Teams & Riders Team Movistar-thread

[Pinot's goat]

Mas finished 2nd at the Vuelta in 18.

I think I was talking about Movistar performances only.

 

[RedheadDane]

I think I was talking about Movistar performances only.

But you aren't sure what you were talking about?

 

[Pinot's goat]

Does anybody know when season 2 of the documentary is being released?

 

[Escarabajo]

I don't see Movistar or Lopez at the start list of the Tour de Alps. Can somebody tell me what is going on? how long does it take for someone to heal from Covid? especially someone like Lopez with very mild symptoms? what are the plans for Lopez in Movistar? they are paying him a lot of money for not racing to be honest.

This is starting to be weird!!!

 

[Fernandez]

I don't see Movistar or Lopez at the start list of the Tour de Alps. Can somebody tell me what is going on? how long does it take for someone to heal from Covid? especially someone like Lopez with very mild symptoms? what are the plans for Lopez in Movistar? they are paying him a lot of money for not racing to be honest.

This is starting to be weird!!!

This looks like another Betancur case. Im not sure Lopez is fully implicated with Movistar. His sign in looked bad from the start.

 

[tobydawq]

On their website, they say he will travel to Europe now and that there will be a press conference with him tomorrow.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1380615247845855247

View: https://twitter.com/PtelefonicaCol/status/1380615247845855247

 

[will-10]

Good to see. I suppose if he's been struggling there won't have been much appetite for him coming to Europe instead of training at home, but it is strange. Guess we'll see at Romandie.

 

[RedheadDane]

I don't see Movistar or Lopez at the start list of the Tour de Alps. Can somebody tell me what is going on? how long does it take for someone to heal from Covid? especially someone like Lopez with very mild symptoms? what are the plans for Lopez in Movistar? they are paying him a lot of money for not racing to be honest.

This is starting to be weird!!!

They weren't invited/decided not to ride...?

 

[tobydawq]

Also, please don't compare López to Betancur, he is much better than that.

 

[Pinot's goat]

Lopez is posting big rides on Strava everyday so it looks like he still needs to build up some fitness.

 

[BlueRoads]

There have been reports of athletes struggling massively after getting Covid, even without big symptoms, up to the point where they ended their careers. Sure, it goes well for most, but it isn't just a flu for some, so that could be a very good reason and if he needs the time to get back he should take it.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Also, please don't compare López to Betancur, he is much better than that.

There have been several quarters which just seem to have crapped on the López signing from the start, and I can't really figure why. Comparing him to reclamation projects like Rujano and Betancur makes little sense. Yes, those guys were really good at one point; Rujano won the GPM and hit 3rd in the Giro, and Betancur was 5th in the Giro and won Paris-Nice, but they were 2-3 years removed from that when Abarcá signed them on a low-cost flyer.

Here's Bananito's CQ graph. Movistar signed him after the 2015 season.

And here's Rujano's. Caisse d'Épargne signed him for 2008 (and didn't re-sign him despite improving showings).

Now here's Supermán's. Yes, I know he's on a downward trajectory, but Supermán on a downward trajectory is still 655 points, more than Betancur managed even in the season he won Paris-Nice, and almost as much as Rujano got the year he podiumed the Giro. Plus of course another major factor is that López crashed out of the Giro on stage 1, which in such a time-compressed calendar cost him essentially any points post-Tour, so almost the entirety of that 655 points is from 3 races - Algarve, the Dauphiné and the Tour.

