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Mikel Landa Discussion Thread

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There's no one in the pro peloton right now like him in terms of climbing. It's not about the competition but it's about his style. He doesn't even breathe. Are you kiddin' me? Till one year ago he was a fuckin' nodoby and now he's Froome level. I don't like those guys. If he didn't peaked to early(and I'm sure he didn't given all his problems), he will unleash hell in Giro.
I hope Sky will give him a sh*t team. No Intxuasti, Nieve, Konig or Henao(if he will be cleared by UCI)
 
Re:

pink_jersey said:
There's no one in the pro peloton right now like him in terms of climbing. It's not about the competition but it's about his style. He doesn't even breathe. Are you kiddin' me? Till one year ago he was a ****' nodoby and now he's Froome level. I don't like those guys. If he didn't peaked to early(and I'm sure he didn't given all his problems), he will unleash hell in Giro.

If you have followed Landa's career a little more closely, he has displayed how great of a talent he is on multiple occasions before 2015.. sickness, inconsistency, its not comparable to Froome at all
 
Re: Re:

Valv.Piti said:
pink_jersey said:
There's no one in the pro peloton right now like him in terms of climbing. It's not about the competition but it's about his style. He doesn't even breathe. Are you kiddin' me? Till one year ago he was a ****' nodoby and now he's Froome level. I don't like those guys. If he didn't peaked to early(and I'm sure he didn't given all his problems), he will unleash hell in Giro.

If you have followed Landa's career a little more closely, he has displayed how great of a talent he is on multiple occasions before 2015.. sickness, inconsistency, its not comparable to Froome at all

I know he was a great talent. I still remember his great display on Neila but what he did from Giro last year...I'm not sure he is slower in the mountains compared with AC, Froome or Quintana. And the comparision with Froome it's not about career trajectory but about climbing level. I said that he is on the same level with Froome now. He's extremely strong. He looks so easy on climbs...
 
Re: Re:

Valv.Piti said:
pink_jersey said:
There's no one in the pro peloton right now like him in terms of climbing. It's not about the competition but it's about his style. He doesn't even breathe. Are you kiddin' me? Till one year ago he was a ****' nodoby and now he's Froome level. I don't like those guys. If he didn't peaked to early(and I'm sure he didn't given all his problems), he will unleash hell in Giro.

If you have followed Landa's career a little more closely, he has displayed how great of a talent he is on multiple occasions before 2015.. sickness, inconsistency, its not comparable to Froome at all
His 2011 Burgos stage win is still one of the most impressive performances I've seen from a neo pro. He was just hilariously strong. First he was in the break of the day. When they were caught, he went to the front and decimated the front group to 5-6 riders for his captain Sanchez. Then, when Sanchez couldn't drop whoever was leading the GC, Landa attacked again and dropped everyone.
 
Re: Re:

pink_jersey said:
Valv.Piti said:
pink_jersey said:
There's no one in the pro peloton right now like him in terms of climbing. It's not about the competition but it's about his style. He doesn't even breathe. Are you kiddin' me? Till one year ago he was a ****' nodoby and now he's Froome level. I don't like those guys. If he didn't peaked to early(and I'm sure he didn't given all his problems), he will unleash hell in Giro.

If you have followed Landa's career a little more closely, he has displayed how great of a talent he is on multiple occasions before 2015.. sickness, inconsistency, its not comparable to Froome at all

I know he was a great talent. I still remember his great display on Neila but what he did from Giro last year...I'm not sure he is slower in the mountains compared with AC, Froome or Quintana. And the comparision with Froome it's not about career trajectory but about climbing level. I said that he is on the same level with Froome now. He's extremely strong. He looks so easy on climbs...

Then I misunderstood you, I thought you were referring to Landa as a guy out of nowhere, Froome-esque.

But yeah. He is probably the 3rd best pure climber behind Nairo and Froome in peak shape. I hope he will show that level again
 
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We can´t just say he is the best without proove it in the field, and that needs big wins...

But in terms os potencial, in terms of what i see i think he is a top climber, and can be really the best, but we need to see if he can handle with the pressure and with attacks in descents... For what i observe he is weak in this area and can loose the giro there...

But he is impressive...

My favorite rider is Contador... and last year i was watching the giro and thinking...

