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Mikel Landa Discussion Thread

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Jul 22, 2017
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Koronin said:
Porte is Australian and left Sky because of lack of opportunities.
Well, because of a lack of opportunity to ride the Tour. He had plenty of opportunities to ride and win other races. Would any team have picked him over Froome for the Tour?

Landa left Sky because he wasn't getting what he was promised when he went there.
I think history will show that Landa's issues with Sky are really issues with Landa.
 
The problem with SKY was that when he failed at the Giro, they told him to go help Froome at TDF but he wanted to go to Vuelta as leader. Besides at the TDF 2017 he showed he wasn't conducive to team playing. So they didn't pursue him further either. Both Porte(2015 Giro 2014 TDF) and Landa (2016,2017 Giro) had their chances but failed to capitalize. The only GTs where he didnot have a chance was at 2015 Giro/Vuelta. He makes bad decisions for teams because his salary demands probably can only be met by the big teams.
If he does not deliver next year, people are going to say that he is inconsistent and the pressure on him will intensify. Better to do Giro Vuelta for 2 more chances than a single shot at the TDF
 
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Nirvana said:
Yesterday Vanotti was a guest of Eurosport during the TT coverage, asked about his old mate Landa he said that he talked to him after Alpe stage and he's happy at Movistar and denied he wants to leave.


Interesting. Although what he has specifically said to the Spanish media is that his relationship with Quintana has completely deteriorated. Which wouldn't exactly be surprising. It was never good to start with.
 
Koronin said:
[quote="Nirvana":17ov5xyd]Yesterday Vanotti was a guest of Eurosport during the TT coverage, asked about his old mate Landa he said that he talked to him after Alpe stage and he's happy at Movistar and denied he wants to leave.


Interesting. Although what he has specifically said to the Spanish media is that his relationship with Quintana has completely deteriorated. Which wouldn't exactly be surprising. It was never good to start with.[/quote]
I think the relationship with Quintana started on the wrong foot from the beginning. We know since last summer that Quintana wanted to go all in on the Tour this year but Landa after signing with Movistar started to release a ton of interview claiming the leadership for the Tour and so probably they got upset with each other and never resolved the issue. And Unzue fixation with the three leaders approach didn't helped, I think even the poor form of Valverde is a side effect of Unzue choices because he was "forced" to ride.
 
If Quintana & Soler both are on their way out, Landa could happily stay at Movistar and take over team leadership at both the 2018 Vuelta a Espana & the 2019 Giro d'Italia! They won't allow him to break his contract anyway in that case.

Quintana would be on his way to Astana then, I suggest? Given he's out of contract (?) there's no transfer fee like with Landa. We don't know of course how eager the Kazakhs are to get back Mikel.

It's gonna get interesting. At the Vuelta already. The rider who's willing to stay might be named team leader. The other one though might just do his own thing and put himself in the window by being super sharp as well. There's still Carapaz who's completely flying under the radar in this chose as well.

Soler IMHO isn't all that important. For grand tour leadership he's behind Carapaz in the pecking order. That makes him an domestique anyway. His paycheck increases at Sky and he still gets his own chances at one week races like Poels & Henao.

Problem for Movistar is that it leaves them with only Amador as a strong locomotive. Since they're kinda chanceless at the Tour de France against Sky lately, Movistar might just concentrate on Giro d'Italia + Vuelta a Espana with Landa in future. So most domestiques can double up.

Time will tell..
 
Re:

Nirvana said:
Koronin said:
[quote="Nirvana":3tba5fis]Yesterday Vanotti was a guest of Eurosport during the TT coverage, asked about his old mate Landa he said that he talked to him after Alpe stage and he's happy at Movistar and denied he wants to leave.


Interesting. Although what he has specifically said to the Spanish media is that his relationship with Quintana has completely deteriorated. Which wouldn't exactly be surprising. It was never good to start with.
I think the relationship with Quintana started on the wrong foot from the beginning. We know since last summer that Quintana wanted to go all in on the Tour this year but Landa after signing with Movistar started to release a ton of interview claiming the leadership for the Tour and so probably they got upset with each other and never resolved the issue. And Unzue fixation with the three leaders approach didn't helped, I think even the poor form of Valverde is a side effect of Unzue choices because he was "forced" to ride.[/quote]
Lately, I got the impression that Landa instantly was willing to lead Movistar at the Giro d'Italia. Unzue made the Tour de France palatable to Mikel and (indirectly) forced him to give all this interviews. First rumors of Landa being unhappy with not riding the corsa rosa emerged as soon as Froome only managed to win the pink jersey late minute, because Yates cracked on the Finestre. I'm actually not convinced at all, Froome could've beaten a peak shape Landa + full Movistar support with all his inconsistency over 3 weeks in Italy. Then again, his Giro victory looked kinda scripted reality anyway. But that's another story. Landa should've been able to podium the Giro at very least.

Now he has been 7th at the Tour instead. Worthless result for a guy that missed the Tour de France podium by 1 second last year and was denied 2nd place, 3 stage wins and the mountains jersey by team orders at the 2015 Giro d'Italia!
 
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Koronin said:
Moviefan1203 said:
Koronin said:
Moviefan1203 said:
I guess Movistar is picking Quintana over Landa? Soler should have a bright future as well.

Rumor going around is that Soler is leaving Movistar at the end of year and possibly headed to Sky.

Interesting. Surprised Movistar is losing both of their younger GC Spanish riders.

