Re:
Blanco said:
I think he definitely is not on good terms with Unzue, he's probably pissed because of last year's double debacle (and blaming Unzue for persuading him), so he wants to take different approach this year, to focus solely on the Tour. But I think Unzue doesn't like that kind of attitude, that's why he get Valverde and especially Landa as a company in the Tour. Tour this year is an ultimate test for Quintana, and it will decide Quintana's future at Movistar.
I agree. Yet it was Quintana wanting to do the Giro/Tour double and continuing to tell the media he was going while the team was saying they weren't sure that was a great idea and finally said fine he wants to do it, let him try it.
This added to a lot of other things including comments by Movistar's management when Valverde was in the hospital last summer, plus some other comments really lead me to believe there is a large rift between Quintana and the powers that be at Movistar.
Now which cobbled race is Quintana going to? Most are raced at the same time as Catalonia, and if Valverde actually goes to one it's going to be Flanders. If he actually goes to Flanders no way they put Quintana in that race as they'll need a full team around Valverde to ensure he safely gets through the cobbles and then see what he can actually do there. He's not going to go to just put KMs in his legs. So that leaves us with sending Quintana to Roubiax?
Valv.Piti, He has to be going to Catalonia to support Valverde. Valverde is back and trying to win every race he enters like normal. Truthfully I'm interested to see how well Soler does right now at Paris-Nice, and then how well he recovers for Catalonia.