Official Valverde thread.

[Rollthedice]

I am a fan, but i do not understand how can he keep good/excellent form throughout the WHOLE season. Or maybe I do

He still has blood stashed from the Fuentes days, young blood.

 

[thehog]

Another victory for the new middle-aged, late 30's clean generation

Double celebration once the blood bags are destroyed.

 

[PremierAndrew]

Seeing valverde win disgusts me every single freaking time.

But fair play to him for being even stronger as a 'clean' rider than he was before his ban

 

[PhiLiz]

I hope he pulls a Jalabert/Virenque now and stars winning KOM at Grand Tours with km100+ lone breaks...

 

[TourOfTexas]

If I was Alaphilippe, I would tell the cameras, "I do not feel bad to have been beaten by this doper. The history books may have his name at the top but I am the real winner."

 

[Benotti69]

If I was Alaphilippe, I would tell the cameras, "I do not feel bad to have been beaten by this doper. The history books may have his name at the top but I am the real winner."

that would not be a wise comment to make when riding for Lefevere and his Doc, Ibauguren.......

 

[DFA123]

If I was Alaphilippe, I would tell the cameras, "I do not feel bad to have been beaten by this doper. The history books may have his name at the top but I am the real winner."

that would not be a wise comment to make when riding for Lefevere and his Doc, Ibauguren.......

It wouldn't be a wise comment to make even if he were clean. The omerta lives and he'd become persona non-grata pretty quickly.

 

[Gung Ho Gun]

Re:

Seeing valverde win disgusts me every single freaking time.

But fair play to him for being even stronger as a 'clean' rider than he was before his ban

He was actually banned because of what happened before 2006
When he beat Armstrong on Courchevel and battled with Heras at the Vuelta
I don't think he's at a higher absolute level now

 

[LaFlorecita]

He should get a ban for those horrific hair implants imo.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re:

He should get a ban for those horrific hair implants imo.

Everyone can't look as good as Clentipuccio, at least he looks better than Rooney. I guess thats something, no?!

Valverde seems go go hand in hand with a good old win getting better by the minute, same as the juice ha tomado.

 

[lenric]

Valverde is still young. He'll reach physical maturity in his 40s, such as Chris Horner...

 

[doperhopper]

If I was Alaphilippe, I would tell the cameras, "I do not feel bad to have been beaten by this doper. The history books may have his name at the top but I am the real winner."

that would not be a wise comment to make when riding for Lefevere and his Doc, Ibauguren.......

It wouldn't be a wise comment to make even if he were clean. The omerta lives and he'd become persona non-grata pretty quickly.

on the other hand, we badly need new Delion/Bassons for the New Clean Era (instead of these self appointed ambassadors and etalons of clean cycling)

 

[thehog]

Re:

Valverde is still young. He'll reach physical maturity in his 40s, such as Chris Horner...

He would be bald if not for the hair implements. Horner and Valverde are showing the way for viral older men, life really does begin at 37 and a half. Dawg Froome to win his 9th Tour at 37.

 

[Maxiton]

Re:

Valverde is still young. He'll reach physical maturity in his 40s, such as Chris Horner...

I was thinking the same thing.

He would be bald if not for the hair implements. Horner and Valverde are showing the way for viral older men, life really does begin at 37 and a half. Dawg Froome to win his 9th Tour at 37.

And his 10th at 38, and his 11th at 39, and his 12th at 40, and . . . .

 

[movingtarget]

Careers in classics can be maintained longer than GT careers but Valverde has managed to do well in both at his age. His Fleche win never looked in doubt. It's the perfect race for him of course but it looked ridiculously easy and after the race he looked like he had been a on a training ride. There are probably only about three riders who could challenge him in a hilly race at the moment and most of those are veterans as well like Rodriguez, Gerrans and Martin. Allaphillipe seems to be the only younger rider in the mix. Like others have noted Valverde looks better after his drug ban and his results support that. Be interesting if he wins the Vuelta again to compare the reaction to the reaction of Horner's win in the same race.

 

[luckyboy]

lol he's going to podium this race isn't he

 

[sniper]

Valverde's results merely add to the growing body of evidence that cycling is now clean, especially at the top end.

 

[luckyboy]

You mean everybody is clean but Valverde is doping

You can probably convince me that most of the peloton is clean before I believe it about Valverde.

 

[Bwlch y Groes]

Even at 36 he's probably got another GT win in him if he left Movistar. Makes Contador's premature decline all the more surprising

 

[Angliru]

Re:

Valverde is still young. He'll reach physical maturity in his 40s, such as Chris Horner...

Unlike Horner, Valverde had a steady stream of high end results throughout his career. Horner never saw a grand tour podium or monument/classic podium in his entire career before his Vuelta win. It's likely he will run out of gas eventually just like he did at the ORR.

**By the way, yes I know you were being sarcastic.

 

[Zypherov]

Only two cyclists have finished in the top ten of all three Grand Tours in the same season. Raphaël Géminiani in 1955 was the first to achieve this feat with 6th in the Tour, 4th in the Giro and 3rd in the Vuelta.

Gastone Nencini was 6th in the Tour, 1st in the Giro and 9th in the Vuelta, in 1957.

Valverde was 6th in the Tour also, 3rd in the Giro and looking good for another podium in the Vuelta.

 

[SeriousSam]

Valverde coming back stronger after his doping ban has created some amusing occurrences where some followers of cycling had to invoke that rats-on-steroids study to insinuate that doping enhances long after it's stopped. Cos, you know, it's the clean era now so clean Valverde must be still be benefiting from some blood bag injected half a decade ago. :lol:

 

[thehog]

Re:

Valverde coming back stronger after his doping ban has created some amusing occurrences where some followers of cycling had to invoke that rats-on-steroids study to insinuate that doping enhances long after it's stopped. Cos, you know, it's the clean era now so clean Valverde must be still be benefiting from some blood bag injected half a decade ago. :lol:

Like a fine Rjoica wine, Valverde is maturing into a fine cyclist with better powers of recovery. It will be interesting to see how far he take his career. I foresee the only person to stop him becoming a great cyclist would the return of young Tommy D.

 

[BullsFan22]

Valverde is the gift that keeps on giving, isn't he? IMO, it wouldn't be out of place to compare him with Vinokourov. One of the main differences was that Vinokourov had the freedom to do whatever he wanted in the latter stages of his career. And Movistar don't seem to have too much of an issue on who to work for and when to attack/not attack, unlike Telekom/T-Mobile, which had, at one stage, Ullrich, Kloeden and Vinokourov as potential team leaders, even though Ullrich was always going to be the team leader.

 

[Gung Ho Gun]

Re:

Valverde coming back stronger after his doping ban has created some amusing occurrences where some followers of cycling had to invoke that rats-on-steroids study to insinuate that doping enhances long after it's stopped. Cos, you know, it's the clean era now so clean Valverde must be still be benefiting from some blood bag injected half a decade ago. :lol:

That didn't work for Contador, Schleck, Sanchez or anyone else around Valverde's generation though
A 13-year long peak is pretty impressive even with doping