• 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 Team Movistar-thread

Page 29 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
mariposa said:
Hopefully Ruben Fernandez is saving himself for the second part of the race. I saw him on the climb in Cuenca and he looked pretty easy, no point in pushing as other team members were in the break. The stage after the rest day is in his home territory so perhaps that is the stage he is targeting. He was in the group behind Valverde on the climb over the Collado Bermejo in the Tour of Murcia and knows the descent into Alhama de Murcia really well. I just hope that the rain forecast doesn't cause any issues as he does seem to be a bit accident prone.

You missed him crashing pretty hard?
 
You missed him crashing pretty hard?[/quote]

I haven't seen any TV coverage for a few days so was it after the last climb or before? He looked ok on the climb and no obvious signs of any problems or injuries. He can be a bit accident prone so not really surprised!
 

axl

Aug 19, 2017
72
0
0
Visit site
I think they clearly target the team GC, which they currently lead.
In the vuelta the breakaways often success, and Movistar have 5 strong climbers able to perform in montains. They can send 2 every day, take time easily in the team GC and probably win at least one stage.
 
Re:

tobydawq said:
Rojas probably could not have won anyway, but my god that finale was poorly ridden.
Yes, he would have been smoked no matter what he did. But it was weird indeed.

Soler a little under par today, but the stage wasn't really hard enough and the rouleur types obviously spent a lot less going into Collada Bermejo. He has also used a fair amount of horsepower already and this attempt means that my prediction of a Soler victory on Calar Alto goes down the drain. Too bad. :p But he tried and these efforts will benefit him in the long run.
 
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.
 
Re:

capuldemetal said:
and some very bad news.the herrada brothers will go to cofidis.

I had read that Movistar didn't want to keep Jose. I suppose brotherly love won out with Jesus leaving as well. Bit surprised to see them go to Cofidis but could be a good move for them particularly for Jesus being given more freedom.
 
I think it's a big thing - MS have lost at least 5 or 6 solid workers from their squad - It's now a thread with 3 or 4 key leaders, decent mountain support, although younger riders, a significant gap in grunt riders - They'll need to pull a rabbit out of the hat.
 
Movitrain said:
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?
 
Well, the Tour de France is the race that calls the most for great rouleurs. Especially in 2018, it seems very flat and nervous for the first week or even 9 days, so that definitely requires some manpower. If Im not mistaken its 8 man teams next year so we theoretically have a team like this:

Quintana, Valverde, Landa, Soler, Bennati, Sutterlin and depending on what you want Erviti, Oliveira, Anacona, Amador or Rojas. Thats not too bad.
 

TRENDING THREADS