Movistar vs Sky: What could have been.

[Angliru]

Upon reading the latest update on Juan Mauricio Soler Hernandez and reminded of the tragic passing of Xavier Tondo, I began to wonder what could have been had fate been different and spared Soler his forced entry from competitive cycling and Tondo's unfortunate passing. Movistar would've fielded quite an impressive lineup of climbing talent that would've come close to rivaling that of the current Sky juggernaut. With Valverde, Tondo, Soler, Quintana and Costa they would've been a potent force.

Hopefully this isn't thought to be in poor taste. I just thought a discussion on what could've been would be interesting.

 

[Parrulo]

if everything went to perfection they could really be a super team right now, but soler never was a consistent rider having more OFF moments then ON and tondo was yet to prove himself a full on GT contender.

Also if both tondo and soler were still around, Costa in 2011/2012 and quintana last year and this year would have less chances to prove themselves the deserving team leaders they already proved to be.

 

[Angliru]

if everything went to perfection they could really be a super team right now, but soler never was a consistent rider having more OFF moments then ON and tondo was yet to prove himself a full on GT contender.

Also if both tondo and soler were still around, Costa in 2011/2012 and quintana last year and this year would have less chances to prove themselves the deserving team leaders they already proved to be.

I think Soler was on the verge of getting back to his best form based on his results preceding his crash. Tondo seemed to me to just be coming into his own. Both could've been dangerous cards to play in the grand tours. Soler as a wild card going on the attack in the mountains of grand tours and winning a stage here and there in the week long stage races. Tondo I believe could've been a player in the Vuelta and in the week long stage races. Both could have been valuable as super domestiques and as leaders in their own right given the right circumstances. Both were mature, team players willing to do what it took for the sake of the team's success.

 

[uphillstruggle]

Tondo and Soler were both solid climbers but even without them they are one of the best teams in the peleton. Alas, Valverde isn't a top draw leader (for GT's at least). Hopefully Quitana will grow into the rider we all want him to be and lead them all to glory

I would be intrest to know Movistars budget because they have a very good stock of riders and are not mentioned as a big money team.

 

[Parrulo]

well if you think about it quintana is very young and must still be on neo-pro money(2 year contract), Costa was signed for 2 years in april of 2011 at minimum wage but at the end of 2011 his contract was reviewed and extended for another year but it probably isn't a high salary as in 2011 he had a good season but not the great season he had in 2012.

Valverde ofc earns a lot, probably over 1.5 mil and cobo must also be on a nice over a mil paycheck but the rest of the team has either very experienced strong riders like jose ivan gutierres and lastras that earn at dom level and young guns, some yet to prove themselves at the highest of levels like intxausti, castroviejo and madrazo who must be on above average salaries but not high salaries.

Anyway Movistar will probably have a hard time this off-season, if quintana and Costa continue with the progression they have shown over the last couple years they will be offered very high salaries by other teams wanting them and their points and movistar will have to match them, particularly as Valverde isn't getting any younger.

And with the way Amador has been performing and the possibility of intxausti delivering a big result in the giro or the vuelta the "problem" could be even bigger.

i for once don't think movistar will be able to keep all the talent in the team at the end of the season.

 

[uphillstruggle]

well if you think about it quintana is very young and must still be on neo-pro money(2 year contract), Costa was signed for 2 years in april of 2011 at minimum wage but at the end of 2011 his contract was reviewed and extended for another year but it probably isn't a high salary as in 2011 he had a good season but not the great season he had in 2012.

Valverde ofc earns a lot, probably over 1.5 mil and cobo must also be on a nice over a mil paycheck but the rest of the team has either very experienced strong riders like jose ivan gutierres and lastras that earn at dom level and young guns, some yet to prove themselves at the highest of levels like intxausti, castroviejo and madrazo who must be on above average salaries but not high salaries.

Anyway Movistar will probably have a hard time this off-season, if quintana and Costa continue with the progression they have shown over the last couple years they will be offered very high salaries by other teams wanting them and their points and movistar will have to match them, particularly as Valverde isn't getting any younger.

