Teams & Riders Team Movistar-thread

[Angliru]

Re:

But you know all you talk about is pointless?

Gloating prematurely isn't an attractive action but then being a class act or simply showing a minimal degree of class is something completely foreign to some. Should the race not turn out, as some see it as being already written in stone, I would be curious to see the change in tone of many of these posts. Silvergrenade and this one will likely be on suicide watch in a dark basement somewhere, selling off all of their Sky swag on ebay, lit by only the light from their little laptops.

 

[Blanco]

Re:

Three leaders is insanity if they aren’t going to be aggressive. It only makes any sense at all if they are going to attack.

Agree, but today was really hard to attack with 5 Sky's on the last climb and a headwind. We'll see tomorrow, much shorter stage and much more difficult to control. I think Landa will be on the move...

 

[Valv.Piti]

On a completely random note I would have loved Küng to join Movistar.

 

[King Boonen]

I really hope Movistar can get something going tomorrow, I just don’t know if any of the big three are willing to sacrifice for the other two though.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Re:

Three leaders is insanity if they aren’t going to be aggressive. It only makes any sense at all if they are going to attack.

This is where the problem of the parcours comes in, this would have been a great opportunity to attack but as the first stage of the trio of mountain stages there's too much trepidation and riders saving legs. Not to mention that given the characteristics of this stage, the most reasonable attack would have been Valverde, with the steeper final kicks on the Colombière, his descending skills and, as the least likely to win of their three, his comparative expendability enabling Quintana and Landa to save their legs. However, Valverde also didn't have the legs for that today, as we saw, and the team clearly didn't want to burn one of the other two matches.

 

[AlexNYC]

Re:

The loss of Rojas is pretty bad, Soler is super inconsistent since Catalunya, so this is pretty much bound to happen. God I wish they still had Castroviejo or Izagirre. One of the tree amigos arent gonna sacrifice himself for the others, so prepare for a lot of blame towards Valverde from commentators (even though he is the last one of those who should attack).

I don't know tomorrow, I fear they are just gonna wait for Huez.

This belief that Valverde is a genuine contender to win this Tour is based on magical thinking. If Movistar are content with a podium (and even that is a reach for Valverde, let's be honest) then yes, by all means, treat him like your main GC rider. But if they actually want to win the race, they need to start using him to setup Quintana and Landa because it appears Movistar don't have anyone else to play that role.

I can't believe Unzue would be this stupid, thus my belief from the start that Valverde is supposed to be a decoy of sorts (although I know he will never give himself fully).

 

[Valv.Piti]

I think Landa, yes, Quintana are the ones who should be attacking and Valverde following wheels in the first place given the GC situation and the time trial. It quickly becomes clear if he has it or not and if he doesnt, yes, he should set it up, but Quintana can't expect him to do that all the time. He should also take the bulls by its horns sometimes himself

 

[Koronin]

Actually it wasn't Valverde's legs today that was a problem at the top of the final climb. He dropped his chain and had to fix it while still riding right before the top of the final climb.
One other thing Landa said that today wasn't good terrain for him to attack on and tomorrow and Thursday fit him much better (also would fit Quintana better).
With Valverde having an issue with his chain it IS possible he was shifting so he could try at attack at the moment and had a mechanical let down.

 

[Blanco]

Re: Re:

The loss of Rojas is pretty bad, Soler is super inconsistent since Catalunya, so this is pretty much bound to happen. God I wish they still had Castroviejo or Izagirre. One of the tree amigos arent gonna sacrifice himself for the others, so prepare for a lot of blame towards Valverde from commentators (even though he is the last one of those who should attack).

I don't know tomorrow, I fear they are just gonna wait for Huez.

This belief that Valverde is a genuine contender to win this Tour is based on magical thinking. If Movistar are content with a podium (and even that is a reach for Valverde, let's be honest) then yes, by all means, treat him like your main GC rider. But if they actually want to win the race, they need to start using him to setup Quintana and Landa because it appears Movistar don't have anyone else to play that role.

I can't believe Unzue would be this stupid, thus my belief from the start that Valverde is supposed to be a decoy of sorts (although I know he will never give himself fully).

You don't get it, do you?
They will use him to set up either Quintana or Landa, but they could do it once, maybe twice at most. He needs to be high in the GC for that to succeed.
For example, if they tried that yesterday it would've been a double fail because a) that attack would go nowhere with 5 Sky doms, and b) Valverde wouldn't been as high in the GC anymore, so no genuine threat.
So, they need to be careful when and where they will use him, but I guess Unzue who won 7 Tours and Valverde who practically won on every corner of the Earth would now thing or two about that.

