Teams & Riders Nairo Quintana discussion thread

[Iker_Baqueiro]

Re: Re:

Quintana would have had to fight hard to stay upright on the bike when on the cobbles , this using up energy rubbish is getting used far to much

did you even watch the race? quintana was never in danger of crashing or anything. he's a MUCH better bike handler than froome and doesn't nearly waste as much energy on the cobbles, or in the wind for that matter.

Lol!!!!! This made my day! Yeah, like the time trial in the Vuelta where he showcased his bike handling skills by managing to crash at low speed in a ridiculously easy curve! Haha

 

[Gigs_98]

Re: Re:

Quintana would have had to fight hard to stay upright on the bike when on the cobbles , this using up energy rubbish is getting used far to much

did you even watch the race? quintana was never in danger of crashing or anything. he's a MUCH better bike handler than froome and doesn't nearly waste as much energy on the cobbles, or in the wind for that matter.

You are a joke. Vuelta crash. Slight downhill, great weather, great pavement, alone on the road. Crashed..... Sud, couldn't follow Contador. And I know that this is not the race to take risks in but Contador didn't take any risks either and if you are good bike handler then following someones wheel is not hard.
Then this Tour de France. Nibali gets launched into Froome's bike with force strong enough to break a wheel and make it unrideable. Froome stays upright. Quintana shows up 5 seconds after the crash started and rides into the pile crashing himself......

To be fair, his Vuelta crash had more to do with bad judgement (tightening his shoe just before curve on a mountain descent) than a lack of bike handling skills. I recall he won a stage in a major week long race (can't remember exacly which one) based on his descending skills.

To be fair, judgement is one of the (if not the) most important skills when it comes to descending. Having a good line, judging the speed that you can take the corner in is what makes one a good descender.

It might be the most important descending skill but it has nothing to do with bike handling.

Can we just say that both aren't the best bike handlers. We never saw them descending against each other or in any other important "bike handling" situation where both were in the same situation and one of them did clearly better.

 

[Vroome.exe]

Re: Re:

Quintana would have had to fight hard to stay upright on the bike when on the cobbles , this using up energy rubbish is getting used far to much

did you even watch the race? quintana was never in danger of crashing or anything. he's a MUCH better bike handler than froome and doesn't nearly waste as much energy on the cobbles, or in the wind for that matter.

Lol!!!!! This made my day! Yeah, like the time trial in the Vuelta where he showcased his bike handling skills by managing to crash at low speed in a ridiculously easy curve! Haha

It was just a judgement mistake from him. He actually showed pretty good handling skills at that moment, just look how he threw a bike and almost saved it.

 

[Marco Pantani]

He is ready for the mountains. I think Movistars performance will improve.

 

[Gigs_98]

Re:

He is ready for the mountains. I think Movistars performance will improve.

I am more concerned about tomorrow than about the mountains.

 

[SeriousSam]

Shouldn't Movistar do well on paper?

 

[ice&fire]

Re:

Shouldn't Movistar do well on paper?

Only if they were South of the Pyrenees

 

[capuldemetal]

well..in Dauphine they were just 5 sec off the pace?

 

[Gigs_98]

Re:

Shouldn't Movistar do well on paper?

On paper but where was his team on the cobbles? Where were TT specialists in the cross wind stage? Moreover Dowsett seems to be in really bad shape

 

[Moviestar]

Re: Re:

Shouldn't Movistar do well on paper?

On paper but where was his team on the cobbles? Where were TT specialists in the cross wind stage? Moreover Dowsett seems to be in really bad shape

You are comparing cobbles with a TTT? On cobbles they always have a weak team in comparison to Sky, Astana and BMC. In the cross wind stage the team was disorganized due to the crashes.TTT is a whole other aspect where they will be way better than on the cobbles.

 

[Gigs_98]

Re: Re:

Shouldn't Movistar do well on paper?

On paper but where was his team on the cobbles? Where were TT specialists in the cross wind stage? Moreover Dowsett seems to be in really bad shape

You are comparing cobbles with a TTT? On cobbles they always have a weak team in comparison to Sky, Astana and BMC. In the cross wind stage the team was disorganized due to the crashes.TTT is a whole other aspect where they will be way better than on the cobbles.

You can't compare cobbles with a TTT directly but cobbles stages are good to see if someone has a good shape and it looks like that isn't the case with some of their riders.

 

[Billie]

Re: Re:

Shouldn't Movistar do well on paper?

On paper but where was his team on the cobbles? Where were TT specialists in the cross wind stage? Moreover Dowsett seems to be in really bad shape

this team and these riders never have done anything on cobbles or crosswinds before this tour. it's not surprising they were nowhere in those stages. THey have more than once before shown they can ttt with the best. Bad comparison.

