Tour de France Tour de France 2021, Stage 7: Vierzon – Le Creusot, 249.1 km

[roundabout]

They signed him across from South America and nurtured him through their amateur team, promoted him to stagiare deals (which they almost never do) and gave him his pro deal. They were loyal and rode for him even though it was announced before that Giro that he had already signed with Ineos - before Acquadro had even given them a chance to open renewal negotiations with him - and then when they wanted him to co-lead the Vuelta for them, he rode an unsanctioned crit race they'd asked him not to, got hurt and couldn't do the race. I might have thought that plunking Ineos with the bean ball at La Covatilla might have been enough, but you know, you can see why they'd be pissed. Sure, he won them a Giro, but they had Mikel Landa take a back seat and play loyal domestique for him, and given the issues with the triumvirate you can bet that having had to sit in line and play helper for Carapaz in the one race he was going to as sole leader might have played a role in their issues with Landa's contract negotiation too.

So yes, Carapaz won them a Giro, but you can see why they'd see Acquadro as a scumbag a-hole who screwed them over, and Richie as an ungrateful turncoat.

I would say that Movistar could have negotiated an extension at any point after the 2018 Giro. No point in being upset of they have dithered for too long.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Sht like this happens all the time with riders leaving. But I don't see those other teams not only screw over a rider, but the entire race for others as well as fans across the world because they are petty.

Oh come on, if you have 5 riders available to pull, no way you dont do that. Urán's mates did the same... that it was Carapaz might have been a bonus, who knows, but they also buried Rogla and keep Wout on short leash.

 

[Bolder]

Guess Van Aert is the GC rider on Jumbo now.

I'd make sure both he and Jonas are protected in stage 8.

Looking at GC it's actually a very tight race. Even someone like Gaudu still can do a Top 5.

 

[Krzysztof_O]

That TT effort by Rog was amazing.

I think effort duration is the key. Primoz still has the wattage but he can't execute it after such a long day (the pain is increasing). It's sad to see that all-year long preparations go to nothing.

 

[Eeslliw]

What's going on?
I don't know, but I am already biased against Movistart atm.

Probably Kwiato telling Movistar how stupid they are.

 

[roundabout]

Only really Pré that is dangerous, no?

Probably. But this looks like a team that can crumble quickly on easier climbs than that should Majka have a bad day.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Oh come on, if you have 5 riders available to pull, no way you dont do that. Urán's mates did the same... that it was Carapaz might have been a bonus, who knows, but they also buried Rogla and keep Wout on short leash.

lol, it wasn't their job to do. They're just giving Pogacar a free ride, and i hope it comes back to bite them in the ass.

 

[titan31]

Sht like this happens all the time with riders leaving. But I don't see those other teams not only screw over a rider, but the entire race for others as well as fans across the world because they are petty.

From a Movistar pov, 2nd is better than 3rd so why leave Carapaz gain fee time when he's probably the biggest competition for a podium spot. Imagine if they lost out on a top place or a podium spot cos they gave Carapaz free time today.

 

[Breezy1985]

Sht like this happens all the time with riders leaving. But I don't see those other teams not only screw over a rider, but the entire race for others as well as fans across the world because they are petty.

This fan from around the world loved their crazy hijinks today. Didn't ruin any race for me.

I'm loving all the Skybots whinging and crying when any any other team puts a train together. Don't hammer a race for 10 years with your boring trains and then not expect some come back when other teams get a chance

 

[King Of The Wolds]

