Teams & Riders Nairo Quintana discussion thread

[dacooley]

it's a mutual process of quintana being below par and dimoulin unexpectedly showing exceptional level.

 

[carton]

Re:

First time I think Dumoulin is the favourite now. He survived the 2 hardest stages, chapeau!

Still, all Quintana needs is un dia sin from Dumoulin. Can happen to the best of them and happened to him in the Vuelta in 2015, the Grappa stage is pretty similar to the day Aru and Astana cracked him. But its obviously a different Dumoulin, so it will be super hard.

QFT. Tom's best day so far, by far. Nairo probably should've saved his legs for the finale, but maybe the attrition will help him on Grappa.

 

[Pops]

Sorry, but I just don't think Movistar has very good race management in 3 week races. They have good legs but don't have the strategy to win nearly as much as they should.

 

[Escarabajo]

We all could see that he didn't have the legs today.

Dumo is riding like a beast. I am not sure if the crack will come. By all the efforts that he has been doing in this Giro I thought that he would crack at some point. Now I have doubts!!

 

[jilbiker]

Re:

Nairo's form at this Giro is quite comparable to his Tour 2015 one, but he is up against a stronger opponent now. Plus there's lot more TT-ing, automatically increasing his disadvantage. Even if Nairo is bit below that form, he is still much closer to it than to the one shown in last Tour. He is losing the Giro not because he is below par and/or riding cowardly, but because Dumoulin is stronger, more complete rider right now.

I agree, Dumoulin was never budgeted for. Quintana has had good firm all season, not spectacular but good enough he felt to beat Nibbs because his team us far stronger. But Dumoulin is a 3rd wheel and sorry to say Quintana does not think outside the box. Dumoulin is a breath of fresh air for we fans tired of the same template mantra, sky train then movistar train, I am definitely rooting for Mr D.

 

[May0maniac]

A bit off topic, but Nairo's parents aren't at the Giro, right? Cause 2 hours ago I saw a spanish speaking guy in Innichen/San Candio who really looked like his father.

 

[carton]

They have good legs but don't have the strategy to win nearly as much as they should.

I think the strategy has been almost spot on, perhaps a little too aggressive. Nairo's legs have just not been better than Tom's.

 

[Escarabajo]

Re:

A bit off topic, but Nairo's parents aren't at the Giro, right? Cause 2 hours ago I saw a spanish speaking guy in Innichen/San Candio who really looked like his father.

1 week ago they were both in Combita where they all live. Colombian TV showed them. Not sure if between then and now they flew them to Italy!

 

[Pops]

Sorry Carton, with all due respect I don't agree with you. If Nairo has the legs and has not attacked yet what is he possibly waiting for, next years race? If Nibs had the legs he would have attacked every day in the mountains you can bet on it. Even after TD was sick they gave him a day off to recoup and then another one today.

Same as usual with Movistar, they don't know when to go or how to properly use their talent except on one day races where they don't need to have to have long term strategy. They wait, and wait, and wait...

 

[Mr.White]

Sorry, but I just don't think Movistar has very good race management in 3 week races. They have good legs but don't have the strategy to win nearly as much as they should.

And you would do what exactly?

 

[vass45]

Nairo has really tried this Giro but it seems Dumo is just a stronger rider. Hats off to Nairo though - he should be able to hold down second spot and another podium finish, take a good break, then freshen up and I think he'll still do fairly well in the TDF

 

[Pops]

I would attack when I had TD and Nibs isolated with two of my riders up the road and two climbs left instead of wait, wait and wait.

 

[carton]

I would attack when I had TD and Nibs isolated with two of my riders up the road and two climbs left instead of wait, wait and wait.

As opposed to...

 

[Valv.Piti]

Tomorrow he will fly to a stage win on Pantani mountain. #Believe

Honestly, he has recently given me TdF-2016 vibes. I don't know how hard the crash as influenced him if any, but its weird he seems to regress compared to his rivals compared to Blockhaus... I choose to believe this is his level, its lame suggesting that crash is a deal breaker. We don't know. Its a hard MTF, I think he has good chances of a win.. anyways, I'd take 2 stages at Blockhaus and Piancavallo and a podium. Its not that bad at all in the end if Dumo continues this.

 

[46&twoWheels]

Re:

A bit off topic, but Nairo's parents aren't at the Giro, right? Cause 2 hours ago I saw a spanish speaking guy in Innichen/San Candio who really looked like his father.

