Teams & Riders Team Movistar-thread

[Bot. Sky_Bot]

Anacona? Hasn't he moved to another team?

 

[Escarabajo]

Re:

Omigawd, how are they even going to go for the all-important team classification with so little depth?

They will break the bank and go after Uran and bring him to the Tour as well.
Instead of domestiques they want as many leaders as they can have with the Sky train.

 

[Escarabajo]

They can go after Bernal. Oh wait..!

 

[Moviestar]

As far as I'm concerned, Unzue directly approached Abarca about the possibility of adding Landa two months ago, and they were going to add a certain amount of money so Landa can be signed without crippling the rest of their roster. That plan seems to have gone out of the window now, unless they'll sign a string of good replacements. The question is, who are those guys going to be, the market doesn't offer a lot (Cannondale folding would ofc change that to a degree).

About the Herrada brothers, José didn't really do anything lately, so I understand him leaving, Jesús was still promising for smaller races though, so he's a minor loss for the team.

Don't see many of the Cannondale riders that would plug in too easily with the team's style though. Skujins maybe, or Simon Clarke.

I wonder if, in addition to the two young climbers, if they consider even three neo-pros, and promote Zhyhunou. He has a decent sprint and flat strength. Unzué could do with some experience among the rouleur corps though. Or maybe they'll take Javi Moreno back from Bahrain, think he only signed a one year deal and Unzué likes getting riders he's already had back - Plaza, Moreno, Karpets, Cobo, and the like (although Cobo's a bit of an exception). Likewise there's Samoilau and even Kiryienka, although Sky maybe don't want to see Vasya go even if he's clearly on the wind-down now. Ventoso is another rider out of contract who has been at Abarcá before and settling into a post-sprinting rouleur role, but he's also, once more, long past his best and the team already have Bennati for that role. A guy like Küng would be the ideal but is also very unlikely as can probably demand more than the team can offer and is also directed toward a part of the calendar they can't really help him with. Jan Barta would be a fairly reasonable target - good TT engine, past the point at his career where he expects to race for himself, and Telefonica's central European reach is part of why Sütterlin was targeted (and then he became a favourite of Valverde's). However, he also seems happy in his niche with Bora.

The problem they have is, why would a good rouleur from France or the Low Countries ever want to join the team? They can't compensate with the money because the team is too top heavy to have much of it left over. At this rate they're going to be left taking a flyer on Balarcón, but even then after their experience with Alejandro Marque would the Portuguese teams trust Abarcá not to stitch them up? But Spanish and Latin American rouleurs are few in number, and most are either already at Movistar (Erviti) or have moved on (Gorka, Luísle). Lluís Mas is an obvious target, but they've already pillaged Caja Rural many times over. Do they gamble on trying to get somebody like Daniel Jaramillo to adapt to Europe? Go for something really left-field like a one year contract offer for Stijn Devolder? Or just accept that they're going to have a transitional year, and aim not to spend too long in the leader's jerseys and focus entirely on mountainous races even more so than usual?

Wasn't this due to the sponsorship of Canyon (based in Germany) to include a German?

 

[Beech Mtn]

Ventoso renewed with BMC.

Wish Movistar would've kept Sutherland.

 

[mariposa]

Re:

Ventoso renewed with BMC.

Wish Movistar would've kept Sutherland.

Me too.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re: Re:

Ventoso renewed with BMC.

Wish Movistar would've kept Sutherland.

Me too.

Oh yes, Sutherland was great at Movistar. Really solid.

 

[telencefalus]

Nairo Quintana will race in italy after wwrr it will be emilia , bruno beghelli , lombardia , his season is not finished and maybe without Valverde who wanted to target lombardia , quintana could surprise because the classica of foglie morte will be pretty difficult same of the 2015 edition , the official presentation will be 7 september

 

[telencefalus]

very disappointing season for Movistar , the first half was very good , but from le tour it was a Disaster

 

[telencefalus]

don't know if they will be able to win a stage at la vuelta , but i hope for them to have a good autumm with Quintana going for some one day races in Italy

 

[telencefalus]

i was seeing the history of this team , well they won in they first 13 tour de france 6 of them , and then in the following 22 they won just 1 tour de france

 

[telencefalus]

have to say that team movistar with the precedent sponsors , it is the only team to won all the team classification gc of the three gt

 

[telencefalus]

and have to say that they are pretty longeve in fact they have 38 years of existence , pretty rare , but you have to consider that it is the only spanish team in wt

 

[Popchu]

So apparently Soler was working for Rojas today in the break. While I don't think Soler had the legs to beat Armée today, I really cannot believe that again another Movistar rider had to sacrifice his chances for Rojas - certainly not Soler on a finish like today.

