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Teams & Riders Nairo Quintana discussion thread

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The Hitch said:
If it was about the paycheck he would be racing somewhere else;)

While the few cycling fans that exist in this country may know who Quintana is, the majority of people on the roads and who watch the highlights could give a ****.

They just want to see Wiggins and to a lesser extent Cav. You could have the world road race field or the Anatomic Jock race field beside those 2, they wouldn't be to tell the difference.

To be fair hitch I think the British cycling fans are starting to get into it a little more. Quintana has been given a great reception by the crowds so far in this Tour. I suppose the casual cycling fan will always stick to the stereotypical British patriotism and root only for British riders. However most new cycling fans who are becoming passionate about the sport have much more knowledge than you give them credit for.
 
del1962 said:
Yes Hitch, I think we know you despise the British, you don't have to keep telling us in every other post:D

For the record I am British (its one of my nationalities anyway).

Its just unlike you I don't believe people from any country are superior or inferior to people from another country.

Nationality means nothing.

And in the same spirit, I think the British people know little about cycling, not because I hate them (if i did hate british people and myself, why would it manifest itself in something so trivial) but because of the very small role cycling has in the sporting culture and especially in the sporting media.

Cultural characteristics.


Pricey_sky said:
To be fair hitch I think the British cycling fans are starting to get into it a little more.
Quintana has been given a great reception by the crowds so far in this Tour. I suppose the casual cycling fan will always stick to the stereotypical British patriotism and root only for British riders. However most new cycling fans who are becoming passionate about the sport have much more knowledge than you give them credit for.[/QUOTE]

I was on Box Hill at the olympics.
To get there one needed to wake up early on a weekday months earlier to buy tickets (long before wiggins won the tdf, and cycling got mentioned in the news), in the few minutes available before they sold out, pay the 30 squid, then wake up at 3 am or some such on the Friday to get to the middle of nowhere by 8.30 then wait 2 hours for the peloton to arrive, watch them go past 8 times, then another god knows how many hours home.

In short far more dedication and determination, and interest, than is required to get to a tour of Britain stage. Also it required people to have some interest in cycling before July 2012.

Yet everyone was absolutely cluelless. I spent the day with 100's of different fans. No one had a clue who Gilbert was, this group of Belgian guys had to gently explain that this was the guy who "won everything last year" since "liege bastogne liege" would mean nothing. Jack Bauer's name was then greeted with unanimous wtf's and laughter (hah, that dude from 24 is riding).

Then on the train home someone with internet found out this fella who came 2nd rides for Sky, announced it to the rest of the carriage and everyone cheered. And so on and so on.

So from my experience and the fact that the British media even after its recent successes has devoted no more attention than usual to cycling, I may be wrong, but my gut tells me the average fan at a Tour of Britain event will continue to be someone who comes along for the spectacle, rather than someone who knows their stuff.

The fact that Horner's win in the Vuelta didn't even make the sport section of many national newspapers, and only made a 3 inch side comment in many others, is demonstrative of the wider fact that the % of people who care about the sport in Britain, is still very small.

As it is in many countries. I don't want it to sound like I am saying only Britain is like that but at the moment it probably does have the worst- success in cycling vs popularity of the sport ratio. Previously Russia and before that US.
 
The Hitch said:
For the record I am British (its one of my nationalities anyway).

Its just unlike you I don't believe people from any country are superior or inferior to people from another country.

Where do you get that assuption from (bolded part), just because I support British riders doesn't make me think British are superior or others are inferior, but you seem to have a habit of making presumptions about ppl.
 
Oct 6, 2009
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I don't know about casual cycling fans in Britain, but Quintana is pretty well-known here in the US after his TdF showing. (I mean, as well known as any cyclist other than Lance is likely to be in the US.) I saw a lot of positive comments about Quintana from very casual fans on another (non-cycling) site. For context, these were Americans who didn't know Wiggins wasn't riding the Tour until several stages in, and who kept wondering why Tyler Farrar wasn't figuring in the sprints.

These casual fans tended to like: Phil and Paul, Quintana, Farrar (who they thought was a great sprinter), and Wiggins. There seemed to be split opinions about whether they liked Froome or were "meh" on him. They overwhelmingly seemed to hate Cav and wanted him tossed out the Tour for causing that crash. :D

Anyway, the point is, they knew little about cycling but all thought Quintana was the next big thing. I think also that the rags-to-riches element to his story appeals to casual fans too.
 
The Hitch said:
If it was about the paycheck he would be racing somewhere else;)

While the few cycling fans that exist in this country may know who Quintana is, the majority of people on the roads and who watch the highlights could give a ****.

