Miguel Ángel Lopez Discussion Thread

[Oliver]

Re:

He is likely returning to racing in the Tour of Austria

Great! And then Pologne?

 

[DNP-Old]

Re: Re:

He is likely returning to racing in the Tour of Austria

Great! And then Pologne?

Rafael Acevedo, his trainer, says he'll go back to Colombia after Austria to prepare for la Vuelta, so very unlikely.

 

[DNP-Old]

Personally, I'd like him to do Burgos, because he needs some more miles on his legs imo. That said, I was very 'happy' with his crash in Suisse, because he can go a long way in la Vuelta. Sort of a blessing in disguise.

Year after year we're seeing riders compete there solely on freshness. There are so many examples, just take last year: König (before Aramon Formigal), Talansky, Yates, De la Cruz. Going further back: Dumoulin was two climbs away from victory and Horner actually won the damn thing. No offense whatsoever, but most of those guys are inferior compared to Superman. He could really podium la Vuelta.

 

[greenedge]

Hmmm it'll be his first GT (I don't count his Vuelta last year- 6 stages) and three other reasons stand against him.

Firstly Astana aren't that good at TTT's.
Secondly the route with Murito's does not suit him (I know he won MIlano-Torino but I think he's more suited to harder mountain stages). I'd be willing to be proved wrong.

Lastly, and the key point is the competition will be way too strong. Froome, Valverde, Chaves, A.Yates, Dumoulin, Nibali, (Contador, is he riding?), Kruisjwijk, Zakarin etc. Personally I'd even put Alaphillipe ahead of him if he rode.

As an extra thought, could Aru ride the Vuelta too?

Edit: Don't forget TJVG too :lol:

 

[GuyIncognito]

At least he'll be fresh. Expect a good performance.

 

[DNP-Old]

Confirmed for Austria.

 

[liamito]

Did he already go back to Colombia or will he do more European races before La Vuelta?

 

[Oliver]

Re:

Did he already go back to Colombia or will he do more European races before La Vuelta?

He's on the temporary startlist for San Sebastian. So maybe Burgos also?

 

[DNP-Old]

He's in Colombia training in Busbanzá with Rodolfo Torres.

 

[liamito]

Re: Re:

Did he already go back to Colombia or will he do more European races before La Vuelta?

He's on the temporary startlist for San Sebastian. So maybe Burgos also?

Not in the provisional teams for Burgos or Poland.

 

[DNP-Old]

He's riding San Sebastian and Burgos.

 

[Escarabajo]

Great win for Lopez!!!

Slowly getting into form. Hope he can stay upright and avoid crashes!

 

[DNP-Old]

Are you ready?

 

[carton]

Superman slotting into the top 10 at the Vuelta with his first GT stage win. So he already made up for his star-crossed early season, let's see if he can keep it going.

 

[Valv.Piti]

He was clearly the best. Another stage win and a top-5 should be very doable.

 

[Arredondo]

Re:

He was clearly the best. Another stage win and a top-5 should be very doable.

I think even the podium is still very likely. I mean, his TT is decent. And we have seen many riders are prone to bonking extremely hard. Adam Yates 9 minutes in arrears for example.

Pandera, Hazallanas, Sierra Nevada, Angliru ... so many potential leg-breakers left.

 

[staubsauger]

It's either him, Contador or Kelderman for the 3rd spot IMHO. At least if Chaves continues to struggle. Zakarocket doesn't look as sharp as he did in Italy. So I would expect Lopez to go past him after todays performance.

 

[DNP-Old]

Re:

Are you ready?

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re: Re:

He was clearly the best. Another stage win and a top-5 should be very doable.

I think even the podium is still very likely. I mean, his TT is decent. And we have seen many riders are prone to bonking extremely hard. Adam Yates 9 minutes in arrears for example.

Pandera, Hazallanas, Sierra Nevada, Angliru ... so many potential leg-breakers left.

Yeah that would be great. He has a very decent chance of podium...

