Vuelta Prediction: How will GC battle Shake up?

[Moviestar]

Re: Re:

Movistar's team doesn't seem wonderfully strong.

Nairo Quintana (Col), Alejandro Valverde (Spa), Andrey Amador (CRc), Giovanni Visconti (Ita), Rory Sutherland (Aus), Javi Moreno (Spa), Imanol Erviti (Spa), Fran Ventoso (Spa) and José Joaquín Rojas (Spa).

Not too impressive.Some bigger names were left out,strange choices.

I agree with you. Unzue has prefered the 'fresh' riders Sutherland and Moreno above the riders who did a GT already and were preparing for the Vuelta ( Jose Herrada and Intxausti) I think the departure of Intxausti clarifies his absence in the equipe. Capecchi is also likely to leave ( No GT for him this year) Rojas and Ventoso for the flat protecting Quintana and Valverde.

 

[AlexNYC]

Argh, why wasn't Castroviejo selected for Movistar? They look very weak for the TTT...

 

[Son of Amsterhammer]

Re:

Argh, why wasn't Castroviejo selected for Movistar? They look very weak for the TTT...

It's a pretty short TTT though right? I can't imagine they'd lose that much.

 

[Billie]

Re:

Argh, why wasn't Castroviejo selected for Movistar? They look very weak for the TTT...

They look very strong. Valverde, Erviti, Amador, Ventoso, Rojas and Visconti are all very strong on the flat.

 

[ILovecycling]

Only Nieve and Henao will be very strong from Sky,maybe Thomas if he recovered,others not so much.But who cares when we have Astana train here

Movistar team is another master tactic by Unzue lol

 

[Ruudz0r]

Re: Re:

Argh, why wasn't Castroviejo selected for Movistar? They look very weak for the TTT...

It's a pretty short TTT though right? I can't imagine they'd lose that much.

I think they will win the TTT!

 

[JRanton]

Re: Re:

Team Sky for Vuelta a Espana: Chris Froome, Geraint Thomas, Nicolas Roche, Sergio Henao, Mikel Nieve, Vasil Kiryienka, Christian Knees, Ian Boswell, Salvatore Puccio.

Hard to understand the decision of not selecting Deignan and Lopez At least Henao made it this time.The team looks decent on paper but i have doubts about Thomas and Roche form.

Deignan has just returned from a broken collarbone and was a bit inconsistent in Poland so I can understand that decision. Lopez is very unlucky not to ride a grand tour this year but he hasn't helped himself with poor performances at the last two he's ridden (2013 and 2014 Tdf).

Roche has a history of performing much better at the Vuelta than at the Tour when he does the double so there's a pretty good chance he'll be in solid form. With Thomas there's a big question mark, I agree, he's likely to struggle.

 

[JRanton]

Re: Re:

Movistar's team doesn't seem wonderfully strong.

Nairo Quintana (Col), Alejandro Valverde (Spa), Andrey Amador (CRc), Giovanni Visconti (Ita), Rory Sutherland (Aus), Javi Moreno (Spa), Imanol Erviti (Spa), Fran Ventoso (Spa) and José Joaquín Rojas (Spa).

Not too impressive.Some bigger names were left out,strange choices.

It could be even stronger, but come on, that's a pretty damn strong team! Amador and Visconti were their strongest riders at the Giro. Moreno and Sutherland are fresh for the Vuelta. Erviti, Ventoso and Rojas are all strong riders and will look after their captains on the flat.

According to Pro Cycling Stats, Movistar is the strongest team on paper in the race, followed by Sky and then Astana. Of course in reality, Astana is likely to be the strongest but Sky and Movistar are also very strong.

 

[classicomano]

Re:

Van Asbroeck
Bennett
Keizer
Lindeman
Roosen
Teunissen
Tjallingii
Van Winden
Wynants

Awful team...breakaways galore i guess..Asbroeck found the step up tough but could get result or so.

I think they had the riders pick straws to see which unlucky riders would end up on the Vuelta squad.

 

[vedrafjord]

Re: Re:

Roche has a history of performing much better at the Vuelta than at the Tour when he does the double so there's a pretty good chance he'll be in solid form. With Thomas there's a big question mark, I agree, he's likely to struggle.

Yep, his Tour -> Vuelta double results:
14 -> 6
25 -> 16
12 -> 12
40 -> 5

 

[Billie]

Movistar will have the 4th from il Giro and 2nd and 3rd from le Tour.
Astana will have the 2nd and 3rd from il Giro and the 4th from le Tour.

 

[jaylew]

Re:

Van Asbroeck
Bennett
Keizer
Lindeman
Roosen
Teunissen
Tjallingii
Van Winden
Wynants

Awful team...breakaways galore i guess..Asbroeck found the step up tough but could get result or so.

Good lord. For a split second, I wasn't even sure what team that was.

 

[nobilis]

Re: Re:

Movistar's team doesn't seem wonderfully strong.

