Teams & Riders Team Movistar-thread

[Libertine Seguros]

Re:

I approve! Now they just need to replace Unzue with Saiz, and we'll see something truly beautiful in the mountains _O_

For a second then I thought we were back in a DAOTEC transfer rumour thread.

 

[Koronin]

Bad move by the team. Soler has flat out stated not only does he not think he's ready for the Tour but he does not want to go to the Tour and is very afraid that going to the Tour right now could destroy him. He said last year's Vuelta almost destroyed him due to no leadership. He's said he still doesn't have a clue how to race a GT and doesn't think the Tour is a good place to learn that. This could end up becoming actual huge problem.

 

[Koronin]

Re: Re:

Nairo Quintana, Mikel Landa, Alejandro Valverde, Marc Soler, Andrey Amador, Imanol Erviti, Nelson Oliveira, José Joaquin Rojas. Jasha Sutterlin and Daniele Benatti are the reserves.

Riding cross-winds or cobbles isn't just a matter of engine but also positioning. From those in the list only Bennati has shown some of that skill, and I'm not sure he's aging as well as Valverde.

Agree mostly although I'd argue that Valverde does know how to position himself on the cobbles. However that does nothing to help Quintana and/or Landa.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Amador, Erviti, Rojas and Oliveira should be decent enough for crosswinds and cobbles. Not great by any means, but who on the team are? Bennati and Sutterlin are a little too one-dimensional now that you only can select 8 riders and Erviti has that role this year because he is Erviti. One more rider had been great now that they have 3 leaders.

I think it will depend on how they do individually in the end anyways, at least on the cobbles.

 

[Koronin]

Erviti, Bennati, Sutterlin, and apparently Valverde are their best cobbled riders.

 

[fauniera]

Re:

Nairo Quintana, Mikel Landa, Alejandro Valverde, Marc Soler, Andrey Amador, Imanol Erviti, Nelson Oliveira, José Joaquin Rojas.

Jasha Sutterlin and Daniele Benatti are the reserves.

Could be spectacular. Could be a mess. Can't wait (and hope for the former of course).

 

[Koronin]

Re: Re:

Nairo Quintana, Mikel Landa, Alejandro Valverde, Marc Soler, Andrey Amador, Imanol Erviti, Nelson Oliveira, José Joaquin Rojas.

Jasha Sutterlin and Daniele Benatti are the reserves.

Could be spectacular. Could be a mess. Can't wait (and hope for the former of course).

It will definitely be one or the other. I also hope for spectacular, but have a very bad feeling it's going to be a total disaster.

 

[Koronin]

The Spanish fans of this team are exceptionally unhappy with this team. They are basically saying anything other than not only a Tour overall win, but a minimum of 3 riders placing in the top 10 in GC is a complete and total failure with the team they are sending and are also saying that winning and placing 3 riders in the top 10 is just flat out not possible, so there is no way this team can actually succeed at the Tour this year. They are even more upset that the team is saying the Giro is meaningless by who they are sending.

 

[Valv.Piti]

The Spanish fans are a bit stupid then, because if they win the Tour, its a success regardless of how the Giro goes, how many they place in top-10 or who wins. They are just loading up in case one or two is crashing it seems - I cant fault them. Its 100% all-in on winning, something that I have missed from this team at times.

 

[Koronin]

Well they are not happy. I think they are basically trying to just shield themselves from what they expect to be a complete failure. They're also still unhappy about the Vuelta 2 years ago as well. So this isn't exactly helping matters in their eyes. They still consider that Vuelta (that one Quintana won) to be a disaster.

 

[ice&fire]

Re:

Well they are not happy. I think they are basically trying to just shield themselves from what they expect to be a complete failure. They're also still unhappy about the Vuelta 2 years ago as well. So this isn't exactly helping matters in their eyes. They still consider that Vuelta (that one Quintana won) to be a disaster.

Many Spanish fans tend to be a bit excessive with their tragic and pessimistic views about almost everything. They're the noisiest in the Spanish forums. And they do their best silencing any dissenting voice.

 

[Koronin]

Re: Re:

Well they are not happy. I think they are basically trying to just shield themselves from what they expect to be a complete failure. They're also still unhappy about the Vuelta 2 years ago as well. So this isn't exactly helping matters in their eyes. They still consider that Vuelta (that one Quintana won) to be a disaster.

Many Spanish fans tend to be a bit excessive with their tragic and pessimistic views about almost everything. They're the noisiest in the Spanish forums. And they do their best silencing any dissenting voice.

I tend to agree with you that they definitely are a pessimistic group.

 

[Moviestar]

Re:

Bad move by the team. Soler has flat out stated not only does he not think he's ready for the Tour but he does not want to go to the Tour and is very afraid that going to the Tour right now could destroy him. He said last year's Vuelta almost destroyed him due to no leadership. He's said he still doesn't have a clue how to race a GT and doesn't think the Tour is a good place to learn that. This could end up becoming actual huge problem.

Source :Question:

 

[Koronin]

I don't remember which Spanish publication it was. It was a couple months ago (before Paris-Nice). He was talking about last year Vuelta and then talked about Grand Tours for this year. I don't save articles. Sorry.

In searching, I can't find that interview. However I did find a recent interview (after P-N) in which does say he would like to go to the Tour, but that it would not make any sense to send a rider like him to it this year who would only be there to learn.

