Vuelta a España Vuelta a España 2021: Stage 18 (Salas - Alto d'El Gamoniteiru, 162.6 km)

[Oldermanish]

I suspect he'll race one more year. I can't see him leaving this year after crashing out of la Vuelta. He's going to want to race it one more time to say good bye properly to his fans. I do think when Mas was brought in he saw someone he could be comfortable turning the leadership of the team over to. We did see the start of that last year. Maybe we'll see this even more next year with going to races where Mas and/or Lopez are the leaders. In this Vuelta Mas has proven he can lead the team and keep them together when Valverde had to abandon the race. Yes I do think Valverde will be comfortable leaving the team in Mas' hands once he's ready to stop racing. At this point it's going to come down to him being ready to leave.

Yeah, we love him but he needs to hand off leadership now, not sometime in some race in the future. These two made their game together and with no apparent conflict.
I got really tired of Soler's petulant antics and blowups when the pressure was on. The uncertainty when Quintana was on/off the team was embarrassing. That doesn't suggest Valverde was the pivot guy then; but he doesn't need to do that now. The graceful way would be to declare some monuments as targets and an early GT as a Support rider/docent of the team effort. MAL knows how to ride and MAS is a close second in tactical skills. Both will kill themselves for the team good. Keep it up.

 

[Koronin]

Yeah, we love him but he needs to hand off leadership now, not sometime in some race in the future. These two made their game together and with no apparent conflict.
I got really tired of Soler's petulant antics and blowups when the pressure was on. The uncertainty when Quintana was on/off the team was embarrassing. That doesn't suggest Valverde was the pivot guy then; but he doesn't need to do that now. The graceful way would be to declare some monuments as targets and an early GT as a Support rider/docent of the team effort. MAL knows how to ride and MAS is a close second in tactical skills. Both will kill themselves for the team good. Keep it up.

His favorite two races of the year are Murcia and la Vuelta. He'll race it. It doesn't mean he'll target it other than maybe a stage and wanting to have a 3 week party with his fans, but he'll race it. He loves la Vuelta to much not to race, plus as it's 3 weeks in Spain he gets to see more of his fans. He won't race the Giro again, and likely won't race the Tour, but the La Vuelta is a different story. He did start handing over leadership last year. The best way for him to say good bye is at la Vuelta on the final day likely with some presentation the race does for him so he can say good bye that way.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

There's been plenty of worse Vueltas that just get an inflated rep cause they were "close". In reality Roglic didn't have more than half a minute until he joined an attack at more than 60km to go in the third week. 2007-2011 were all worse from my memory.

he had no more than half a minute because the previous mt stages were easy

 

[Red Rick]

he had no more than half a minute because the previous mt stages were easy

Stage 14 and 15, yes. But stage 7 and 9 were good, especially stage 9 was raced a lot harder than many expected.

 

[roundabout]

Stage 9, yeah. Stage 7 was good for about 10 minutes at 40km to go.

 

[Oldermanish]

Stage 14 and 15, yes. But stage 7 and 9 were good, especially stage 9 was raced a lot harder than many expected.

I can't remember who said it (likely many competitors)....the racers make the race hard.

 

[Red Rick]

I can't remember who said it (likely many competitors)....the racers make the race hard.

People who hate good route design say that all the time.

 

[RedheadDane]

People who hate good route design say that all the time.

Hmm... notice something about this thread?

 

[CyclistAbi]

On crucial stages two main favourites went out of their comfort zone. You can't ask for more.

 

[Oldermanish]

People who hate good route design say that all the time.

Spoken like we had had a choice of race venues. Business park crits and former, barely paved logging roads make for interesting challenges and are most of the choices available except for the fantasy Zwift/Peloton Unicorn parcours.