"I want to underline what Marc did today - he was a beast, covering all moves so I could go for the win. I was simply exhausted at the finish, and also a bit sad because I couldn't reward him for his great job."

http://www.movistarteam.com/news/2017-9-7/rojas-soler-again-offensive

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I understood why they sacrificed Marc for Rojas in the Pozo Alimentación stage, after all they were in Murcia, and Rojas is from Cieza so was always going to want to target the home region stage win; Luís León Sánchez was attacking in that stage for the same reason. Aiming for Rojas to win from a group including punchy riders like Lutsenko on a steep 2km hilltop finish was a losing strategy if ever there was one; I think they're going to go winless in the race, don't think Angliru really suits any of the riders on the team - unless Carapaz is in the break and the composition is right and they get a big advantage given to them, because the climb is longer than he's typically favoured to date, but he is pretty good on steep stuff. Soler is a bit more diesel, maybe that will benefit him because he can try to do a Sastre job given that Angliru is totally not a climb where drafting can really help owing to its severity, but it's also quite inconsistent compared to the Catalan ascents he cut his youth teeth on before going to join Lizarte.

Speaking of Lizarte, according to Ciclo21, Jaime Castrillo is now confirmed for next season. The young Aragonese escalador has had a very strong season. He's 1,86 and 65kg so not super light but thin, and has decent pedigree against the clock, as well as producing Lizarte's best result by far when asked to take on the best of the international U23 scene in suboptimal form, finishing just inside the top 20 at the Giro della Valle d'Aosta and being prominent on the attack in a stage. Along with Samitier (who is also expected to turn pro with Abarcá this season) he has been the top prospect in Lizarte for a couple of seasons now, and this year has podiumed the Vuelta a Navarra (just behind Harm Vanhoucke, who has been one of the top espoir climbers all year), and won the mountainous Memorial Aitor Bugallo race around Durango, and the national U23 time trial championships, so showing he's got the potential to be a solid all-rounder rather than the fragile mountain specialists that now make up a high percentage of the team's roster. He's also been able to podium the Zumaiako Saria, which tends to be a more rouleur-based race, and the Memorial Balenziaga, another mountainous one-day race around Eibar, in the past, and recently won the Tour de Piemont Pyrenéen, a mountainous (as the name would suggest) French amateur race, after he and French espoir Gérard Torres rode everybody into dust on the Aubisque on stage 2.

This is the Memorial Aitor Bugallo that he won, with two different sides of the Alto de Goiuria, the latter of which matches the first 5km of this, so inconsistent as all hell.

Clips here.

Like with Soler, we aren't really going to know Jaime's development ceiling for another couple of years, given that the Spanish U23 scene doesn't tend to have as many riders who are training almost like pros like we often see in other countries (most notably Denmark and the Netherlands, but others too) so we've less of a handle on what his room for improvement is, however among the riders he defeated on the Aubisque was Fernando Barceló, wunderkind of Fundación Contador and then Fundación Euskadi (even though, like Castrillo, he is from Aragón) and Cofidis stagiare, who was 3rd to Quintana and Alarcón on the climb to Santuário del Acebo in the Vuelta a Asturias, so he's got something; this is compounded by Unzué's preference to hire in riders from Lizarte young and then blood them slowly at the pro level (there is also an element for Abarcá of making sure that their development team and basis is relatively self-contained to prevent a situation emerging like BMC Development pulling out because of Sky poaching all their riders; not every Lizarte prospect will make it to Movistar - Sessler is seemingly headed for Israel Cycling Academy and Óscar Rodríguez walked to Euskadi-Murias last season, realizing that he would be amateur for at least another 2 seasons if he stayed with Lizarte as once Carretero took the second neo-pro spot in 2017, he was likely behind Samitier and Castrillo in the queue, and being a similar type of rider to them would potentially be overshadowed in results too) - a rider breaking through to immediately be racing GTs and major WT races for the team like Carapaz is doing is rare, and likely only because of their previous experience over-promoting Argiro Ospina; he was plugged into the amateur team to help adapt to European racing before going pro, but he was already 23 and established in South America, whereas Castrillo, like Soler before him, is being promoted at 21 having raced almost entirely in the Spanish scene and likely needs a couple of years adapting to the longer races and pace of the pro péloton before he reaches his true level.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Great stage by Soler and Lil Richie, especially the latter. Really impressive by him on a true mountain stage! While Soler hasn't won a stage, he has been close a few times and shown really nice potential this first GT. He will be one of the best mountain domestiques in 2018.

