Miguel Ángel Lopez Discussion Thread

[markene2]

He will probably end up back at Astana IF he where to change teams now that Vino is back in charge. i would not be suprised

 

[Escarabajo]

This actually looks like the official Movistar press release.
He needs some help. Feel really bad for him. Mental health is a big issue in sports. Wish him all the best in the future.

 

[hrotha]

Some unverified reports that MAL's girlfriend Nathalia Acevedo is pulling a Cound.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1434255472803160068

View: https://twitter.com/tourdegila/status/1434255472803160068

 

[Tricycle Rider]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1434251437756895234

View: https://twitter.com/movistar_team/status/1434251437756895234?s=21

I'm sure most of us who have ever taken part in any sport will be more than understanding, however, I'm not so sure his teammates/sponsors/etc., will be.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I'm sure most of us who have ever taken part in any sport will be more than understanding, however, I'm not so sure his teammates/sponsors/etc., will be.

The sponsors absolutely should be. People are glued to the Movistar twitter and the team is all we are talking about post-stage. In the last three days MAL has been a goldmine for clicks for them.

 

[Lequack]

Sprinters have quit the grand tours for lesser things.

 

[Valv.Piti]

The sponsors absolutely should be. People are glued to the Movistar twitter and the team is all we are talking about post-stage. In the last three days MAL has been a goldmine for clicks for them.

We as in the spanish media?
Or CN?

 

[Koronin]

Sprinters have quit the grand tours for lesser things.

Not usually in the middle of stages.

 

[SHAD0W93]

Sprinters have quit the grand tours for lesser things.

I don’t think this is comparable to a sprinter dnfing.

 

[IndianCyclist]

I donot understand. If he wanted to ride he could have ignored orders and kept riding and then after the stage hashed out his differences. Doing anything in a race on the spur of a moment makes it difficult to recover the situation. riders are known to frequently disobey orders

 

[roundabout]

The sponsors absolutely should be. People are glued to the Movistar twitter and the team is all we are talking about post-stage. In the last three days MAL has been a goldmine for clicks for them.

People watch trainwrecks as well.

Ultimate result was a 3rd place being turned into a DNF. It is reasonable for sponsors to be asking questions how this happened and if it can happen again.

 

[noob]

Some unverified reports that MAL's girlfriend Nathalia Acevedo is pulling a Cound.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1434255472803160068

View: https://twitter.com/tourdegila/status/1434255472803160068

Could someone translate?

 

[Tricycle Rider]

The sponsors absolutely should be. People are glued to the Movistar twitter and the team is all we are talking about post-stage. In the last three days MAL has been a goldmine for clicks for them.

This latest thing you kids are into (I think you call it Twitter), I don't do it. I just read what's in front of me on this board and I comment on it. For better or worse.

 

[hrotha]

Rafael Acevedo, MAL's coach (and father-in-law): "What Movistar asked of MAL was disgraceful"

“No tiene presentación lo que le pidió el Movistar a Miguel Ángel López”

Rafa Acevedo, suegro y entrenador de Miguel Ángel, aclaró el altercado que tuvo el corredor con su equipo, Movistar Team.

www.elespectador.com

As far as my daughter told me: Yates attacked, Miguel went after him, Egan attacked, [Miguel] followed him. And that's when Yates counterattacked. Miguel was on Egan's wheel, and obviously Egan slowed down. He lost momentum and when he started chasing he was told not to. Eusebio Unzué himself [...] drove up to him and started shouting at him from the car door... that was the straw that broke the camel's back.

 

[lenric]

#freeMAL

 

[Sciatic]

For me, It doesn’t matter that much what the DS said (other than demonstrating Movistar’s tactical weirdness) or didn’t say (we would need to hear it to know), because:

1. Once Lopez let that attack go, without reacting immediately b/c of fatigue or whatever, and the gap started opening up, he was guaranteed to lose minutes and his podium. Absolutely no one in that group was going to help so he would be riding by himself again Bahrain, and he would eventually capitulate.
2. If the DS did tell him to stop chasing hard, that is a bad management decision for supporting your rider. But we’ve seen what, hundreds of times that teammates and even team leaders in the chasing group are instructed (or know) not to chase. And we learned of times when a rider who has a chance to win a stage is told to not work in the lead group because they team leader was getting distanced (Lemond ‘85). And sometimes we’ve seen teammates refuse to slow down despite instructions from team car to cool it (Contador v. Armstrong).

But with all that history I don’t remember a rider in a position like Lopez just get off the bike and refuse to go on. I’m sure plenty of riders have given up trying but still stayed on their bikes till the end of the stage.
I’m not trying to pile on Lopez—I know I’ve quit at things when they got too hard—but wanted to put this in context:what we saw was incredibly unusual and thus dramatic.

