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Vuelta a España 2019 stage 9: Andorra La Vella - Cortals d'Encamp > 94.4km

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Bad call? Quintana gained time and got 6 bonus seconds and is now in red. The bad call was Valverde trying close the gap, dragging their biggest rival closer allowing him to minimize his time losses and then conceding the bonus seconds.

From yesterdays interview

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He was called back by his director. When you are part of a team you work for the team. The goal is to win the race overall not get a stage win for Soler.

I’m not sure if you’ve ever participated in any endurance sports, but when you have a target up the road wether on a bike or on a run, it makes it much easier to find the strength physically and mentally to get there. Valverde did that for Roglic. The fruit of that useless move by Valverde was to help Roglic limit his losses and gain bonus seconds. Those bonus seconds may be insignificant to the overall, but Roglic’s morale will be even higher for the TT.

This is a big picture game.
I see that you're new on the forum, but you came with some serious ***!
 
Happy for Pogacar to get the stage win. Other than when they called Soler back, Movistar's tactics were solid. IMO, Soler should have been called back sooner than he was. Quintana and Valverde are racing their own races. Valverde did not pull Roglic, once Roglic caught him Roglic did most of the work. For me Valverde's ride today is encouraging for the mountains still to come.
 
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There's no way that team orders cost Soler a stage win. Movistar race director only called him back late when he realized that Soler was going to be smoked anyway.

If Soler was strong enough he would've been laughing and relaxing on Pogacar's wheel while running a slow cadence on a big gear then sped away in the final kilometer to win by 10 seconds. Or at the very least, he would've pulled Quintana to the line while sulking and looking back several times in frustration. Neither happened so we know that Soler didn't have what it took to win the stage.
 
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May 26, 2017
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On a great day for Movistar, Marc Soler showed arrogance and that he is not a "team player". If he has problems with his manager he should discuss them privately and not make negative gestures towards his team on live television.
His contract shoud be terminated.
 
There's no way that team orders cost Soler a stage win. Movistar race director only called him back late when he realized that Soler was going to be smoked anyway.

If Soler was strong enough he would've been laughing and relaxing on Pogacar's wheel while running a slow cadence on a big gear then sped away in the final kilometer to win by 10 seconds. Or at the very least, he would've pulled Quintana to the line while sulking and looking back several times in frustration. Neither happened so we know that Soler didn't have what it took to win the stage.

Sooo, for him to be strong enough to win would require him to be able to win by ten seconds?