• The Cycling News forum is looking to add some volunteer moderators with Red Rick's recent retirement. If you're interested in helping keep our discussions on track, send a direct message to @SHaines here on the forum, or use the Contact Us form to message the Community Team.

    In the meanwhile, please use the Report option if you see a post that doesn't fit within the forum rules.

    Thanks!

Teams & Riders Nairo Quintana discussion thread

Page 337 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
Decent ride? I would say decent ride if he was racing for top 5, not for the win. He lost 54 seconds for a rival.
It's way too early to say yet. If that was his bad day in the first week, and he limited his losses like that, then it's a very good ride.

Either way, claiming that the guy sat in 3rd place, who was 4th best on the climb today, is 'not a GT contender anymore' seems a bit premature.
 
Did it? I'd say it's probably about 50/50 which of the two finishes higher overall.

That was not what I said. I said that it proved that it's not necessarily a law of nature that Quintana is the better pick of the two as many keep seeming to suggest.

Don't forget that Valverde has found a way to shed a couple of kilograms which seems to really help him in the tough mountains.
 
That was not what I said. I said that it proved that it's not necessarily a law of nature that Quintana is the better pick of the two as many keep seeming to suggest.

Don't forget that Valverde has found a way to shed a couple of kilograms which seems to really help him in the tough mountains.
Right, so you meant in general terms, not based on the results today.

I don't think today has really taught us anything new, apart from possibly that Valverde isn't finished yet despite his poor year so far. Valverde at the Vuelta is generally very good on single climbs stages, even if the climb is really hard. Quintana can struggle on these and is generally better on harder days and at higher altitude.

But I don't really get why some Valverde fans are trying to present Quintana as some kind of main rival? It seems pretty clear they are co-leaders who will both potentially benefit later in the race from the other one being high on GC.
 
On his day, he is still the best climber in the world, but he has lost that consistently high base level that, earlier in his career, allowed him to podium any given GT even when clearly below his best. Nowadays, when he is off his game, he is really average.

Yes he looks much better stage hunting these days. He can look great on one stage but has no consistency or recovery like he used to. It seems like he's a rider that peaked early in his career. Don't know why. Maybe he's lost some hunger. I wouldn't say it's the opposition. After all he was riding better against Froome when Froome was unstoppable.
 
  • Like
Reactions: yaco
That was not what I said. I said that it proved that it's not necessarily a law of nature that Quintana is the better pick of the two as many keep seeming to suggest.

Don't forget that Valverde has found a way to shed a couple of kilograms which seems to really help him in the tough mountains.
Valverde should have been a better teammate and shared his weight loss formula with Quintana :D. If Quintana did it he would obliterate this field in La Vuelta.
 
I think at this point maybe Quintana is thinking to himself: "Eff this. I got my stage win. If you guys want to support Valverde go ahead, it's my last race with you anyway. I'm so done with the dynamic duos and the tridents. I'd like to se Valverde win it if he can. "

I mean, Valverde looks strong. I really don't see any way a 39-year old Valverde can hold this form for three weeks, but crazier things have happened.

But then again it might be all for show.
 
Last edited:

TRENDING THREADS