad day...
Two, he understimated the situation and wasn't going full gas at all. He was more concerned about everyone else not working with him, than trying to go flat out to close the gap as soon as possible.

I don't believe anyone would told him to stop chasing, because it doesn't make sense at all.
 
I've seen a lot of discussion about yesterday's stage 20 and almost everywhere they were saying Lopez had no chance to bring back the group after he missed the move. But...if I remember correctly, he started chasing on false flat when he was about 5-10s behind. But in front it was only Mader pulling so it was basically a one vs one. Or am I missing something? Did Haig also do some work at the front? If it was a situation only Mader vs Mal, if Lopez does one of his accelerations, he's right there immediately. Soon after, when the gap was still about 20-25s, they reached a climb. I'm sure there were also some 6% sections in there where Lopez usually indeed becomes Superman. But the gap was just getting bigger and bigger. So I have two possible conclusions. One, he was weak and on a very bad day...
Two, he understimated the situation and wasn't going full gas at all. He was more concerned about everyone else not working with him, than trying to go flat out to close the gap as soon as possible.

I don't believe anyone would told him to stop chasing, because it doesn't make sense at all.
Initially Haig didn't seem to realise Lopez was behind, a gap opened up between Haig and Mäder that Haig only closed after Poels got on the radio. It's not as if they went full gas immediately and it would've been impossible for Lopez to jump across early on.
 
"el Movistar Team le pidieron que dejara de perseguir para no perjudicar a su compañero Enric Mas"


According to "El Tiempo" (Colombian Newspaper) Movistar DS asked MAL not to brigde to Enric Mas's group so he (Mas) could have a greater chance on the GC and a Stage Win.

If that's true, then MAL was right for pulling out in disgust by such nonsense.
The idea that MAL was told to stop because the chase was detrimental to Mas chances is something that MAL's coach made in his mind. In the interview from El Espectador he acknowledges that MAL was told to stop the chase several minutes after the split was made and he is just speculating about the reasons of the 'instruction'.


MAL was asked in the Cadena SER interview posted on twitter and in this thread if his action had anything to do with being told to stop at a point when the chase was pointless and he evaded the question.
 
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Let's see where he goes from here.
With Yana gone and Vino back in charge Astaná becomes an option once again. He wanted to stay, but the new management refused to pay im the same money once again (after that Tour performance). If they have the money and he leaves Movistar a return wouldn't be a bad option for both parties.
 
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I am embarrassed for Lopez on this and I think people laying this at the door of Movistar is ridiculous

Sure there be issues in the team dynamics but can someone tell me a team where there is not ?

Lopez missed the crucial move and let Haig and other leaders get away from him,,,his own fault
He chases for ages but the gap only grew to when it was up to 3 minutes
Then maybe Movistar suggested that his riding at the front by himself was not working and maybe stop and force others to chase like UAE

The gap was very high when his Movistar team mate caught up but it was too late to chase then and gap was over 7 minutes
So Lopez abandoned the race. I am sure he was upset as so many riders are in every race all the time when things dont go their way and the lose wins or podiums but they dont abandon GTs at the eleventh hour

And now he and his father in law and the Colombian press are throwing the blame the feet of the team and everyone else but they truth is he behaved unprofessionally and childishly and this just makes him look worse. Why cant he own his behavior

If he was upset and was overcome he could have still got back on his bike and finished the race and everyone would have understood
How many cyclists would give their right arm to race the Vuelta
I guess I know now even though he is a great climber why he will never win a GT

This pretty much sums up my feelings.

In contrast, look how Bernal, another Colombian, handled the same situation. He continued riding, praised his team, etc. I'm sure he was just as disappointed as Lopez but he rode hard to the end.
 
I’m not Spanish so no skin off my back. That’s the thing. Lopez chased the entire climb. Nobody ordered him to not follow. That is coming strictly from Colombian media.

Watch the video from Chris Horner. Lopez was likely told to wait for Rojas on the descent because he was 45 seconds off the leaders over the top of the climb and he was pulling all the way to the top. Rojas came up to Lopez but Padun had dropped back and was pulling the leaders with Mader. They had no chance of catching them.
This is what most likely has happened, at least thats the only scenario I could see. Being told not to chase, sure, but once already impossible to bridge alone. We saw what happened in the valley. Kinda convenient to let that part out. Unless they are explaining what exactly happened in details and when and where he was told to stop, I dont believe Lopez, the colombian media and all of his amigos one bit.

As I said before, what transpired on the road had nothing to do with tactics. It was a free for all and Mas hit and Lopez didn't. That in itself isn't a disaster if he actually had the legs to back the chase up, but Gino Mäder was simply stronger than Lopez on those 4-5 km which is why he lost the Vuelta. I have said it many times, but its really not rocket science. We all watched the race, we all saw what happened. Lopez went as fast as he possibly could, but was on a bad day. Unlucky. At that point the race was lost and absolutely nothing that the DS's said or did could really influence not losing +5 minutes
 
Yes, it was an absolutely insanely unlucky scenario - no allies, no teammates. It just doesnt happen often, but it did yesterday.. podium was probably lost either way, maybe not, but he could easily have salvaged a top 5 with a stage win in the queen stage (which would be a quite good Vuelta)
He'd just responded to Bernal, and I wonder why he didn't jump onto say Mas' wheel when he closed. Any group with Roglic, Bahrain and Ineos is likely to stay away there.
 
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