Ryo Hazuki said:
valverde was until his shoelaces full of epo when he had those results with kelme. since 2006 (puerto) he became considerbally less strong in the mountains and became a very cowardly, un agressive rider that needed a w hole team to help him win sprints of smaller groups. his vuelta win was the most coordinated gt win since that of moser in the giro in 1984. in that vuelta they made sure no more than 2 mountainstages after each other, never more than 2 big mountains in one stage and short enough itt's for valverde.
yeah, just like every other vuelta. Allthough the Vuelta is maybe my favourite GT, most of the editions do not have very long TT, relatively short stages and most mountain stages just a MTF and one mountain before.
I think you're wrong. Valverde became stronger in the mountains, yes he had good results in when he was young, but also bad stages. He is far more consistent in his results and can't only climb with the best spanish climbers as when he was young, but also with the best of the world on a good day.
That and just growing older affected his sprint off course. But in the past he sprinted against Angel Casero, Aitor Gonzalez, Roberto Heras, Unai Osa, Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano. Recent years against Samuel Sanchez, Cadel Evans, Igor Anton, Joachim Rodriguez who are a lot faster uphill.
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