Obviously he's got more confidence now than he did previously. That is a very good thing.

 

[armchairclimber]

Well, for CQ game reasons, I'm pretty cheesed off with Movistar's Giro squad. Unless Mas goes, it will be as meaningless to me as it seems to be to them. Bizarre. I did think that they were lining up Roson ... but after this week, that seems unlikely. Heaven knows what they have in store for him. At the top end of things they are loaded, with Valverde, Quintana and Landa. They have a really exciting core of "next generation" riders: Mas, Soler and Roson .... surely the Giro would have been a good place to let them go and discover themselves a bit.

 

[Koronin]

Re:

Well, for CQ game reasons, I'm pretty cheesed off with Movistar's Giro squad. Unless Mas goes, it will be as meaningless to me as it seems to be to them. Bizarre. I did think that they were lining up Roson ... but after this week, that seems unlikely. Heaven knows what they have in store for him. At the top end of things they are loaded, with Valverde, Quintana and Landa. They have a really exciting core of "next generation" riders: Mas, Soler and Roson .... surely the Giro would have been a good place to let them go and discover themselves a bit.

It's not just your GQ team. Mas is at Quickstep not Movistar. Roson isn't going. At this point I have no idea if he's even going to a GT this year. I have a nice portion of my GQ team being Movistar riders and I had expected at least 4 of them on the Giro team. I have 2 with Betancur and Fernandez. I was expecting a combination of Roson, Amador, Soler to go. I'm so with you that the Giro would have been a great place for Roson and/or Soler to go. Truthfully I'm not sure why Fernandez is going as he's basically not raced since January with a stress fracture. No one (esp not their fans) have any clue what Movistar's management is thinking.

 

[armchairclimber]

"Mas is at Quickstep not Movistar." Doh!. Was up in the early hours with a head cold.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Pedrero is a solid rider, he seemed to have done well in Asturias. He can infiltrate some breaks, but he needs luck to win. Fernández also did well and he has the higher ceiling, I think, but he hasn't ridden much this season. Seems to be in good shape tho, finally. Same thing with Sepulveda, I think he will do the best out of those three. All still fairly young.

Carapaz can do great things in the Giro. He has a Vuelta in his legs and just won Asturias in convincing fashion, it seems.

Betancur? I don't think he crashed yesterday.

 

[yaco]

My understanding is Movistar have shown interest in Verona from MS - Verona is riding much better in 2018, though i am not 100% convinced he suits their current roster.

 

[Koronin]

Re:

"Mas is at Quickstep not Movistar." Doh!. Was up in the early hours with a head cold.

Hope you feel better. When up late with a cold it would make sense to put a young Spanish rider on Movistar's team.

 

[Valv.Piti]

A pretty solid effort from Carlito today, I think (and hope) he will get a little better day by day. He sits at 12th at the moment.

Carapaz was the big positive tho, sitting in the favourites group and getting white today. Amazing effort by the youngster. Lets see what he has in the weekend. Valls can provide a lot of help to those two and potentially win a stage as well, he is climbing well.

Quintana was up the road but wasn't of much use as always today. Had hoped he could stay with the group a bit longer, but he is just miles behind his brother. I really don't know why a rouleur wasn't selected instead of him.

 

[Koronin]

Re:

A pretty solid effort from Carlito today, I think (and hope) he will get a little better day by day. He sits at 12th at the moment.

Carapaz was the big positive tho, sitting in the favourites group and getting white today. Amazing effort by the youngster. Lets see what he has in the weekend. Valls can provide a lot of help to those two and potentially win a stage as well, he is climbing well.

Quintana was up the road but wasn't of much use as always today. Had hoped he could stay with the group a bit longer, but he is just miles behind his brother. I really don't know why a rouleur wasn't selected instead of him.

I agree that Carapaz was a huge positive today. I'm not convinced he can be there at the end of 3 weeks, but so far he's doing well.

I still don't trust Betancur.

I have no clue why D Quintana is at the Giro. I personally don't think he's good enough to be on any Grand Tour team, but I guess when you send a team that you have no idea what to expect from it why not send him to it. It's not like any of their top 5 GC riders are there.

 

[Moviestar]

The ''breakaway boys'' are invisible in the Giro. De La Parte seems to improve towards the third week, but from someone like Fernandez you can expect something more.. I think Betancur will end up as the best GC-man, Carapaz was really struggling today towards the end.

 

[Koronin]

Re:

The ''breakaway boys'' are invisible in the Giro. De La Parte seems to improve towards the third week, but from someone like Fernandez you can expect something more.. I think Betancur will end up as the best GC-man, Carapaz was really struggling today towards the end.

Fernandez raced the Tour Down Under, then didn't race again until literally right before the Giro due to a stress fracture. I can't see how he's got the conditioning to be at the Giro with almost no racing and a good month or so off the bike to get a stress fracture healed.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re:

The ''breakaway boys'' are invisible in the Giro. De La Parte seems to improve towards the third week, but from someone like Fernandez you can expect something more.. I think Betancur will end up as the best GC-man, Carapaz was really struggling today towards the end.

Yeah, its a pretty horrible team tbh. Quintana does nothing, Fernandez does nothing either and Valls, who was going well, unfortunately crashed. Probably can't expect much more out of Pedrero, he is a solid rider, but this is the Giro and not the Vuelta. Todays stage is an obvious break stage so they really need to hit that one, maybe with Betancur and De la Parte.