Teams & Riders Nairo Quintana discussion thread

[silvergrenade]

Re: Re:

I wish if he can finish 2nd in GC without top 10in any stage. That would be an achievement equally worthy of winning Tour imho

Then we'll call him Haimar Quintana .

Seriously, I think he's off. He does the best he can, but he's not performing at his level. All he can do is wait and hope that the form will come. Too bad. At the same time, it's sad for Valverde, who plays dom and looks really strong. Too bad he can't give it a crack...

Yep, Valverde has been doing a great job. Best teammate of the Tour so far. Missed opportunity for Nairo to have someone that strong helping him. And to be fair, Movistar as a whole have been good. But Sky have the strongest team and the strongest rider so far. Them's the breaks.

Where was it that Movistar team was considered best? It was a point system and Movistar came out on top. That too with a huge margin over Sky, who was second best.

 

[carton]

Re: Re:

Where was it that Movistar team was considered best? It was a point system and Movistar came out on top. That too with a huge margin over Sky, who was second best.

"Best" doesn't mean strongest. That "best" means either UCI points over the year or the added time of the best three riders in every Tour stage. Sky isn't focused those rankings, as much as finishing the Tour in yellow. I mean, they'd take it if it was there for the taking, but Sky are definitely the "best" at not giving any fingers about anything else but their main goal.

 

[Moviestar]

Re: Re:

I wish if he can finish 2nd in GC without top 10in any stage. That would be an achievement equally worthy of winning Tour imho

Then we'll call him Haimar Quintana .

Seriously, I think he's off. He does the best he can, but he's not performing at his level. All he can do is wait and hope that the form will come. Too bad. At the same time, it's sad for Valverde, who plays dom and looks really strong. Too bad he can't give it a crack...

Yep, Valverde has been doing a great job. Best teammate of the Tour so far. Missed opportunity for Nairo to have someone that strong helping him. And to be fair, Movistar as a whole have been good. But Sky have the strongest team and the strongest rider so far. Them's the breaks.

Mwah, the GC teamclassification gives a distorted view. Valverde and Oliveira are the only ones who are performing at their usual level. Gorka is utile, Nairo is less good than expected. And then you also have the ''disasters'' like Anacona (who hasn't show a thing this season) and Moreno. Ion seems to be overcooked.

 

[silvergrenade]

Re: Re:

Where was it that Movistar team was considered best? It was a point system and Movistar came out on top. That too with a huge margin over Sky, who was second best.

"Best" doesn't mean strongest. That "best" means either UCI points over the year or the added time of the best three riders in every Tour stage. Sky isn't focused those rankings, as much as finishing the Tour in yellow. I mean, they'd take it if it was there for the taking, but Sky are definitely the "best" at not giving any fingers about anything else but their main goal.

Thanks fr the info. Much appreciated.

 

[Mr.White]

Re: Re:

I wish if he can finish 2nd in GC without top 10in any stage. That would be an achievement equally worthy of winning Tour imho

Then we'll call him Haimar Quintana .

Seriously, I think he's off. He does the best he can, but he's not performing at his level. All he can do is wait and hope that the form will come. Too bad. At the same time, it's sad for Valverde, who plays dom and looks really strong. Too bad he can't give it a crack...

Yep, Valverde has been doing a great job. Best teammate of the Tour so far. Missed opportunity for Nairo to have someone that strong helping him. And to be fair, Movistar as a whole have been good. But Sky have the strongest team and the strongest rider so far. Them's the breaks.

Mwah, the GC teamclassification gives a distorted view. Valverde and Oliveira are the only ones who are performing at their usual level. Gorka is utile, Nairo is less good than expected. And then you also have the ''disasters'' like Anacona (who hasn't show a thing this season) and Moreno. Ion seems to be overcooked.

Movistar is riding like s***! Nairo also...

 

[capuldemetal]

when sky train is doing 6w/kg what can he do? and let's no go into clinic stuff.

 

[TMP402]

Herrada out of the race, too.

 

[Red Rick]

Re:

when sky train is doing 6w/kg what can he do? and let's no go into clinic stuff.

It's a 20 minute climb. You can go harder than 6w/kg

 

[LeoMontero]

I think he is burn from the wind stages, plus Ventoux plus ITT.

He will attack on wendsday, tuesday, friday and saturday. I hope that he go for the win or nothing, and dont satisfice with podium.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Stage 17 was the one on paper he was supposed to murder the opposition. It still is if he wants to win the Tour, but it seems very, very unlikely he will win the Tour now, even with 1 minute here. I cant see him put time into Froome on stage 18 and 19-

 

[Miburo]

Just gotta wait for stage 20 right?

 

[LeoMontero]

I think in stage 18 he can put half a minute, on normal situation, but with the things I saw, probably nothing.

 

[RattaKuningas]

It's stage 17 or never I think. Stage 17 has 2 consecutive hard climbs in the end with no flat section between them which should suit him.

 

[LeoMontero]

Re:

It's stage 17 or never I think. Stage 17 has 2 consecutive hard climbs in the end with no flat section between them which should suit him.

Movistar should ride hard tempo all the stage, and try to eliminate skyborgs, then its up to Nairo in the penultime climb to attack and make the diference.