I hope the stay home
I don't want them to experience the same feelings of Chaves' parents

(they were so cute by the way)

 

[IndianCyclist]

Movistar has destroyed their team uselessly by going into breaks. Why are they not trying the Sky train approach. It worked on Blockhaus

 

[diego721]

Re:

Movistar has destroyed their team uselessly by going into breaks. Why are they not trying the Sky train approach. It worked on Blockhaus

Well probably because in multi-mountain stages they, like pretty much everybody was thinking than Nairoa was going to be able to distance Dumoulin and then catch their doms, but he just hadn't be that good.

 

[RattaKuningas]

Re: Re:

Movistar has destroyed their team uselessly by going into breaks. Why are they not trying the Sky train approach. It worked on Blockhaus

Well probably because in multi-mountain stages they, like pretty much everybody was thinking than Nairoa was going to be able to distance Dumoulin and then catch their doms, but he just hadn't be that good.

On the 3rd mountain he distanced Dumoulin and catched Amador and Anacona but they were already done because of being in the break. It was too long to go solo to the finish so there wasn't much else to do.

 

[Robert5091]

When Q attacked with 50 km left, I thought, "Where is BFF Bertie?" Could have done with AC for a long range ambush

 

[SeriousSam]

Nibali had no qualms about responding word to word to Dumoulin's remarkable verbal aggression via Italian television. Quintana took the middle ground and played dumb, perhaps hoping to gain from Dumoulin's clear nervousness and verbal warfare with Nibali.

"He was telling us to close the gap to the other riders, who were attacking, who were back on GC. He didn't want them to take too much time but we left the responsibility to him, even if at the end of the day they took time on us," Quintana explained in the mixed zone area.

"Every rider plays its own cards, and every one is responsible for their tactics. We did what we could, as we had hoped. Sure, we wanted to try to gain more time but Dumoulin responded well. We rode a good stage but it was very fast all day."

"It was a very hard stage. Every team played its cards and so the break got away. We did our strategy, and it worked out well, but Dumoulin also responded very strong. In the end, we couldn't recuperate any time. We attacked. We did try, at least, but he's demonstrating that he is very strong.

That's not the most appropriate editorialising by cn. Seems like Quintana is just accurately describing the situation here

 

[Lexman]

I really liked and still like NQ as a rider but it seems to me he's reaching his limits, he wasn't able to match Froome last year and this year seems not to be able to get Dumolin either.

Although he showed a few years ago he was better than Froome in the third week of the TdF, might he be over his peak? or was his estimated peak lower than I thought?

 

[Red Rick]

Quintana at his peak is still the best climber in the world, and at 95% he's also the best climber if everyone is at 95%. However, he's not that reliable in peaking for a GT, and he often has a few minor issues during GTs.

For a man who's the beste climber of the world in his prime, losing this Giro would be a hard loss no doubt. Especially against a rider who's the same age, miles better in the TT and who seems to match him uphill until now.

For a rider who's reign in GTs seemed imminent, this one is gonna hurt if he doesn't turn it around. His conversion rate in GTs isn't high enough if he is to be one of the greatest stage racers of all time. A lot of that is outside his influence though, and tides can turn around quickly in this sport.

 

[Mr.White]

I would attack when I had TD and Nibs isolated with two of my riders up the road and two climbs left instead of wait, wait and wait.

Their tactics is good then, they had riders up the road every time. Their leader failed to attack, or attack didn't stick. It's about the legs...

 

[Mr.White]

Re:

Movistar has destroyed their team uselessly by going into breaks. Why are they not trying the Sky train approach. It worked on Blockhaus

That approach is not good when you need lot of time and have multi-mountain stage. For example, Movi train goes from a far, split the bunch into pieces, Quintana attacks, drops them all and has 50km to the finish. How far do you think he can go? Dumoulin and others would catch him quickly. He need teammates up front to connect with them so they could drag him through valleys, descents and false flats.

Sky's approach is good only when you plan to attack on the last mountain, we watched that on Blockhaus already, and I think we will watch similar thing on Piancavallo today.

 

[Angliru]

I would attack when I had TD and Nibs isolated with two of my riders up the road and two climbs left instead of wait, wait and wait.

Easy for you to say. It's not just Quintana/Movistar versus TD/Sunweb & Nibali/Bahrain. Do you think the other teams with gc ambitions wouldn't get involved in the chase to shut down this aggression? Dumoulin has been just too strong in the mountains against the attacks of Quintana and Nibali.