 

[Breh]

Pretty good Vuelta by Movistar despite the circumstances.
Betancur was promising untill he crashed out. Carapaz and Soler did pretty good imo.

 

[mariposa]

Re:

Pretty good Vuelta by Movistar despite the circumstances.
Betancur was promising untill he crashed out. Carapaz and Soler did pretty good imo.

I agree in the circumstances. All the team did well in one way or another and with a bit more luck they would have had a stage win. Some promising youngsters who will have learnt from the opportunities they have had and who will hopefully as a result be better for it going forward.
Shame that crashes robbed us of the opportunity to see how Arcas, Fernandez and in particular Betancur would have performed.
I know Rojas gets a lot of stick on the forum but he seemed to be in every breakaway and trying his hardest to get a result for the team even on days when the terrain might not have best suited him.

 

[Escarabajo]

Re:

Pretty good Vuelta by Movistar despite the circumstances.
Betancur was promising untill he crashed out. Carapaz and Soler did pretty good imo.

Agree.

 

[hrotha]

I don't think that was "good" by any stretch of the imagination. Sure, they had some bad luck, and sure, some young riders showed a sparkle of class here and there (nothing too exceptional either), but that can never be enough for a team like Movistar riding their home grand tour.

 

[portugal11]

Awful season since blockhaus. I think that next year will be crucial for quintana, he will have a great team, if landa, valverde and betancur (and a in form quintana) with good shape, can beat the sky train. Fortunately for us (unfortunately for quintana) we will have 50 km of time trials so movistar can go thermonuclear in the mountains.

 

[Escarabajo]

I think need to get better mountain domestiques for the Tour.

That depends on the schedule and objectives of some of their younger riders that were at the Vuelta.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Mountain domestiques are not the problem. Rodadores are.

For mountain doms, they've obviously got the three leaders but then there's Dani Moreno (give him just the one GT next year to target, do Ardennes and then either Tour or Vuelta, he's getting on a bit so doesn't need to be overworked), Betancur, Soler should make a good helper for the next couple of seasons before being ready to lead in his own right, if his spring peak is anything to go by, Rosón is good, Carapaz seems good on really steep stuff, de la Parte and Sepúlveda are fine for the lower slopes, Pedrero has been much better than I expected and Rubén Fernández certainly needs to do better but his heavy crashing at the Vuelta means that it's hard to judge him fairly. The budget cuts at Cannondale might nix the move of Anacona, and Amador can be counted on in the Giro.

But they've lost Gorka, Castro, Sutherland, Dowsett and Malori. I know Malori's not been active in two years because of his injuries anyway, and Dowsett's haemophilia and lack of durability have hurt his value over the course of a GT so he's not been doing them for some time now, but that's a lot of flat engines being lost before we get to the more versatile Herrada brothers (Gorka's also pretty versatile in fairness). Sütterlin has developed into a good rouleur, and Oliveira seems to be maturing into exactly the kind of rider Unzué likes - filling the same kind of characteristics as Erviti or Lastras - but depth is limited. Rojas is likely a road captain going forward, sure, Bennati is a very useful protector but is also 37 years old; Carretero and Bico are still very young and I'm not sure if Unzué will trust them for GTs just yet, Arcas has a lot to prove still to be relied upon in that role and the neo-pro signings are climbers too. One more proven climber would be helpful, sure, but one more proven or dedicated engine would be a more pressing need.

 

[Valv.Piti]

I can't help but think the management had the the peloton reduction in mind; they have a higher top-end level this year, but lacks the depth they have had previously. I could see the team looking like this for the 3 main objectives:

Giro: Landa, Amador, Carapaz, De La Parte, Anacona, Pedrero, Bennati, Rojas
Tour: Quintana, Valverde, Landa, Soler, Betancur, Bennati, Sutterlin, Erviti/Oliveira
Vuelta: Quintana, Valverde, Fernandez, rest is very dependent on how the season pans out, who is in shape, new signings etc.

 

[DNP-Old]

We might see them in Colombia next year. They have been officially invited to the Vuelta (2.1) and Eusebio Unzue himself received the invitation. This would be great.