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Teams & Riders Team Movistar-thread

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I wonder if there is a improvement in the relation Unzue- Acquadro. They are interested in signing Sosa and according to Gazzetta Aranburu is in talks with Movistar ( both clients of Acquadro )
Late Answer to this but yes, they are indeed on talking terms again. There was a special episode of the Cycling Podcast during the Giro about Acquadro and they mentioned it. Probably not great friends but at least on terms of doing business again.
 
Late Answer to this but yes, they are indeed on talking terms again. There was a special episode of the Cycling Podcast during the Giro about Acquadro and they mentioned it. Probably not great friends but at least on terms of doing business again.
I view this as being essentially like, it isn't water under the bridge, but the shots have been fired across the bow and everybody has had their time to point the blame and yell at each other and now they're willing to talk it over. The way Movistar chased down Carapaz and ensured Roglič's Vuelta win was probably enough to say to Acquadro that they weren't happy beyond just a simple issue with doing deals, but not doing anything too outré that would cause any real wounds. It's rather like in baseball if there's an issue, you have the pitcher plunk somebody, but they aim low or between the numbers, nothing too dangerous, just enough to send a message and get it out of the sytem. Do the two teams then like each other and forget all about it? Of course not. But do they then get a warning from the umpires and then get on with playing the game? More often than not, yes. Unzué running his mouth was essentially the same as the jaw-jacking, and then chasing Carapaz down was the plunking.

Acquadro has been extremely cut-throat and has dealt in poor faith with a lot of teams, but Ineos and Astana only have so many available roster spots for him to place riders, and I think he had got to the point where far too many teams wouldn't deal with him, and then with Abarcá riding specifically against him personally he may have realised he's at a point where his own reputation could become damaging to his roster of talent and affect his standing and young riders' willingness to sign on with him, so some fences have to be mended to maintain his own standing.
 
Movistar showed they actually do know how to properly use tactics and win when they do work together and have the legs to pull it off. Of course it helps that it appears their riders all seem to be willing to help each other and actually talk to each other to ensure there is an actual chance of winning before putting in all the effort. The big key here is communication, which they appear to currently have and use.
 
This TDF i think they are going to be realistic. They realise that with 2 TTs and Pogacar and Roglic, its difficult to challenge. In the high mountains they will not chase unless MAL is feeling superb. Going for stage wins would be priority, team classification after that and top 5 for Mas and/or Lopez. Basically letting the chips fall where they may and not dictating the result.
 
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In my opinion they should clearly go for a podium with Lopez. He looked great this year, climbing. Don't play around with team classification or different leaders. I know Mas is the more reliable time trialer, but in my opinion he just doesn't have the ceiling Lopez has.
So hope for good time trials of Lopez, make sure he doesn't lose time nonsensically and support his attacks in the mountains. Sure, there are at least three teams with all in all stronger contenders, but that could lead to situations in which Lopez could profit.
 
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Line-up for TdF:

Alejandro Valverde, Carlos Verona, Enric Mas, Imanol Erviti, Iván García Cortina, Jorge Arcas, Marc Soler and Miguel Ángel López.

Interesting, I had expected a different team with Rojas and possibly also Carretero. I'm surprised that Soler is riding, since he crashed out of the Giro and (apart from the time trial) was not really good in the Tour de Suisse.
 
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This TDF i think they are going to be realistic. They realise that with 2 TTs and Pogacar and Roglic, its difficult to challenge. In the high mountains they will not chase unless MAL is feeling superb. Going for stage wins would be priority, team classification after that and top 5 for Mas and/or Lopez. Basically letting the chips fall where they may and not dictating the result.
What?
You have Lopez flying at his best. You got to at least try for the podium. If you fail you have a team that can always chase stages.
 
Line-up for TdF:

Alejandro Valverde, Carlos Verona, Enric Mas, Imanol Erviti, Iván García Cortina, Jorge Arcas, Marc Soler and Miguel Ángel López.

Interesting, I had expected a different team with Rojas and possibly also Carretero. I'm surprised that Soler is riding, since he crashed out of the Giro and (apart from the time trial) was not really good in the Tour de Suisse.
Arcas is kind of surprising but he's been a loyal rouleur helper of late and the team has been short on rouleur help. Rojas is getting older and doesn't sprint anymore, Arcas is better for péloton-pulling duties, and García Cortina makes the rest of what Rojas brings less necessary. Carretero has really come on in the last couple of years but in this team line-up he's essentially lost a straight head to head battle with Verona for the spot as the lower slopes climbing helper/ATV, and Verona being more experienced and having worked well with Valverde and Mas last year (as well as climbing well enough to make the top 20 of the Tour in his own right) gave him the nod.
What?
You have Lopez flying at his best. You got to at least try for the podium. If you fail you have a team that can always chase stages.
Ah, but they're taking all the leaders, so López is 4th in line for leadership in this team, 3rd at best equal with Soler...

(no, I'm not going to let that one go)
 
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What?
You have Lopez flying at his best. You got to at least try for the podium. If you fail you have a team that can always chase stages.
How? Look at stage 20. Its a colossal gap. 3 week Gts can be easily won with that margin. He lost that in a single TT
POGAČAR Tadej
00:55:55​
PORTE Richie
01:21​
ROGLIČ Primož
01:56​
LÓPEZ Miguel Ángel
06:17​

to win from this perf, it requires Alien mode in climbs or Terminator mode in the TTs. So Podium is not feasible unless the riders better than him collapse/DNF etc. So he cannot aim for the podium but the podium can fall into his lap depending on the luck of others.
 
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And in other major TTs he's lost:

2'34 to Froome in 42km (2017 Vuelta ITT)
2'47 to Dennis in 34km (2018 Giro ITT)
2'16 to Dennis in 33km (2018 Vuelta ITT)
1'23 to Yates in 26km (2019 Paris-Nice ITT)
3'45 to Roglič in 34km (2019 Giro San Marino ITT)
54" to Roglič in 17km (2019 Giro Verona ITT)(Chad Haga won, using Rogla as a yardstick here)
2'00 to Roglič in 36km (2019 Vuelta ITT)

While he's not good in the ITT, last year's Chava-esque TT performance is the exception, not the norm, and realistically he can more likely expect to lose a couple of minutes in each ITT rather than six in each. He's not Jiménez '99.
 

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