Majka, Formolo and gang must be livid. All that work, and Movistar would have done it for them all along. Will be interesting to see what happens if Mas punctures on the flat over the next few days, and Kwiato, Van Baarle and Castro are near the front.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Kuss' comments about stage 6 last year were absolute BS, but they were just stupid words put in his mouth probably by a DS. However, the way that Jumbo raced the rest of the race - and essentially every race since - actually kind of backed up that nonsense. He is not the reason for the evil, but he is the embodiment of it: this appalling role as the non-domestiquing domestique, whose role is solely to sit there doing nothing implying threat, rather than actually trying to attack or providing any assistance to his teammates. Because he's so strong in the climbs, he's usually there with all the bigs, but Jumbo never ask him to do a turn, so they just sit there with 10-15 in the group and nothing happening, because nobody dares attack because Kuss is still fresh to chase them down, but Kuss won't go on the front to thin the group out any further, resulting in tedious group rides, but without even the modicum of interest that Sky's train gave us where they could put the moto on the back of the group and watch people get dropped. When Sepp isn't working for Rogla or Dumoulin himself, he is less of a problem (although there was some hilarious mis-management of him by the team car in the UAE Tour too), but because he's too limited to be a GT leader in his own right, at least at this point in time, as soon as we get to the biggest races, he inevitably gets included, and he inevitably gets deployed specifically to prevent entertaining racing from happening.

Addy Engels is the orchestrator of this vicious assault against entertainment, but Sepp Kuss is the weapon with which this assault is perpetrated. When he is removed from the bunch, the action in the GC contenders' group improved, almost like clockwork.

You know how people countered the "neverending final set at Wimbledon" problem with just saying, ban John Isner, since his "all serve no substance" game was the main problem? One of the best ways to counter the ills of modern cycling is to prevent anybody playing the role that has been created specially for Sepp.

I agree, but in that case, I think its more sensible to blame Jumbo and just modern cycling tactics in generel? In the end, it backfired on them last year, so at least we can be happy about now. And now Kuss probably has a more free role or has to support 2nd tier GC-riders, so at least this Tour, Kuss (and Jumbo) wont deny us a great race.

 

[saganftw]

lol, it wasn't their job to do. They're just giving Pogacar a free ride, and i hope it comes back to bite them in the ass.

if they assume (just like we all do) that pogacar is untouchable then he is not in the equation, he just happens to profit from it

 

[Krzysztof_O]

Even if Ineos and Carapaz can isolate and drop Pogacar in the mountains. What happens then? Cos with the TT on stage 20, Ineos need to continually drop them and if they do get ahead of him, all he's going to do is sit on Carapaz's wheel. Carapaz needs to have 2 minutes on Pogacar by stage 20 and he's already behind. It would be a monstrous effort to get that time in the stages we have unless Pogacar cracks completely or crashes.

I realize that but they will try, "give up" is not a word known to Carapaz. Obviously if they find it hard to gap Pogacar (likely) or the Slovenian counters then one day increasing the gap (likely too) maybe they will settle for a podium place.

 

[Fuente De]

Lol, 7th day of le Tour and people are already trashing a GC team with two contenders when they chase down a prime Ineos rival for the podium. It's the Tour de France, not the Wild West anarchy. When did it become acceptable in this forum or anywhere else to suddenly give everything to Ineos for free?

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Sht like this happens all the time with riders leaving. But I don't see those other teams not only screw over a rider, but the entire race for others as well as fans across the world because they are petty.

Vaughters does stuff like pulling people out of races if they're leaving. And a guy like David Millar was saying how breaks with him in would be chased down far more aggressively for literally five or six years after he returned because of teams holding grudges. Cancellara pulling to chase Tony Martin down into Cáceres. It's not as unusual to see this as you may think, it's just more blatantly obvious with Movistar because this was all in the open and because it's GC-relevant rather than chasing down some BOTD exploits. Lots of people leave teams, yes, but this was the culmination of several years of Acquadro's bad faith dealing. Lots of other teams had already refused to deal with him any further. He's been trying to mend fences, because Astana and Ineos were about the only teams left who would still deal with him and they only have so many spots on their roster. Sérgio Samitier even fired Acquadro and got a new agent because he wanted to ride for Movistar - he was in their development system and only went to Euskadi-Murias because they only had one promotion spot available that year and gave it to Carretero instead of him, but he had nothing left to prove in the amateur system.