Riders don't like Quintana, eh? I always gave him the benefit of the doubt that his lack of personality was due to the language translation.

You'd think they'd do everything they can to keep their young Spanish GC riders instead of letting them go. The Spanish fans won't stand for non Spaniards leading the team at la Vuelta either. Can they really afford to lose their fan base?
No riders do not like Quintana. Movistar has had just about all their top domestiques leave over the past 3 years and rumors are Amador, Soler, and Erviti are all leaving this year to join the Herrada brothers, Izagirre brothers, Castroviejo, Visconti, and some others. This from a team that in the past had very low turn over and typically riders left because they weren't offered contracts, not because they wanted to leave. Spanish riders bailing, including riders who have been extremely loyal to Valverde over the years shows there are major issues at the team and the issue is not Valverde whom many of these same riders have tried to get to come with them to other teams.
Koronin, if Quintana is the antichrist and so toxic why don't Movistar get rid of him?

He had a great relationship with Castroviejo. And has a very good one with Amador. The true reason why they are leaving is money. Simply put " Money".
 
Re:

staubsauger said:



Interesting. Although what he has specifically said to the Spanish media is that his relationship with Quintana has completely deteriorated. Which wouldn't exactly be surprising. It was never good to start with.[/quote]
I think the relationship with Quintana started on the wrong foot from the beginning. We know since last summer that Quintana wanted to go all in on the Tour this year but Landa after signing with Movistar started to release a ton of interview claiming the leadership for the Tour and so probably they got upset with each other and never resolved the issue. And Unzue fixation with the three leaders approach didn't helped, I think even the poor form of Valverde is a side effect of Unzue choices because he was "forced" to ride.[/quote]
Lately, I got the impression that Landa instantly was willing to lead Movistar at the Giro d'Italia. Unzue made the Tour de France palatable to Mikel and (indirectly) forced him to give all this interviews. First rumors of Landa being unhappy with not riding the corsa rosa emerged as soon as Froome only managed to win the pink jersey late minute, because Yates cracked on the Finestre. I'm actually not convinced at all, Froome could've beaten a peak shape Landa + full Movistar support with all his inconsistency over 3 weeks in Italy. Then again, his Giro victory looked kinda scripted reality anyway. But that's another story. Landa should've been able to podium the Giro at very least.

Now he has been 7th at the Tour instead. Worthless result for a guy that missed the Tour de France podium by 1 second last year and was denied 2nd place, 3 stage wins and the mountains jersey by team orders at the 2015 Giro d'Italia![/quote]
I don't think that the team forced Landa to release interview against his own will, Valverde for example last winter clearly said that he doesn't like the Tour and wanted to ride the Giro and the Vuelta this year but the team decided for the Tour, Landa could have said the same if he was forced to ride the Tour.
He clearly has unfinished business in France after the podium missed for one second in 2017, I still remember the interview with the Rai journalist during the team presentation where he said "Non m'importa niente del Giro, voglio solo la maglia gialla" with the journalist left wordless because he thought that Landa liked the Giro more.

Anyway if Quintana leaves Landa will ride the Tour also next year even if against his will, there is no way that a team fixated with the Tour like Movistar will go with only Valverde, especially after this year poor showing.
 
Re:

Serpentin said:
Out of the vuelta :(

Most likely, the doctors said 2-3 weeks of rest.

Video of the crash:
https://twitter.com/Eurosport_IT/status/1025775029445959680

fFtRXZ8.png
 
Re:

Dekker_Tifosi said:
He seems very vulnerable to falls lately?

The Tour fall was definitely his own fault but today's crash can't be used to show a tendency. It was just moronic and reckless riding by King that brought down half a field, and you'd have to pull a "Sagan over Cancellara"-jump to get out of that.

Just pure luck if you were in the left-hand side of the field.
 
Re: Re:

tobydawq said:
Dekker_Tifosi said:
He seems very vulnerable to falls lately?

The Tour fall was definitely his own fault but today's crash can't be used to show a tendency. It was just moronic and reckless riding by King that brought down half a field, and you'd have to pull a "Sagan over Cancellara"-jump to get out of that.

Just pure luck if you were in the left-hand side of the field.

He posted this apology:

A9zZwo7.png
 
Re:

Dekker_Tifosi said:
He seems very vulnerable to falls lately?

You can`t say that yet. Tour crash was once in a lifetime and today was just bad luck. The crash happened at the front of the peloton where the biggest favorites rode. Watch the video and see what an amateur Ben king is. Apology or not.
 
Yeah, King could have been more honest. This is very face-safing, I have to say.

He makes it sound like it was unavoidable when in fact he completely veered off course when he looked back and because of this almost orthogonal-to-the-road riding crashed into Gesink (I think it was).

It was completely hapless and the "apology" does not do much for me because he doesn't really take responsibility.
 
Re:

tobydawq said:
Yeah, King could have been more honest. This is very face-safing, I have to say.

He makes it sound like it was unavoidable when in fact he completely veered off course when he looked back and because of this almost orthogonal-to-the-road riding crashed into Gesink (I think it was).

It was completely hapless and the "apology" does not do much for me because he doesn't really take responsibility.

My girlfriend does the same thing, steers one way when looking back. Amateur. A tweet that says that he hopes everyone is ok means noting when one guy broke his face and the other one his back.

I don`t agree that Landa is more crash prone than DomyLawn or any other top rider, yet. I don´t hope so.
 

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