 

[Sciatic]

Surely that's rubbish or someone was making that call based on wrong information. Who did they count on to do the chase with only Bernal - who had repeatedly said that he doesn't care if he finishes 5th or 10th and has Yates up the road - domestiques like Kuss or guys even further down in the GC to do the chasing while the guy in 4th on GC is ahead of you with multiple teammates?

Exactly,

 

[Tim Cahill]

 

[Ricco']

People watch trainwrecks as well.

Ultimate result was a 3rd place being turned into a DNF. It is reasonable for sponsors to be asking questions how this happened and if it can happen again.

Sponsors are in this for exposure and brand awareness. If Movistar's was a bike component manufacturer, they should prefer a good result because it associates positively with the quality of their products... But for that they already have Mas's second place.

For "normal" sponsors they live by screen time, headlines and time in new mouths of the commentators. And given the situation on the road after MAL was dropped without remedy for the lower bounds of the top-10, he would probably not give any relevant exposure nor being featured in the overall cerimonies tomorrow. His tantrum gave much more screen and media time for Movistar than anything he could have done after losing the favourites train.

 

[hrotha]

Could someone translate?

"I fully support MAL's decision! Later we will release an official statement explaining everything"

"For convenience's sake we'll [shut up] it'll surely be best to live a lie"

 

[ice&fire]

After listening to the interviews, he has apologised to everyone involved but has evaded all questions about the details of what happened.

Rafael Acevedo, MAL's coach (and father-in-law): "What Movistar asked of MAL was disgraceful"

“No tiene presentación lo que le pidió el Movistar a Miguel Ángel López”

Rafa Acevedo, suegro y entrenador de Miguel Ángel, aclaró el altercado que tuvo el corredor con su equipo, Movistar Team.

www.elespectador.com

Looks like some people mistook a suggestion that the chase was pointless after the gap was several minutes as an order.

 

[Escarabajo]

Rafael Acevedo, MAL's coach (and father-in-law): "What Movistar asked of MAL was disgraceful"

“No tiene presentación lo que le pidió el Movistar a Miguel Ángel López”

Rafa Acevedo, suegro y entrenador de Miguel Ángel, aclaró el altercado que tuvo el corredor con su equipo, Movistar Team.

www.elespectador.com

I went and watched it again and I fail to see the moment when Unzue went with his car next to him. Maybe it was hidden from the camera in a few seconds. If he did it after several minutes then it was too late by then I think.

 

[noob]

I want season 3 so badly

 

[BlueRoads]

Rafael Acevedo, MAL's coach (and father-in-law): "What Movistar asked of MAL was disgraceful"

“No tiene presentación lo que le pidió el Movistar a Miguel Ángel López”

Rafa Acevedo, suegro y entrenador de Miguel Ángel, aclaró el altercado que tuvo el corredor con su equipo, Movistar Team.

www.elespectador.com

There must be people who know - people like Bernal who were in the group.

For me, It doesn’t matter that much what the DS said (other than demonstrating Movistar’s tactical weirdness) or didn’t say (we would need to hear it to know), because:

1. Once Lopez let that attack go, without reacting immediately b/c of fatigue or whatever, and the gap started opening up, he was guaranteed to lose minutes and his podium. Absolutely no one in that group was going to help so he would be riding by himself again Bahrain, and he would eventually capitulate.
2. If the DS did tell him to stop chasing hard, that is a bad management decision for supporting your rider. But we’ve seen what, hundreds of times that teammates and even team leaders in the chasing group are instructed (or know) not to chase. And we learned of times when a rider who has a chance to win a stage is told to not work in the lead group because they team leader was getting distanced (Lemond ‘85). And sometimes we’ve seen teammates refuse to slow down despite instructions from team car to cool it (Contador v. Armstrong).

But with all that history I don’t remember a rider in a position like Lopez just get off the bike and refuse to go on. I’m sure plenty of riders have given up trying but still stayed on their bikes till the end of the stage.
I’m not trying to pile on Lopez—I know I’ve quit at things when they got too hard—but wanted to put this in context:what we saw was incredibly unusual and thus dramatic.

For me it does indeed matter but I don't know if we will ever know what happened. If Movistar did actually tell him in any way or at any point not to chase that's really, really stupid, because he was third and everyone he needed to have an eye on was in the first group. Actually he only needed to look at Haig, nobody else. If he himself made that mistake alone, well then it was all his fault and he shouldn't let his family blame Movistar.

 

[hrotha]

I went and watched it again and I fail to see the moment when Unzue went with his car next to him. Maybe it was hidden from the camera in a few seconds. If he did it after several minutes then it was too late by then I think.

Even in that interview, the timeline is pretty hazy. He made it sound like it all happened immediately but he didn't explicitly say that so ¯\(ツ)/¯

(Plus obviously this is what the editor wrote after talking to Rafael Acevedo who talked to Nathalia Acevedo who talked to MAL. That Chinese telephone game probably works already with only half this many people involved)