 

[DNP-Old]

His TT is pretty meh if I'm honest. I reckon he's going to lose a minute at minimum to his rivals, especially since it's a flat one, which favors the likes of Kelderman, Zakarin e.g. He'll have to do it on the climbs. Which is certainly possible, as he isn't just one of the best climbers, but he's also one of the freshest in this thing. But his Davos TT in Suiza a year ago shouldn't be much of a reference, it was much tougher than the one we'll have in Longroño.

 

[yaco]

Think it's been a sound strategy to have Lopez as the shadow GC guy behind Aru - It reduces the pressure on his shoulders.

 

[carton]

Re: Re:

Are you ready?

Juat realized that according to @faustocoppi60 that is in fact the Velefique. He captioned that photo "figuring out when to attack". So dude pretty much called his shot.

 

[DNP-Old]

All of his results in (official) prologues and timetrials:
2017
- 2nd in Österreich-Rundfahrt (0.8k) - the first 800m of Schlossberg, so a climbing prologue
- 141st in Suiza (6k) - flat prologue, only his second day of racing of the season, so not too much to read into, but 141st out of 176 is pretty bad

2016
- 2nd in Suiza (16.8k) - tougher than advertised, not really comparable to Longroño
- 36th in Suiza (6.4k) - hillyish prologue in Baarn
- 64th in Romandia (15.1k) - hilly timetrial in Sion, lost 1:29 to Pinot
- 35th in Romandia (3.95k) - hillyish prologue in La Chaux-de-Fonds, lost 21 seconds to Izagirre
- 9th in Itzulia (16.5k) - Arrate, so a very, very tough timetrial
- 4th in National Championships (35.2k) - flat timetrial, lost 1:22 to Walter Vargas, 0:37 to Brayan Ramirez

2015
- 46th in Suiza (38.4k) - hilly timetrial in Bern, lost 3 minutes to Dumoulin
- 99th in Suiza (5.1k) - flat prologue, lost 26 seconds to Dumoulin

2014
- 36th in World Championships U23 (36.1k) - flat time trial, lost 2:37 to Campbell Flakemore
- 4th in National Championships U23 (25k) - flat (IIRC) time trial, lost 1:25 to Carlos Ramirez

He's good in tough timetrials, not so much in flat ones we'll have in Longroño.

 

[The Barb]

The number and quality of top riders coming out of Boyaca is amazing!

Podium is definitely within reach. The Tour De Suisse is really the only meaningful time trial he's ridden in th last couple of years and he went great ... much better than most expected. He's a much more well rounded rider than, say, Chaves.

 

[Arredondo]

Re:

All of his results in (official) prologues and timetrials:
2017
- 2nd in Österreich-Rundfahrt (0.8k) - the first 800m of Schlossberg, so a climbing prologue
- 141st in Suiza (6k) - flat prologue, only his second day of racing of the season, so not too much to read into, but 141st out of 176 is pretty bad

2016
- 2nd in Suiza (16.8k) - tougher than advertised, not really comparable to Longroño
- 36th in Suiza (6.4k) - hillyish prologue in Baarn
- 64th in Romandia (15.1k) - hilly timetrial in Sion, lost 1:29 to Pinot
- 35th in Romandia (3.95k) - hillyish prologue in La Chaux-de-Fonds, lost 21 seconds to Izagirre
- 9th in Itzulia (16.5k) - Arrate, so a very, very tough timetrial
- 4th in National Championships (35.2k) - flat timetrial, lost 1:22 to Walter Vargas, 0:37 to Brayan Ramirez

2015
- 46th in Suiza (38.4k) - hilly timetrial in Bern, lost 3 minutes to Dumoulin
- 99th in Suiza (5.1k) - flat prologue, lost 26 seconds to Dumoulin

2014
- 36th in World Championships U23 (36.1k) - flat time trial, lost 2:37 to Campbell Flakemore
- 4th in National Championships U23 (25k) - flat (IIRC) time trial, lost 1:25 to Carlos Ramirez

He's good in tough timetrials, not so much in flat ones we'll have in Longroño.

But how much has he ridden those while being in the contention of something?