Obviously we can't put results that don't exist onto his palmarès, anything could happen in that Giro (and indeed did, eventually), but Supermán has never finished a GT outside the top 10. I counted 41 race days in 2020 for him. Over 2019 he scored 1092 CQ points across 73 race days, 1601 across 76 in 2018, 629 across 40 in 2017 and 763 across 54 in 2016. Points per race day for the last 5 years:
2016 - 14,13
2017 - 15,73
2018 - 21,07
2019 - 14,96
2020 - 15,98

Therefore while 2018 was particularly strong (doing Giro/Vuelta for GC and hitting the podium of both will do that), we can say that Miguel Ángel López has been a very consistent performer and therefore his CQ graph's trajectory does not paint an accurate picture of his performances, due to both the Giro crash and the unusual nature of 2020. Betancur's 2014 is propped up by Paris-Nice - of his 616 points in the season, 586 are achieved by the end of Paris-Nice, and every other point he receives is just for finishing a race - and there was therefore almost 2 seasons' worth of underperformance before Caisse signed him. With Rujano, after his breakout 2005, he scored next to no meaningful results for 2 years, and most of those were with the half-season in 2006 he did with Savio's mob before his Quick Step contract came into force. The only points he had achieved for 18 months in Europe were 5 points for finishing GP Plouay in 102nd.

While coming off an injury and only offering a one-year deal there is an element of taking a flyer on Supermán, the guy is a proven leader and a proven winner who was 6th in a Grand Tour while winning the queen stage only six months ago, not somebody coming off a down year with high potential upside but low likelihood of reaching that upside. Yet there was a whole bunch of debate about whether he was good enough to be a leader when he signed, and comparisons to previous reclamation projects. That makes no sense. Supermán is clearly good enough to be a leader, and you can't reclaim a lost talent if that talent isn't lost, as it is demonstrably scoring results at the highest level right up to the present day.

 

[tobydawq]

Wasn't it just Koronin who said that (supposedly because she would never forgive him for trash-talking Valverde in the 2019 Vuelta after Movietar's dubiously intended cross-wind attack)?

 

[Blanco]

Superman is the only guy in current Movistar roster that can be a leader, beside that old fella'

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Wasn't it just Koronin who said that (supposedly because she would never forgive him for trash-talking Valverde in the 2019 Vuelta after Movietar's dubiously intended cross-wind attack)?

There were a few others. One said it was a bad move which "showed they were desperate", another that he'd "at least be useful for the Team Classification ambitions" and somebody else said that he would "fit in in the s**t show that is Movistar". Koronin took it to extremes, of course, but she wasn't alone.

 

[Escarabajo]

This looks like another Betancur case. Im not sure Lopez is fully implicated with Movistar. His sign in looked bad from the start.

What do you mean? Lopez to Betancur is like night and day. Not sure what you mean with your comment.

Lopez should be ready to race. He was ready 2 months ago but because of Covid he got stopped. But that was long ago. And Lopez is a lot better to many riders in Movistar that have been racing already.

 

[Escarabajo]

He contracted Covid in the trip to Europe. So he was already going to race IMHO. Then he tested positive and had to stay in Europe until the Covid was gone. Maybe a month went by. So are you guys telling me that he was sent back home again to train on his own after Covid? That is a long time to waste. Then he has to come back to Europe again and then go back to Colombia again for the final altitude training. I simply don't get it. I am very suspicious of why Movistar even made a contract with him in the first place.

 

[yaco]

He is on the list for Romandie.

 

[Pinot's goat]

Superman is the only guy in current Movistar roster that can be a leader, beside that old fella'

Mas is capable of being a leader.

 

[Blanco]

Mas is capable of being a leader.

Nope.

 

[Bonimenier]

Surely Mas is capable of being a leader in a GT. He's proven that already. He's just not capable of winning one.

 

[Koronin]

Superman is the only guy in current Movistar roster that can be a leader, beside that old fella'

He's too much of a hit head to be a leader.
Mas can lead and Matteo Jorgenson is showing he has leadership capabilities.

 

[RedheadDane]

He's too much of a hit head to be a leader.

Just because he once hit a stupid spectator...

 

[Koronin]

Just because he once hit a stupid spectator...

Typo. It was supposed to be hot head.

 

[RedheadDane]

Typo. It was supposed to be hot head.

"Hit head" is funnier, though.