 

[Moviestar]

An a-typical transfer with Roelandts probably joining the team. With more cobblestone races in the World Tour it became inevitable.

 

[Billie]

Roelandts is a good upgrade on Bennati

 

[Flamin]

Weird transfer that would be. First Belgian rider (or any member for that matter) in Movistar's long history I guess?

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re:

Weird transfer that would be. First Belgian rider (or any member for that matter) in Movistar's long history I guess?

I cant remember it. Isn't he a bit past his prime?

 

[GuyIncognito]

They've had a dutchman and few germans, but can't remember any belgians

 

[Taxus4a]

They did quite bad today their strategy.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Re:

They did quite bad today their strategy.

No, they just were not good enough. No strategy works when your leaders are not good

 

[Son of Amsterhammer]

Re: Re:

They did quite bad today their strategy.

No, they just were not good enough. No strategy works when your leaders are not good

Right. Strategy can be perfect, but if the other guys are better than you anyway, it makes no difference.

 

[oldcrank]

Lots of racing left in this Tour but if this turns
out to be the pivotal stage....and it's still a bit
early to know if it is....it might be said that the
real mistake Movistar made was to send their
A team to de Suisse instead of the Dauphine.

 

[RattaKuningas]

Eventhough Quintana didn't have a perfect day, it is clear that he is the strongest rider in the team right now and hopefully Valverde and Landa will help him now. Only then they can do anything about Sky.
I am sure that Quintana would've been able to go with Froome, but he missed the attack and didn't want to work alone and as a result of this he lost more time. Tomorrow will be crucial for him. If he doesn't take anything back tomorrow then I have no idea what's next.

 

[jfazendeiro]

Re: Re:

They did quite bad today their strategy.

No, they just were not good enough. No strategy works when your leaders are not good

That was revealed in the last kilometers of La Rosiere but even if Quintana and Landa were stronger, the strategy of Movistar didn't disturb the unity of Sky. Movistar when are preparing an attack, use to, place a element in the front group to serve as satellite, instead of causing a selection in the favourites group. To defeat Sky is necessary to use their tactics.

 

[Escarabajo]

Re: Re:

They did quite bad today their strategy.

No, they just were not good enough. No strategy works when your leaders are not good

Right. Strategy can be perfect, but if the other guys are better than you anyway, it makes no difference.

Correct. Strategy was good. We all could see it boiling. But I think there was a combination of weakness and Sky being super strong.

 

[Escarabajo]

Re: Re:

They did quite bad today their strategy.

No, they just were not good enough. No strategy works when your leaders are not good

That was revealed in the last kilometers of La Rosiere but even if Quintana and Landa were stronger, the strategy of Movistar didn't disturb the unity of Sky. Movistar when are preparing an attack, use to, place a element in the front group to serve as satellite, instead of causing a selection in the favourites group. To defeat Sky is necessary to use their tactics.

But of course but who has that strength? nobody. Let's not kid ourselves.

 

[roundabout]

Re: Re:

They did quite bad today their strategy.

No, they just were not good enough. No strategy works when your leaders are not good

Right. Strategy can be perfect, but if the other guys are better than you anyway, it makes no difference.

Landa was hurt and Valverde didn't seem to be that great rather soon after his attack and yet they made a decision to make the race harder for themselves as Sky had almost the whole team at that point.

I am not against attacking, but that was not really the perfect time.

 

[jfazendeiro]

Re: Re:

They did quite bad today their strategy.

No, they just were not good enough. No strategy works when your leaders are not good

That was revealed in the last kilometers of La Rosiere but even if Quintana and Landa were stronger, the strategy of Movistar didn't disturb the unity of Sky. Movistar when are preparing an attack, use to, place a element in the front group to serve as satellite, instead of causing a selection in the favourites group. To defeat Sky is necessary to use their tactics.

But of course but who has that strength? nobody. Let's not kid ourselves.

To me the effort that Soler and Valverde did in the breakaway would be enough to left Sky only with Froome, Thomas and Bernal.

 

[AlexNYC]

I think it’s a combination of Sky having absurdly strong doms and Movistar GC guys not being strong enough. Landa looked bad... Is he hurt? And Quintana... Well, I’m not sure. GT cannot possibly be this much stronger. Tomorrow will tell the tale about him. He sounded pretty bad after the race, so I’m not optimistic.