QUOTE]

Yes you are right they have got a lot of good young riders that will have been signed relatively cheap (for the quality of rider they are getting). To me that just shows a good transfer policy and clever scouting that a lot of other big teams miss.

I honestly think Alex Dowsett was a bit of a coup for them. I know he's no superstar but I bet he's not on massive money and for that they have got a solid TTT engine, flat land Dom and occasioal TT winner. He was their strongest rider in the TTT in Tirreno, and like it or not, in modern day cycling where races are won by tiny margins, TTT's are increasingly influential. Also nice to see some talent moving the other way for a change

I remember hearing that Valverde was on 3.5 mil prior to his ban, but I would think that would have been dramatically reduced post puerto.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Visconti probably didn't come cheap either, and I'm sure Euskaltel will have at least tried to keep Castroviejo. Movistar will be able to find some other young talents though. And the team has the bonus that the sponsor has re-upped so they can already start preparing to budget for the future and see what the demands will be for the riders they want to keep etc. They'll find some useful young riders or riders outside of the top tier but who can do a good job for them anyhow - they didn't become the longest-serving team in the péloton by chance. People like Herrada and Moreno (either of them, since Dani was picked up from Relax-GAM back in 2007) have got good results for the team at comparatively low prices.

To get back to the question at hand though, certainly it could have been mighty interesting to see a Team Sky train trying to control a team as strong as Movistar pulling the 1-2-3-4...-5... trick on them with several cards to play, all strong enough that Sky would need to chase them - or maybe the strength of the Movistar domestique corps would have meant the shoe was on the other foot, and Sky's plan A would have been for people like Froome to attack Movistar's train to give Wiggins the free ride (Wiggins would always have had the TT advantage). Tondó would perhaps never have been a GT winner or anything, but he had been 6th in the Vuelta and was a strong enough climber (and let's not forget Tondó was a pretty useful time triallist too) that people couldn't afford to not chase him; Soler was certainly off more often than he was on, but the Tour de Suisse that eventually ended his career looked like being his rebirth as a cyclist; he looked like the Soler that turned heads in 2007 again. And even if he wasn't at that kind of level, the threat of what he HAD done in the past would make him dangerous to allow up the road, even if it was just that it would give somebody up the road for a leader to ride across to. Quintana is a phenom. Let's also remember Beñat Intxausti; he was developing into a threatening rider. Maybe not a GC winner at a GT or anything, but again, like Tondó, a guy too dangerous to give rope to. He'd just come 4th in País Vasco and 5th in Romandie (a year earlier of course he'd been on the podium in his home race) and looked like he was a coming man on a team which had no leader but several riders who could assume that leadership if the opportunity came their way... then Tondó died literally in his arms. Sure, he raced the rest of the season, but he wasn't the same rider. He may now be at what you'd say is close to his best expected level (he was 7th in the Giro or thereabouts before dropping major time in the last two mountain stages after falling ill, and was 10th in the Vuelta, which could have been higher had he not lost 3 minutes to Valdezcaray), but he could have got there earlier (and would have been part of a stronger team of course) if it hadn't been for Tondó's accident.

Let's also remember Rubén Plaza, whose dreadful injury in the Vuelta a Murcía that year has been rather forgotten given that it pales into insignificance next to Soler's and of course Tondó's. He had been 5th in the Vuelta back in '05, and after some years bouncing around the levels thanks to his involvement with Comunidad Valenciana and Operación Puerto had been very good in 2010, finishing 12th in the Tour de France and 15th in the Vuelta (which could have been higher had he not got involved in Antón's crash), and could definitely have been a very solid part of a mountain train as well as a very strong engine on the flat (he's a good time triallist). But then his leg was shorn nearly in half, and he hasn't been the same rider since.

Andrey Amador was also mugged and left for dead in a dried up riverbed in his native Costa Rica in January 2011. How Movistar managed to get through 2011, I'll never know. Hard to envisage what more could have gone wrong.