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Miguel Ángel Lopez Discussion Thread

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One of the two best men today. Winning a GT stage aganist the other favorites in this field, that counts as the definitive breakthrough for me. He had me worried when he had a good 9 months of crash ridden crap.

Now I realise we don't have to wait that long for him to become a genuine threat in the GTs
 
Re: Re:

Arredondo said:
DNP-Old said:
Code:
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?
There was something at stake in all of them but the Romandia timetrial.
 
The Astana and Quick Step kits always look terrible in close ups and on the podium. Always look overly stretched, out of place, and just bad. I don't mean the design, I mean the fabric and fit. I don't know what it is, but they don't look as nice as other pro-level stuff.
 
Hard to tell how good he is compared to Froome and Nibali. Both are focussing on each other and never tried to follow him today but when they forced it on the last km they closed a 15-20s gap and finished only 4s behind.
Would be great to have him closer in the GC but with the current gap they can ignore him. The podium is possible but I think the time trial will be enough for Kelderman and Zakarin to stay in front.
 
Re: Re:

Valv.Piti said:
Red Rick said:
He took 4 seconds over a group that was stop-starting all the time. Not sure the big climbs are guaranteed wins
You are right, it may be premature, but he has shown himself to be the best on longer sustained climbs. It looks easy when he takes off
But today it only looked easy because he went off on the flat section of the climb, with the heads of state just resting after another attack. Basically every attack would have looked easy on that section.

Still, he is the strongest climber of the past few stages.
 
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portugal11 said:
HelloDolly said:
This young man will win the Tour ....long before Quintana or Chaves does.....the turn of speed and the easy of climbing ...super prospect
Calm down... this is the vuelta, not the tour


You are telling me to calm down ...ha ha....look at your posts

I know its the Vuelta ....but this Vuelta is imo harder the the Tour and this young man is super talented ... I can make a prediction if I so chose
 
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Re: Re:

HelloDolly said:
portugal11 said:
HelloDolly said:
This young man will win the Tour ....long before Quintana or Chaves does.....the turn of speed and the easy of climbing ...super prospect
Calm down... this is the vuelta, not the tour


You are telling me to calm down ...ha ha....look at your posts

I know its the Vuelta ....but this Vuelta is imo harder the the Tour and this young man is super talented ... I can make a prediction if I so chose
Fair enough :D
 
He's a massive talent, and his TT isn't god awful either.

There's a long way to go in his development. This is the first time we're seeing him riding over three weeks. He hasn't confirmed that his recovery is good enough for a three week grand tour yet.

But I'm super excited, was worried after the way the last 12 months have gone, but he's got a big future ahead

Grande miguel
 
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I agree, but when have we seen someone this young doing so well in his first gt, it's usually just a learning experience, so I can totally understand the hype.
 
He lost some time the first week so it is obvious that he has some extra strength. Besides we have to wait for the third week.
HelloDolly, the turn of speed that Quintana had was jus as impressive. Just that he uses bigger gears. He is just not showing the strength that he showed early. Lopez is better talent than Chaves IMHO. But not compare to Quintana. At least not yet.
 

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