They just want to see Wiggins and to a lesser extent Cav. You could have the world road race field or the Anatomic Jock race field beside those 2, they wouldn't be to tell the difference.

Ya, crazy
Makes no sense, just wanting to see local heros

Reminds me of those wacky Polacks, skipping the Obama speech to listen to Walesa & Wojtyla ;)
 
Apr 10, 2011
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No chance of that, riders always say ''they would love to see race it''.

Valverde actually might I believe ( Tour is not meant for him really with his luck ).

Porte vs Rodriguez vs Valverde battle for the podium me thinks at this point at least.
 
Aug 16, 2011
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Unfortunately I think we'll probably see Nairo sticking to the Tour for some time. I really hope he decides to target Giro-Vuelta at some point though. If he can podium the Tour, he can most definitelly win the Giro or Vuelta (or both :cool:).

Right now in his career I think would actually be the perfect time to target Giro-Vuelta in fact.
 
May 28, 2012
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Afrank said:
Unfortunately I think we'll probably see Nairo sticking to the Tour for some time. I really hope he decides to target Giro-Vuelta at some point though. If he can podium the Tour, he can most definitelly win the Giro or Vuelta (or both :cool:).

Right now in his career I think would actually be the perfect time to target Giro-Vuelta in fact.

Actually I'd love to see a few close battles between Quintana and Froome over the next few years, instead of one of them opting to waive their participation and target a lesser GT win. It's not fun to watch a Tour without proper racing for GC, like 2012.
 
May 28, 2012
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Afrank said:
Unfortunately I think we'll probably see Nairo sticking to the Tour for some time. I really hope he decides to target Giro-Vuelta at some point though. If he can podium the Tour, he can most definitelly win the Giro or Vuelta (or both :cool:).

Right now in his career I think would actually be the perfect time to target Giro-Vuelta in fact.

Actually I'd love to see a few close battles between Quintana and Froome over the next few years, instead of one of them opting to waive their participation and target a lesser GT win. It's not fun to watch a Tour without proper racing for GC, like 2012, nor is it fun to watch someone dominate a Giro like Nibs did this season.
 
Aug 16, 2011
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Pentacycle said:
Actually I'd love to see a few close battles between Quintana and Froome over the next few years, instead of one of them opting to waive their participation and target a lesser GT win. It's not fun to watch a Tour without proper racing for GC, like 2012, nor is it fun to watch someone dominate a Giro like Nibs did this season.

Yes, good point. Based on this season Quintana, and Nibali too, are the only ones that could probably go up against Froome. Although I fear that Froome might continue to take loads of time on him and everyone else in the time trial's and that Quintana could become an eternal 2nd at the Tour. Would be a real shame to see that happen.

But hey, Who knows? Maybe Quintana will become an even better climber and leave Froome behind every time the road tilts up. :D I definitely see that as a possibility.
 
Afrank said:
Yes, good point. Based on this season Quintana, and Nibali too, are the only ones that could probably go up against Froome. Although I fear that Froome might continue to take loads of time on him and everyone else in the time trial's and that Quintana could become an eternal 2nd at the Tour. Would be a real shame to see that happen.

But hey, Who knows? Maybe Quintana will become an even better climber and leave Froome behind every time the road tilts up. :D I definitely see that as a possibility.
Quintana will definitely change his tactics. You could see that towards the end of the Tour. That was the best way to take time from Froome.
 
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Marco Pantani said:
Le Tour might need him, should Andy take another year off.

Fair point, however I think a Porte-Piti-Purito-Quintana-(Betancur?) battle at the Giro could be epic!

I wouldn't want to see him target the Giro-Vuelta every year but I hope doesn't ignore them. IMHO the winning a Giro-Vuelta double (which I don't doubt he is capable of) is worth more than a Tour victory.
 
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Last year nairo wanted to do the giro. Unfortunately unzue told him he had to do the tour.

Now if unzue forced nairo to do the tour when he was not rated by anyone outside the forum, why will he let him do the giro now that he has potentially the sports soon to be biggest star on his roster. With a sponsor- movistar, that see nairos home country and region, as a target region.

Besides people forget movistar already have a contender for the giro next year and don't need to send Valverde or Quintana.

Who, you may ask. Well let me rile off a few names. Di Luca, Scarponi, Santambrogio.

Get the picture?
 
The Spanish press agency EFE says today that Quintana might do the combo Giro-Vuelta.
Yesterday the messages were quite different: Valverde said he would like to do the Giro and that a mountainous Tour is better for Quintana
Also Nairo said that he sees himself winning the Tour sometime in the future, that he prefers the Tour over Giro.
 

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