But again, with the things that i have seen this days, i dont think so

I hope for a recovery tomorrow and the rest day

 

[RattaKuningas]

Re: Re:

It's stage 17 or never I think. Stage 17 has 2 consecutive hard climbs in the end with no flat section between them which should suit him.

Movistar should ride hard tempo all the stage, and try to eliminate skyborgs, then its up to Nairo in the penultime climb to attack and make the diference.

But again, with the things that i have seen this days, i dont think so

I hope for a recovery tomorrow and the rest day

Luckily for Movistar it seems that Astana will be trying to make moves too because they want to improve their 10th GC position. Astana manager said after today that they will not sit behind Sky wheels until Paris. Obviously it would be good if Movistar and Astana both can make hard tempo because together they should have enough strength to shake Sky train and dismantle it.
So even if Movistar won't do anything Quintana could still benefit from Astana tactics.

 

[Rollthedice]

Re:

Just gotta wait for stage 20 right?

Watching the Giro must've been inspiring for Nairo.

 

[HelloDolly]

Richie Porte also needsot attack SKY ...he knows them best and will know if there are any weaknesses or when any appear

 

[LeoMontero]

Good notice for the race that Astana will not sit and do something. Unsue said that to.

Best team, Sky.
Best strategy, Astana

 

[Moviestar]

Re: Re:

It's stage 17 or never I think. Stage 17 has 2 consecutive hard climbs in the end with no flat section between them which should suit him.

Movistar should ride hard tempo all the stage, and try to eliminate skyborgs, then its up to Nairo in the penultime climb to attack and make the diference.

But again, with the things that i have seen this days, i dont think so

I hope for a recovery tomorrow and the rest day

Movistar will blow themselves up in that way, Sky is much stronger at the moment. If Movistar is setting the tempo the whole stage, they will be indirectly also working for Froome because the Skyborgs get free help from Movistar.

 

[LeoMontero]

Re: Re:

It's stage 17 or never I think. Stage 17 has 2 consecutive hard climbs in the end with no flat section between them which should suit him.

Movistar should ride hard tempo all the stage, and try to eliminate skyborgs, then its up to Nairo in the penultime climb to attack and make the diference.

But again, with the things that i have seen this days, i dont think so

I hope for a recovery tomorrow and the rest day

Movistar will blow themselves up in that way, Sky is much stronger at the moment. If Movistar is setting the tempo the whole stage, they will be indirectly also working for Froome because the Skyborgs get free help from Movistar.

Ok, whats your plan, let them ride, set tempo, and come to the final km with 3 skyborgs plus Froome???

The need to try at least. They only have 4 stages and I think its pretty imposible to take that advantage in 1 stage only

 

[portugal11]

Will he ever win a tour? I think he isn't better than 3 years ago and he doesn't have a big acceleration and he doesn't do good time trials too.

 

[rm7]

Re:

Will he ever win a tour? I think he isn't better than 3 years ago and he doesn't have a big acceleration and he doesn't do good time trials too.

By the time Froome start to decline, there will probably a new GT star with a good TT and climbing skills.

Quintana could very well turn out to be the next Andy Schleck in that sense. Still think Andy Schleck was a far more exciting rider though.

 

[Moviestar]

Re: Re:

I wish if he can finish 2nd in GC without top 10in any stage. That would be an achievement equally worthy of winning Tour imho

Then we'll call him Haimar Quintana .

Seriously, I think he's off. He does the best he can, but he's not performing at his level. All he can do is wait and hope that the form will come. Too bad. At the same time, it's sad for Valverde, who plays dom and looks really strong. Too bad he can't give it a crack...

Yep, Valverde has been doing a great job. Best teammate of the Tour so far. Missed opportunity for Nairo to have someone that strong helping him. And to be fair, Movistar as a whole have been good. But Sky have the strongest team and the strongest rider so far. Them's the breaks.

Mwah, the GC teamclassification gives a distorted view. Valverde and Oliveira are the only ones who are performing at their usual level. Gorka is utile, Nairo is less good than expected. And then you also have the ''disasters'' like Anacona (who hasn't show a thing this season) and Moreno. Ion seems to be overcooked.

Movistar is riding like s***! Nairo also...

Partly agree with you. There isn't in principle much wrong with their racetactics. They have mostly someone up front but they can't fulfill their tactics later on in the stage because the man upfront hasn't much power left to be useful (Anacona, Herrada, Izagirre). Nairo isn't able (for now) to launch an attack either and to benefit from his teammates. A big difference with the stage to L'Alpe d'Huez last year.

 

[rm7]

Have he really been so much worse than normal? I'm not so sure. I can remember him being the 2nd best climber behind Froome in both 2013 and 2015 in the first few mountain stages, and then the best in the last few stages.

But the thing is that the other GC guys seems to have upped their level and Froome seems to be a notch below his best. Maybe he's right about peaking for the 3rd week? Also in Dauphine - Contador, Froome and Porte were quite evenly matched Bardet and almost Dan Martin.

I'm not really sure Quintana is below his usual level right now. The windy stages also seems to have taken it's toll on him.

I think the playfield is more even this year, which makes Quintana look worse than he actually is.

 

[LeoMontero]

He did a very good TT, just look the times, he is the best tiny cyclist in the list, and the wind make him a lot of damage. He can not deliver yet a show in the mountains, and thats is what we all expect.

I think that some day he will win the tour. He is only 26, at this age Froome didnt even win a stage in a WT race.