Teams & Riders Nairo Quintana discussion thread

[DFA123]

This is not 2013-2016 Quintana.

But it's still Quintana.

Agreed, and today was probably his most impressive ride since the 2016 Vuelta. The two queen stages he won in the Tour were great, but he was given a lot of rope. Today he just did attack after attack and ground his opponents down.

 

[DFA123]

Red. But not for long. Let's see how much time Roglic puts on his rivals.

Great racing.

I don't think Roglic is a given to get minutes on his rivals. Of course he'll still gain decent time on Lopez and Quintana, but I think in the past he has struggled to put in his usual TT level after a hard week of GT riding.

 

[tobydawq]

I don't think Roglic is a given to get minutes on his rivals. Of course he'll still gain decent time on Lopez and Quintana, but I think in the past he has struggled to put in his usual TT level after a hard week of GT riding.

He has won 3 of the 5 ITTs he has contested in the first half of a Grand Tour, finished second by the tiniest of margins in one other and crashed in the last.

He has won both ITTs he has contested situated in the middle part of the race.

 

[del1962]

I think we have to be slightly cautious about hyping today’s performance as both Superman and Roglic had some bad luck, let’s hope he can maintain consistency for the rest of the race

 

[hfer07]

Perhaps we're reading too much into the gossip, the media and the speculations around Quintana & Valverde & Movistar, but so far Nairo has proved to be the better rider to lead this Vuelta - but let me stress out: "So Far"

BTW - Nairo better win it , because of the sacrifice Soler had to made, which quite frankly was worthless. Too much tension within the team supporting a departing leader - that's what all boils down to as far as the Movistar innuendo goes

 

[Koronin]

Perhaps we're reading too much into the gossip, the media and the speculations around Quintana & Valverde & Movistar, but so far Nairo has proved to be the better rider to lead this Vuelta - but let me stress out: "So Far"

BTW - Nairo better win it , because of the sacrifice Soler had to made, which quite frankly was worthless. Too much tension within the team supporting a departing leader - that's what all boils down to as far as the Movistar innuendo goes

Maybe this has something to do with why many teams don't send riders who are leaving to many races once we get into August, and certainly not to big important races.

 

[Escarabajo]

I agree with Koronin that teams don't usually send riders to the GT's that have already an agreements with other teams to avoid working for them.

Many people have evaluated these issues on tweeter and Facebook hfer07. The fact that the Vuelta lead and taking time from Roglic was in play that was more than enough reason for Movistar to make Soler wait for Nairo. They already had made the decision to race him at the Vuelta. So they have to live with that decision. They would have looked very stupid if Soler had kept pushing for the stage win and Pogacar had reached him and passed him. They would have looked ridiculous. They look good now except for the tantrum from Soler.

 

[wheresmybrakes]

Maybe Movistar took NQ to the Vuelta as they see him as their best chance at overall win and he felt that he had a little more to give/prove before leaving.

 

[DFA123]

He has won 3 of the 5 ITTs he has contested in the first half of a Grand Tour, finished second by the tiniest of margins in one other and crashed in the last.

He has won both ITTs he has contested situated in the middle part of the race.

I think that could be a bit misleading. Firstly, because he wasn't riding for GC in most of them, and secondly because the first week or first half of those races was nowhere near as hard as the first week of this Vuelta has been. He may well still crush it, but he has shown that fatigue affects his performances, way more than it does with the likes of Froome or Thomas, so it's not an absolute given that he takes 2+ minutes.

He's basically done 4 TTs since riding for GC at Grand Tours. The two that came at the end of the race were way below his usual standards. The other two at the Giro were the first stage, and after a week of pretty easy stages.

So I think there is still a question mark there about how much his performance drops off with GT fatigue. Of course, he'll still beat the other three contenders, but perhaps not by some much that it ends the race as a contest.

 

[Escarabajo]

A new chapter in the life of Quintana. Interesting the position that Arkea-Samsic wants to take in cycling.

https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/quintana-confirmed-for-arkea-samsic-in-2020/

By the way, he talks a Rosa like if he has a great friendship with him. When and how did he develop this friendship?

 

[saneguy]

Any chance he can still pull a surprise in this Vuelta? 3 minutes is a lot!

 

[carton]

Any chance he can still pull a surprise in this Vuelta? 3 minutes is a lot!

I mean, it's all about the legs in the end. And I'm not sure he has them. But there's a lot of racing left. And on good form, Quintana is the archetype rider who goes on the offensive and takes time in bunches:

• In the last three stages (in two of them, really) of the 2013 Tour, he took 1'45" off the eventual winner.
• In stage 9 of the 2014 Giro, he took 4'21" off the eventual runner-up.
• In the last two stages of the 2015 Tour, he took 1'58" off the eventual winner.
• In stage 15 of the 2016 Vuelta, he took 2'39" off the eventual runner-up.
• In the last two stages of the 2017 Giro, he took 1'24" off the eventual winner (he also took 2'10" off on stage 16, but let's ignore that particular scenario for everyone's sake).

 

[dacooley]

for sure anything is possible once roglic starts losing ground heavily or goes in a complete meltdown. but the issues is things like that don't happen very often. even quintana all of a sudden reaching a form of his life might not be enough.

 

[Lequack]

Nairo Quintana: I don't want people to say that I was saving it for later

CyclingPub.com - Vuelta a España - Nairo Quintana: I don't want people to say that I was saving it for later

www.cyclingpub.com

 

[Escarabajo]

I hope that Quintana stop being stubborn one day, and listen to his coaches. I heard Unzue more than once frustrated about not knowing what Quintana was doing in Colombia which is sad for caliper rider like Quintana.

Maybe in the new team they can do something about it but I won't put my hopes too high on that.

Other than that it is admirable from Quintana to be always at the front of the peloton all the time in all races that he participates. He is very talented.

 

[Red Rick]

If it's all true about Quintana in Colombia then he really needs the change of scenery but I'm doubtful that's all that it takes.

 

[Noddy97]

He is done in this vuelta. He should lose some time and try to help valverde winning this vuelta.

 

[movingtarget]

He never really recovered from the TT stage.

 

[JosephK]

He is slipping into invisibility. It looks like the tank is near empty.

 

[hfer07]

So.......

back to 2nd place after positioning very well during the cross winds............ savvy Quintana
He may drop out of the podium in the last mountain stages, but we never know with Nairo and his late inconsistency .......

 

[Valv.Piti]

I fear he wont have any legs in the end, for sure he wasnt good on the final hill. Think he spend more than the rest today and how he climbed lately, it will be difficult. But I hope he has great legs which would mean he could go long (which is required to win now) which would open the race. Him or Valverde.

 

[Escarabajo]

Chapeau to Quintana.
He will fade for sure. But never gives up. He could have quit and go home and say he was sick. But is not him.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Think about if Valverde had his racing smarts - stage 2, now this stage. Valverde would have won the whole damn thing considering he has much better legs than Quintana. Oh well.

 

[SafeBet]

Who knows? Perhaps rest day worked some magic for him and he's bound to destroy everybody uphill as well.

 

[Noddy97]

Think about if Valverde had his racing smarts - stage 2, now this stage. Valverde would have won the whole damn thing considering he has much better legs than Quintana. Oh well.

If If If If If.... If my grandma had balls she would be my granddad