- Jun 7, 2010
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Vino attacks everyone said:There is a difference between peaking, and to want to give the little extra for the home audience... Atleast in most other sports the people that race/play at home turf usually comes a little bit better prepared with that in mind. Nothing else...
EnacheV said:except there was not a "little bit" , he destroyed the field completely by a huge margin.
Vino attacks everyone said:To me he was a favourite to this prologue, and to have some more form than the others would give him the edge to win. Honestly I am not suprised that he would beat Dumoulin by 7 seconds, are you?
roundabout said:A 52k average is not a sign of a really technical tt
Libertine Seguros said:Alejandro Valverde is a rider whose natural level (regardless of whether doped) is very high. Throughout his whole career he has amassed points from February to September being constantly in the upper echelons of results. He's about as far from superpeaker as you can get. He's a very decent TT rider, especially over shorter distances, and he is riding for a team for whom this race is of more importance than to many of the others (first home stage race of the year). He is very strong technically, good at bike handling and cornering, and has very good acceleration.
Ion Izagirre is a dynamic rider who has been regarded as arguably the most talented young rider to come out of the Basque country in the last few years. He has a cyclocross background, and thus is very strong technically and with a very good burst of acceleration.
Why are these two being up near the top of a prologue surprising, when that prologue was full of technical corners and places where that acceleration and cornering could be effective in gaining time? If anything Javier Moreno was the most suspicious Movistar rider today.
Regarding the Sky guys who made up a huge amount of the top 10, Vasil Kiryienka isn't really renowned as a prologue rider; he becomes more competitive in longer TTs. It remains to be seen if Wiggins will ever be the rider he was in 2012, and he is also known for not being the most technically adept, losing time in cornering.
And hey, it's February. Abarcá have traditionally been more of a don't ask-don't tell team, but maybe they have stepped up to a more planned preparation. It's too many assumptions to make from 7km in February. Many of the Sky guys have different goals to Valverde (how many of them want a peak in the Ardennes? How many of the Movistar guys would want to peak in the Northern Classics like Thomas or EBH?) and will be in a different place with regard to their targeting (is Porte not targeting the Giro? If so it makes sense for him to be further behind in his preparation than an Ardennes-focused Valverde, for example).
We need a few more days of racing to tell with people like these. If these were random domestiques with no results #s 12 & 35 suddenly hitting 1st & 3rd in the prologue, maybe it could be a bigger deal, but really here we're just making a bigger deal out of it than we perhaps ought to, and that's primarily 'cos it's Valverde.
BigMac said:By field he means Wiggins and Wiggins only. In fact, I think EnacheV lives for Sire Brad. EnacheV choses to ignore that Sire Brad is crap when it comes to technical stuff.
Everything was/is normal.
EnacheV said:cut the crap
tt wasn't technical
valverde isn't on peak
but he beats no2,4 from last wc itt by 13-14 seconds / 7km
also beats porte that regulary beats him in itt/prologues by 15 sec
wtf is so hard to admit that he took to much of the magic stuff in the last 2 weeks
instead i read long bull****s explanation about how good valverde is at tt on spanish soil and what good bike handler it is.
Vino attacks everyone said:I think Dumoulin was very suspicious, probably stepped up his game big time this year.
EnacheV said:tomorrow i will discuss the Wiggins/Porte/Kiryenka equal, the new ITT powerhouse Javi Moreno, an emblematic product of the new and improved Movistar school of time trialing against the clock.
EnacheV said:tomorrow i will discuss the Wiggins/Porte/Kiryenka equal, the new ITT powerhouse Javi Moreno, an emblematic product of the new and improved Movistar school of time trialing against the clock.
the sceptic said:or maybe you could get yourself banned again? Id prefer that.
Vino attacks everyone said:Moreno was insane in last years Vuelta, so he is no suprise at all. He has improved steadily over the years and most people agree that he will have a good career.
EnacheV said:Probablywe know what happens to people going against the "consensus"
Dear Wiggo said:In a technical descent, between Wiggins and Valverde, who would you expect to arrive at the bottom first?
EnacheV said:what have descent, sprint and few corners have to do with a 52.5 km/h avg. speed completely flat prologue ? learn some cycling better and stop trolling with nonsense?
Dear Wiggo said:Now count the corners or roundabouts in the TT circuit and do the math. Pretty confident Valverde regenerates AWC quicker than Wiggo.
And they're both doped, so it's a "level playing field".
