Mikel Landa Discussion Thread

[KyoGrey]

Re: Re:

His panache/style/swag level is very high in this peloton of widespread anonymity.

His style and swag is Valverde-esque, when he attacks in the drops he is golden!

His style is even better then Bala's.

Valverde is classy, But Landa is just Dalí, Picasso or Rembrandt on a bike. He doesn't push the pedals, he's
caresses them!

Yeah, we can agree on that. He is one of those riders it just looks so easy for and you'll often find yourself wondering why he isn't going faster since it obviously doesn't hurt while he is at 190 BPM. :lol:

As for style comparisons, Landa climbing style could be said more like a combination of Pantani (low hold on handlebars/low RPM) and Bugno (seamless at max effort) than of Valverde.

 

[Serpentin]

He saved the day yesterday to come in with the Quintana group. He did a good descent. He must be going for the overall. Maybe he can comeback and take back som time. Will be interesting to see how he goes along with Quintana now that Valverde isn`t there.

 

[Blanco]

Good today, bodes well for remainder of the race. I predict a stage win. GC placing will heavily depend on his ITT.

 

[Koronin]

This GC in general is going to come down to who can and who can't do a good TT. Nice save yesterday and today a good job gaining time many of the GC guys by staying in that lead group. Seems day 1 was just a bad day.

 

[SafeBet]

It wasn't a bad day. He was too far behind when the hill started and had to overtake a shitload of riders.
He would probably have been on Quintana's level and he's getting better.
He will destroy everybody in the last stage,

 

[KyoGrey]

Slightly hampered by Quintana's participation in the race, but overall fantastic performance by Landa in this years Pais Vasco.

In general a very encouraging spring progression, 6th in Andalucía, 6th in Tirreno and 2nd in Pais Vasco.

And always that very special sensation that as stages go on, he just keeps getting stronger.

 

[Netserk]

If only he'd had 6 teammates.

 

[Gigs_98]

He might have been able to win had he gone all in early. But it's understandable he didn't especially as the stage win seemed to be up for grabs.

 

[Red Rick]

He might have been able to win had he gone all in early. But it's understandable he didn't especially as the stage win seemed to be up for grabs.

Yeah. That's not understandable

 

[Red Rick]

Re:

If only he'd had 6 teammates.

Landa dropping Quintana though

 

[Blanco]

Re:

Slightly hampered by Quintana's participation in the race, but overall fantastic performance by Landa in this years Pais Vasco.

In general a very encouraging spring progression, 6th in Andalucía, 6th in Tirreno and 2nd in Pais Vasco.

And always that very special sensation that as stages go on, he just keeps getting stronger.

I wouldn't call it fantastic, but generally good performance. Roglic had way too big head start because of that ITT, and Landa's bad day on stage 1. What was lacking is stage win, with a stage I would call his performance very good. Only one who had a phenomenal performance in this year's Pais Vasco is Primoz Roglic by the way...

 

[Koronin]

He had a good performance. No stage win and no overall win so not fantastic. Quickstep as a team had a fantastic race as they were apparently only going after stages.

 

[Rollthedice]

Wasn't Landa supposed to win this race? As in primary objective in the first part of the season? Good performance but anything else than winning with the team he had at his disposal is not quite fantastic.

 

[Brullnux]

Re:

Wasn't Landa supposed to win this race? As in primary objective in the first part of the season? Good performance but anything else than winning with the team he had at his disposal is not quite fantastic.

Landa was clearly strong, but so was Roglic (more so) - and the flat TT helped him a lot. Add to that the fact that Landa has rarely in the past been team leader and still doesn't know how to use his team very well. Tactics wise he's not the greatest yet.

 

[Koronin]

Re:

Wasn't Landa supposed to win this race? As in primary objective in the first part of the season? Good performance but anything else than winning with the team he had at his disposal is not quite fantastic.

Yes this was his main objective for the Spring. I think he may be headed to the Ardennes in support of Valverde. However he was supposed to win this one as it's his home race. He doesn't have a lot of races where he's been the leader so he's still learning. He definitely doesn't understand tactics very well, however, not sure sending Quintana to help him was of much actual help either since Quintana also seems to have a lack of understanding race tactics. Truthfully of Movistar's younger riders Soler seems to have a bit better understanding of race tactics with not having been a race leader for very many races either.

 

[Escarabajo]

Not winning this was more a testament of how strong Roglic was. The parcours fit him better than Landa. Landa looked OK IMO. Hes is not the best of TT's anyway.

I would not blame the team for not winning. This is just a 1 week race. Not the Tour.

 

[HelloDolly]

So the climbing /wining sensation that is Landa lives on....jeez you guys give us a break

If Landa is such a phenomonal climber and in such a team a as Movistar why didnt he win the Tour of the Basque Country

I was very disappointed by Landa and Quintana today ....they atatcked too late and couldnt even drop the Bora riders earlier on

Climbing sensation my posterior

But I guess the hype live son on here

 

[Koronin]

Re:

So the climbing /wining sensation that is Landa lives on....jeez you guys give us a break

If Landa is such a phenomonal climber and in such a team a as Movistar why didnt he win the Tour of the Basque Country

I was very disappointed by Landa and Quintana today ....they atatcked too late and couldnt even drop the Bora riders earlier on

Climbing sensation my posterior

But I guess the hype live son on here

Simple, Landa needs more experience as a race leader. For this reason he hasn't had many opportunities to learn to read a race or understand race tactics.

As for why didn't Landa win, he's a poor time trialist as is Quintana. Actually Landa is or should be a bit more of an all rounder than what Quintana is. Quintana is a pure climber.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Wow, thats some negativity going on there. Landa is hyped because he is a fun rider that many of us likes and admittedly, he gets hyped too much sometimes - but lets not forget that its now the second race in a row where he has been the strongest climber on proper climbs, longer efforts, which is pretty uncommon for him so early on. Thats good signs. And we all know that if he hits that peak shape at the perfect time, like he did in the Giro in 2015 and partly during 2017, he is extremely hard to handle in proper mountain stages in GTs

 

[Salvarani]

Re:

Slightly hampered by Quintana's participation in the race, but overall fantastic performance by Landa in this years Pais Vasco.

In general a very encouraging spring progression, 6th in Andalucía, 6th in Tirreno and 2nd in Pais Vasco.

And always that very special sensation that as stages go on, he just keeps getting stronger.

Yeah, I also like the consistency so far without(?) even being in top shape yet. He has looked far more impressive than other GC-riders.

 

[Serpentin]

Any news on Landas program before the tour ? My body is ready for some real Landa-hype again. July is going to epic! All the movistar drama and the #Freelanda hashtags all over social media.

 

[Netserk]

Suisse. Just like Nairo and Piti.

 

[Koronin]

Re:

Any news on Landas program before the tour ? My body is ready for some real Landa-hype again. July is going to epic! All the movistar drama and the #Freelanda hashtags all over social media.

His next race is Suisse, along with Quintana and Valverde. Still not entirely sure that's the smartest thing to do, but I also don't run that team.

 

[Vino attacks everyone]

I haven't looked at the tour route yet. How many proper mountain stages are there for Movistar to take on the better tters?

 

[Koronin]

Here's a stage by stage annalist of the route:
http://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/racing/tour-de-france/tour-de-france-route-192041

two time trials, first a TTT, 2nd an ITT, plus the cobbled stage.

Here's a profile for the entire race:
https://www.cyclingstage.com/tour-de-france-2018-route/