" Luck, that Astana is protecting Aru... If they had Unleashed Landa, it would had been diferent... He was the stronger rider in the giro... I don´t know if he had win it, because he is a bad TT RIDER, but he would have give more fight to Contador if he had free role...

Let´s wait, i´m curious how he will deal with being the top contender to a race for the 1 st time...
 
Landa has been followed closely as the new big hope for the Basque/Spanish peloton for nearly a decade. He was a talent in amateur, in his first years as a pro and this past 2 years are the confirmation.

The strange thing is not that he is so good now, the strange thing is why he had such a big dip in his last years of Euskaltel. Or maybe it isn't so strange taking into consideration how badly the team was managed before it disappeared.
 
Just view climb fai della paganella ... but how many attacks had to close Landa ?!
They have come up with an insane intensity yesterday.
I hope he has a stronger team to ride the Giro , otherwise he'll do the Contador 2015 but with an important difference : in ITT Landa goes much slower
 
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Matteo. said:
Just view climb fai della paganella ... but how many attacks had to close Landa ?!
They have come up with an insane intensity yesterday.
I hope he has a stronger team to ride the Giro , otherwise he'll do the Contador 2015 but with an important difference : in ITT Landa goes much slower
Bertie has the magic of invincibility and other guys sometimes fear attacking him even if he's not so hot. Landa will in no ways able to win the Giro like Contador did.
 
It all comes down to how much buffer can Landa have over Nibali in the last ITT. The fact is that Il Giro is a very Mountainous GT, which suits greatly to Landa's skills, but so Nibali has proved his credentials going uphill so...... Like I stated - It's going to be an exciting Giro IF Nibali brings his best game against Landa.
 
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DNP-Old said:
Well, as good as Landa's looked this Trentino, his team has been complete jackshit. It amazed me how quickly Landa was isolated throughout this race.

same happened to Contador last year in the Giro ...but Tinkoff had some good riders riding at Giro and SKY had Deignan, Boswell & Moscon at Trentino (with 3 riders DNF on stage 4 so only Knees also left)

but instead of rubbishing the riders maybe tactics need to be considered If you make these riders ride on the front from Kilometer 0 as happened in Trentino and for Tinkoff last year then you are bound to have no one left esp if you only had 4 to begin with

Is there a need to ride at the front all day every day from Kilometer 0
 
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His team in the Giro would not have been bad at all - Henao, Roche, Deignan, Mini Henao, Boswell is a much better support team for the mountains than most Giro, as opposed to Tour, contenders get.

Of course now everything depends on who comes in instead of Henao. That's a huge loss as Henao would have been expected to be the last man standing in the mountains. It's not immediately obvious how Sky can rectify the problem either. Henao may be a bit mercurial but he was clearly in form and it's hard to see how any of Sky's other climbers could just slot in to his expected role. Most aren't good enough, those who are good enough almost certainly don't have the form as they weren't expecting to ride.

Poels seems like the best replacement, given his form, but Froome probably has first claim on his services.
 
Re: Re:

HelloDolly said:
DNP-Old said:
Well, as good as Landa's looked this Trentino, his team has been complete jackshit. It amazed me how quickly Landa was isolated throughout this race.

same happened to Contador last year in the Giro ...but Tinkoff had some good riders riding at Giro and SKY had Deignan, Boswell & Moscon at Trentino (with 3 riders DNF on stage 4 so only Knees also left)

but instead of rubbishing the riders maybe tactics need to be considered If you make these riders ride on the front from Kilometer 0 as happened in Trentino and for Tinkoff last year then you are bound to have no one left esp if you only had 4 to begin with

Is there a need to ride at the front all day every day from Kilometer 0

When you have the race lead, of course there is. Boswell and particularly Lopez were the big disappointments from what I could see. I wouldn't be against Moscon replacing either of those two, even as a neo-pro.

Deignan was a bright spot though. He only started his season as Coppi Bartali so there's a good chance his form is only going to get better. He was pretty impressive in the two grand tours he rode for Sky in 2014 so he can be a solid guy for Landa.

One thing I don't get is why both Puccio and Kiryienka apparently aren't riding the Giro. Perhaps Kiryienka preferred riding the Tour as prep for the Olympics TT but those two guys can do a lot of good work for a leader in a grand tour. Heck, on his day Kiri can even be a beast in the high mountains.
 

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