Nairo Quintana (Col), Alejandro Valverde (Spa), Andrey Amador (CRc), Giovanni Visconti (Ita), Rory Sutherland (Aus), Javi Moreno (Spa), Imanol Erviti (Spa), Fran Ventoso (Spa) and José Joaquín Rojas (Spa).

Not too impressive.Some bigger names were left out,strange choices.

Indeed, I was really disappointed too when I saw the line-up. Where are the strong climbing domestiques and the TT specialists. And having Ventoso and Rojas is a bit redundant.

 

[malakassis]

its vuelta, so many strong spaniards will be there. froome wont double - only hinault and anquetil did,real champs. but he can be useful for nieve . nairo...i am sceptical,but regarding he was not in decline in 3rd week tour,more likely than froome. nibali,aru,landa? no idea, but i expect superstrong landa who maybe is allowed to ride too late.purito and piti will be there, its law.

 

[bala v]

Re:

Only Nieve and Henao will be very strong from Sky,maybe Thomas if he recovered,others not so much.But who cares when we have Astana train here

Movistar team is another master tactic by Unzue lol

So you're again criticizing Unzue, what team would you bring then? I'm really interested, cause I think this team is really well balanced between strong and fresh riders

 

[damian13ster]

Horrible, horrible team from Tinkoff. Zero climbers (I guess Poljanski could count as one), not great for TTT either. Pretty much useless. Luckily team strength is not that important in Vuelta other than TTT and 2 multi-mountain stages

 

[roundabout]

Game over for Kiserlovski at Tinkoff then it seems.

Although he has 2 year contract as far as I remember.

 

[IndianCyclist]

More likely to be a battle of teams Astana vs Sky vs Movistar
The peculiar thing about the Giro & TDF has been that the 2&3 spots were taken by members of the same team

 

[jens_attacks]

Movistar is weak as hell
Astana will dominate with an iron fist

 

[BigMac]

Anyone following Dumoulin's recovery? Giant brings a sweet team.

 

[No_Balls]

Re:

So we have:

Astana----->Sky------->Movistar----->Mikel Landa

Golden boy Aru made the statement Landa is not included in the "real team" vision so there we have the major worries for the baby blue outfit. I dont think that was a very bright move. And then we have a Aru/Nibali fragile "relationship" balancing on a edge awaiting to break down if Landa is clever enough to exploit it. If the rumour is true Nibali are fed up and wants to leave at the end of the year i dont think he has too much patience for bullshiting around. On top of it we have a demented Martinelli who it is doubtful he has it in him to customize a decent strategy that pleases this amount of egos.

Whats the by far strongest team on paper could very well break down in gazillion pieces.

 

[Brullnux]

Re: Re:

So we have:

Astana----->Sky------->Movistar----->Mikel Landa

Golden boy Aru made the statement Landa is not included in the "real team" vision so there we have the major worries for the baby blue outfit. I dont think that was a very bright move. And then we have a Aru/Nibali fragile "relationship" balancing on a edge awaiting to break down if Landa is clever enough to exploit it. If the rumour is true Nibali are fed up and wants to leave at the end of the year i dont think he has too much patience for bullshiting around. On top of it we have a demented Martinelli who it is doubtful he has it in him to customize a decent strategy that pleases this amount of egos.

Whats the by far strongest team on paper could very well break down in gazillion pieces.

That's actually a really good assessment of Astana right now

 

[Eyeballs Out]

AG2R: Domenico Pozzovivo, Gediminas Bagdonas, Mikaël Chérel, Alexis Gougeard, Blel Kadri, Sébastien Minard, Matteo Montaguti, Rinaldo Nocentini, Johan Vansummeren

 

[Gigs_98]

Re:

AG2R: Domenico Pozzovivo, Gediminas Bagdonas, Mikaël Chérel, Alexis Gougeard, Blel Kadri, Sébastien Minard, Matteo Montaguti, Rinaldo Nocentini, Johan Vansummeren

I want to see the Pozzo train xD

 

[May0maniac]

Re: Re:

So we have:

Astana----->Sky------->Movistar----->Mikel Landa

Golden boy Aru made the statement Landa is not included in the "real team" vision so there we have the major worries for the baby blue outfit. I dont think that was a very bright move. And then we have a Aru/Nibali fragile "relationship" balancing on a edge awaiting to break down if Landa is clever enough to exploit it. If the rumour is true Nibali are fed up and wants to leave at the end of the year i dont think he has too much patience for bullshiting around. On top of it we have a demented Martinelli who it is doubtful he has it in him to customize a decent strategy that pleases this amount of egos.

Whats the by far strongest team on paper could very well break down in gazillion pieces.

That isn't the exact Aru quote, he said that he and Nibali could both do very well onthe CG and that there's also Landa (who could do well).
I don't think that Aru has a problem with Landa, he seems to respect him, Landa buried himself for Aru in the 2014 Giro even if he was clearlly suffering at the time (I can't remember if it was because of crashes or sickness, but Landa was suffering a lot in the 2nd half of that Giro).