Sky/Ineos have poached a number of riders from Abarcá over the years, all the way back to their inception, plus Movistar had been screwed over in negotiations when they were competing for riders and they perceived Ineos as receiving unfair favouritism. The Ivan Sosa deal with Trek is the most public example of this, where Sosa had already signed with Trek and even been in some promotional stuff for them, only to instead sign with Ineos for more money, breaking his Trek contract and with Ineos just paying off the fine. Movistar have been the team that has perhaps been affected most negatively by Acquadro's bad faith dealings, and the Carapaz deal was the one that took it beyond the pale for them.

This kind of thing also happened much more frequently in "olden times", and Movistar are one of the most old school teams out there in terms of their fixation with dealing with things the way they always have.

 

[Tinnekeisabella]

Yeah, I mean unless he knew for sure "Oh, it's Richie. Movistar will take care of him."

It is way too early andI think Tadej is happy not to be that close in the GC anymore. He does not want that yellow too soon either. why would he have followed Carapaz now? He has a margin on him already and it was not the terrain where they could take time when going together.

It would be a lot of effort for only 20 like seconds

 

[movingtarget]

Even if Ineos and Carapaz can isolate and drop Pogacar in the mountains. What happens then? Cos with the TT on stage 20, Ineos need to continually drop them and if they do get ahead of him, all he's going to do is sit on Carapaz's wheel. Carapaz needs to have 2 minutes on Pogacar by stage 20 and he's already behind. It would be a monstrous effort to get that time in the stages we have unless Pogacar cracks completely or crashes.

Ineos should have attacked when Pog's team was doing all the work and the gap was looking worrisome, that would have created even more doubts and if Carapaz was chased down they had riders there that could have counter attacked plus their rider in the break was too tired to help Carapaz much with such a late attack. Turned out to be a sort of futile move when Pogacar's team was already starting to get some help on the front. I think the attack might have been triggered more by Roglic going out the back and getting to put more time into him especially with another TT to come but Roglic is obviously suffering and his race looks done.

 

[luckyboy]

Why should Movistar let Carapaz get free time when he is closer to Mas than Pogacar... If they give him free time then it's just another rider who will be ahead of Mas as they fight for the podium.

 

[Fuente De]

From a Movistar pov, 2nd is better than 3rd so why leave Carapaz gain fee time when he's probably the biggest competition for a podium spot. Imagine if they lost out on a top place or a podium spot cos they gave Carapaz free time today.

100%! CN masterclass forum would never shut up about the movitard tactical fail of giving Carapaz free time on stage 7 Damned if you do and damned if you don't.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I would say that Movistar could have negotiated an extension at any point after the 2018 Giro. No point in being upset of they have dithered for too long.

Sure, but I'm saying why they're acting like that, not that they didn't contribute to the situation themselves.

 

[Valv.Piti]

lol, it wasn't their job to do. They're just giving Pogacar a free ride, and i hope it comes back to bite them in the ass.

Movistar like any other team (outside of DSM) races in their interest, and their interest was getting as quick to the finish in order to minimize gaps up front while maximizing gaps from the back. Its not rocket science.

 

[Netserk]

Probably. But this looks like a team that can crumble quickly on easier climbs than that should Majka have a bad day.

Yes, but the ascent to Tignes is worse to be isolated on than Portet.

 

[Volderke]

100%! CN masterclass forum would never shut up about the movitard tactical fail of giving Carapaz free time on stage 7 Damned if you do and damned if you don't.

I'm sure Movistar riders where directed to ride by Netflix to add more drama at the finish.

 

[movingtarget]

I think Nibali has a better chance to podium at the Tour than medal at the Olympics

And I dont think he will let GC go ...anyway not yet and not without a fight

First big mountain stage will see the end of Nibali I think.

 

[Jungle Cycle]

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