 

[Jelantik]

Moviestar is probably the only GC contender who brings more mountain goat than classic specialist. On paper, they should do very well. Which bring a million dollar the question who will be the biggest looser on these fab 4? and plus BMC.

 

[ILovecycling]

well Dowsett recovered pretty well I guess (from that fall), great team effort by Movi, and Piti was shouting like mad on Nairo, so he should be on a great form, well done.


1'59'' deficit before the mountains, not good but doable if on form of his life.Venga venga

 

[Ramira]

1'59'' deficit before the mountains, not good but doable if on form of his life.Venga venga

It's not great, but honestly it could easily have been far worse. Sure he would've loved to be within a minute or so, but I reckon if before everything started you would've offered him the chance to be only 2 minutes behind when his part of the tour began he might have taken it.

So far the only thing that went wrong was the echelons in stage 2, for the rest it was all perfect. And unfortunately for Quintana Movistar has always struggled with those.

 

[ILovecycling]

yep, I predicted (before the TdF) that if he will be around 1.10 behind before the mountains he should win, but this is a bit more, I think he will fly in the mountains, but it will also depend on tactics because I seriously dont see him droping Froome on a 1 climb stage duhh...

 

[Moviestar]

First week over, now the real Tour begins for Nairo and co

 

[Eclipse]

Shame about that weird split because otherwise they might have won the whole thing.

Nairo looked good, but a 2 min deficit is still a lot to overcome. Just hope he's far enough along with his form to handle the inevitable barrage from Froome when we get to the Pyrenees. You know Sky are going to try kill it off early again.

 

[Punkan]

Quintana looks great. Even if he is behind a bit he will Challenge Froome. Think he will be the strongest climber.

 

[Ramira]

Re:

yep, I predicted (before the TdF) that if he will be around 1.10 behind before the mountains he should win, but this is a bit more, I think he will fly in the mountains, but it will also depend on tactics because I seriously dont see him droping Froome on a 1 climb stage duhh...

Honestly I don't know if he can or not. I believe they were about equal in 2013, but Quintana is two years better now. The real question is was Quintana at his best in 2013, only gaining in tactical sense and confidence since, or is he an even bigger climber.

Right now I don't really care who wins, though I always prefer new blood, and having Quintana win would mean yet another first time TDF winner. What I really care about is seeing all out war between Quintana and Froome, and hopefully with Contador and Nibali in there for good measure.

The chance to see the best climbers of the last few years finally healthy racing against each other is far more exciting to me than anything else. Not to mention I just really want to know who's the best climber right now, as I honestly have no idea.

 

[PremierAndrew]

1'59'' deficit before the mountains, not good but doable if on form of his life.Venga venga

It's not great, but honestly it could easily have been far worse. Sure he would've loved to be within a minute or so, but I reckon if before everything started you would've offered him the chance to be only 2 minutes behind when his part of the tour began he might have taken it.

So far the only thing that went wrong was the echelons in stage 2, for the rest it was all perfect. And unfortunately for Quintana Movistar has always struggled with those.

I think Quintana would have been happy 2 mins down too. However, it's one thing to be 2 mins down on Nibali, another to be 2 mins down on Froome, who will be the best or 2nd best climber.

2 mins on Froome will be super hard for Nairo, even if he proves to be the best climber on this Tour, which is definitely possible

 

[TI-Raleigh]

1'59'' deficit before the mountains, not good but doable if on form of his life.Venga venga

It's not great, but honestly it could easily have been far worse. Sure he would've loved to be within a minute or so, but I reckon if before everything started you would've offered him the chance to be only 2 minutes behind when his part of the tour began he might have taken it.

So far the only thing that went wrong was the echelons in stage 2, for the rest it was all perfect. And unfortunately for Quintana Movistar has always struggled with those.

I think Quintana would have been happy 2 mins down too. However, it's one thing to be 2 mins down on Nibali, another to be 2 mins down on Froome, who will be the best or 2nd best climber.

2 mins on Froome will be super hard for Nairo, even if he proves to be the best climber on this Tour, which is definitely possible

Agree with Andrew. If Quintana and TJVG could trade GC places, it would be more interesting. Really hard to believe that Quintana can take 2 min on Froome.

 

[Pantani Attacks]

The Monk looks to be riding himself into peak form.

 

[ray j willings]

tinymanofpower ready to explode

 

[hfer07]

oh man- I simply cannot wait for "QUINTANATOR" to destroy his rivals on the climbs- starting this coming Tuesday