I know riders get older , new riders appear
Its like the seasons and its just nature
But I guess we have or at least I have been used to a certain order for awhile and changes of regime are not always so quick and so definite
Pog, Bernal, WVA, MVP, Allaphillipe, Carapaz , are the winners on the block now for a few years
The second tier are Gaudu, Casnefoy, Mas, Almedia, McNulty, Schachmann, etc
But I guesss I believed that the old guard could still compete or at least wanted to believe
Now I feel Nibali, Valverde, Quintana, Fuglsang, GVA ,Pinot , Chaves, maybe done wining the big ones (or even the little ones)
And of course Froome is done too
What role for an ex champion who is not domestique material ?
J
I think van Avermaet dealt with it quite gracefully today, working for a possible successor as the defending Olympic champion in the Olympic race.
Don't know what happened to Valverde (and Spain) today, but in general I was surprised by his level again this year, when I thought age had finally gotten him. Seems it has, but his decline is still very slow for someone of that age, with the strong performances of younger riders. So, what goes for him, goes just as well for the others: If he still likes to race and someone is paying him to do so, it's his decision. I don't think it's a shame to race on a lower level, whether as domestique or in lower tier races, if you still have fun on the bike but aren't able to compete with the very best anymore. I used to think differently when I was younger ("oh my god, what a disgrace to not be able to hold on anymore when you once where a big champion"), but age gets to everyone, that's not a disgrace.
What I don't like to see of course are athletes who aren't willing to see that this time have come, who will not accept a smaller role and will go on talking like they are the big champions - but on the other hand, that's natural as well, for some driven athletes who don't have another identity yet, it's just hard, but it doesn't diminish what they have achieved.
Someone like Pinot is a different case, it sounds like he's basically fighting against a possible end of career after having fought already a lot in his career. He never truely reached the pinnacle. He's not that old, there are enough riders who only reached their best results when they were a few years older than he's now. So that would be just such a pity, one of the many cases of somehow unfullfilled. Yet that's measured by his persumed potential, otherwise he has already had a great career.
For Quintana it must also have been hard to see Bernal win the Tour, when for years it looked like Quintana would be the logical first Colombian rider to do that, and then someone young comes along and seems to do it with ease.
Fuglsang, I feel he has reached what was in his potential. At his age he can just be content.
Chaves will always be in our hearts, no matter what he does.
Guys like Fuglsang, Valverde, Nibali, van Avermaet (as more or less a "sprinter"), Froome, Thomas, they are now just in an age where retirement in a not too far away future seems just normal and logical. They are all 35+.
How they deal with it and what they do afterwards will be different individually. Thomas can surely work in the media, if he wants to. He could take over from Kirby.... (as if that would ever happen). Valverde will probably work more in Spanish cycling. About the others I'm not sure. Fuglsang, Nibali and Froome seem, in their own ways, to be introverts more than outgoing media people.
For Nibali and Froome especially, competition, riding your bike, must be everything. I don't really see them in another role, they are so driven and ambitious and see themselves as champions first.
I don't really see them in a DS or coaching role, either.
But I don't know much about them. Maybe Nibali could take up another sport, I could see a second career in another sport that doesn't have such a broad professional base as cycling. Or maybe he could become a rider of more "adventurous" races. Froome, together with his wife, I could imagine becoming a kind of entrepeneur...
Resumée: Although it's always hard for a fan to part, too, I find it totally normal that athletes of that age will eventually quit, although I don't want to call for them to do so and think it's their own decision, I don't have much hope for these riders anymore to do something big. Each of them can retire in peace and be proud of their career, if they decide to do so. There's another life waiting for them.
It's a more difficult decision for those who have been around for many years but aren't that old, yet. Then it becomes a very personal question how much you are willing to suffer and spend years on a maybe hopeless case/ body.