World Championship - ***SPOILERS***
Comments
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Above The Cows wrote:As to the Costa/J-Rod dynamic. I desperately want to know what they said to each other 250m from the line.
Rodriguez was asked about that in the press conference but just said something like "I was trying to make him nervous". 6 mins into the video here
http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/15550/Video-Rodriguez-and-Valverde-face-criticism-over-Spanish-team-tactics-at-world-championship-road-race.aspx0 -
Froome in bad weather?
Tirreno Adriatico Stage 6 and the World's suggest he doesn't do well in wet conditions......“New York has the haircuts, London has the trousers, but Belfast has the reason!0 -
FJS wrote:
I really don't buy that. Valverde had just sat in the wheels the last 10 kms with J-Rod away and watch Rui Costa. He didn;t need to attack, as he had by far the fastest sprint of that group.TheBigBean wrote:Of the last four, I think the only person Valverde would truly have liked to win would have been himself. Costa is off to another team so the rainbow jersey would have been no benefit to Valverde if Costa won. Ultimately, he didn't have the legs to follow Costa or attack when J-Rod was first caught.
Rick's explanation is the only one that makes sense, but I can imagine some people in Spain not being too keen on Valverde getting more invitations to ride in the worlds.
Under that scenario, if Costa and Valverde had arrived at the finish line together, Valverde would have gifted it. I find that rather implausible. In my opinion, the only reason Valverde didn't follow Costa was because he couldn't - nothing else makes sense.
The finish was the same as this year's LBL - Valverde sat on wheels and didn't have the legs at the end. Swap Costa for Dan Martin.0 -
TheBigBean wrote:FJS wrote:
I really don't buy that. Valverde had just sat in the wheels the last 10 kms with J-Rod away and watch Rui Costa. He didn;t need to attack, as he had by far the fastest sprint of that group.TheBigBean wrote:Of the last four, I think the only person Valverde would truly have liked to win would have been himself. Costa is off to another team so the rainbow jersey would have been no benefit to Valverde if Costa won. Ultimately, he didn't have the legs to follow Costa or attack when J-Rod was first caught.
Rick's explanation is the only one that makes sense, but I can imagine some people in Spain not being too keen on Valverde getting more invitations to ride in the worlds.
Under that scenario, if Costa and Valverde had arrived at the finish line together, Valverde would have gifted it. I find that rather implausible. In my opinion, the only reason Valverde didn't follow Costa was because he couldn't - nothing else makes sense.
The finish was the same as this year's LBL - Valverde sat on wheels and didn't have the legs at the end. Swap Costa for Dan Martin.
Valv can't be seen to chase down j rod but nor was he going to work with him - hence j rod's nervousness and tactical fwilure ( I.e. constantly attacking).0 -
shazzz wrote:Hmmmm. Not sure if that worked. It was supposed to link to a very moving photo from Uran's twitter...
Contador is the Greatest0 -
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ddraver wrote:I appear to be in a cynical mood this morning but I'd say the man on the street couldnt give a monkeys about what happened...
To illustrate my point, have a look at the highlights on the independent website where Rui Costa "easily wins" the sprint against an Oliver Rodringo...
Trust me guys we re still a minnow sport that no one cares about - Rick will be happy
:P We're in danger of confusing passion with incompetence
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Interesting piece of fact some of you may know and some of you may not:
Costa won Portugal`s Sport Personality of the Year Award 2012. Pretty impressive given he was up against Ronaldo. I suspect he may win it again this year : )Contador is the Greatest0 -
ddraver wrote:Valverde needs a GC guy who is only riding for time to wheelsuck to actually win something, otherwise he never seems to have the legs...he's never been any good in one day races since the...unpleasantness
Bronze in the worlds is a good effort.
He's also won a stage in the tour and landed a podium in a grand tour.
Too much focus on doping - not enough on results - as per usual.0 -
Costa presser:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... N-ZGvZR4l8
Valv and JRod presser:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... ZTY8Egj-vYContador is the Greatest0 -
Rick Chasey wrote:ddraver wrote:Valverde needs a GC guy who is only riding for time to wheelsuck to actually win something, otherwise he never seems to have the legs...he's never been any good in one day races since the...unpleasantness
Bronze in the worlds is a good effort.
He's also won a stage in the tour and landed a podium in a grand tour.
Meh, Wheelsucking and Bonus seconds though... :PWe're in danger of confusing passion with incompetence
- @ddraver0 -
Above The Cows wrote:nic_77 wrote:I think the GB team just turned up to take as many free gels from the first feed station as possible with no intention of finishing the ride.
If they were Dutch I would believe that. Have you seen the price of gels over here? €2.50 a gel. €2.50! Praise be to Wiggle
As to the Costa/J-Rod dynamic. I desperately want to know what they said to each other 250m from the line. There were some proper death stares going on there. Someone should slow down the footage and make something with it. Short of doing a sort of 'I'm looking at you motion followed by a slow throat slit' it couldn't have been more entertaining.
At the time I speculated J-Rod said something along the lines of "how much do you want to let me win?"
Given the result, Costa's reply must have been "infinity billion euros".0 -
ddraver wrote:Rick Chasey wrote:ddraver wrote:Valverde needs a GC guy who is only riding for time to wheelsuck to actually win something, otherwise he never seems to have the legs...he's never been any good in one day races since the...unpleasantness
Bronze in the worlds is a good effort.
He's also won a stage in the tour and landed a podium in a grand tour.
Meh, Wheelsucking and Bonus seconds though... :P
How's a man like Valverde going to find that little bit extra to make himself a winner again? He needs some sort of "ganancia marginal"...0 -
TheBigBean wrote:In my opinion, the only reason Valverde didn't follow Costa was because he couldn't - nothing else makes sense.
Check out the footage...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYdRO7QHpuk
When Costa slips away from Valverde and Nibali, (about 1:30 in...) Valverde doesn't seem to do much other than sit on Nibali's wheel. And yet, he still has enough left to outsprint Nibali at the finish.
Pretty typical of Valverde. He follows the moves, sits in the wheels and then wins in a sprint. Can anyone remember him winning a major race on his own?0 -
greasedscotsman wrote:Pretty typical of Valverde. He follows the moves, sits in the wheels and then wins in a sprint. Can anyone remember him winning a major race on his own?
Lots and lots of attempts. Most recent and high profile would be from Stage 17 of Tdf 12.
Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) salvaged a disappointing Tour de France, with a prestigious stage victory on the new summit finish at Peyragudes on stage 17. The 32-year-old Spanish rider was part of a 17-man breakaway, which escaped in the first half of the short, sharp, 143.5km stage, then escaped alone on the steep penultimate climb of the Port de Balès.
Despite aggression from Liquigas-Cannondale behind him - as Vincenzo Nibali sought to put pressure on the Sky team of Maillot Jaune Bradley Wiggins - Valverde managed to hold off the chase from behind on the Col de Peyresourde. His lead of two and a half minutes was whittled down to just 19 seconds however, as Wiggins’ Sky mountain super-domestique Chris Froome led his leader across the line to take second and third.
http://www.steephill.tv/2012/tour-de-fr ... /stage-17/
So much irrational hate for the man.Contador is the Greatest0 -
frenchfighter wrote:So much irrational hate for the man.
Who says I hate him? Actually, I don't like him, but it has nothing to do with how he rides.0 -
greasedscotsman wrote:frenchfighter wrote:So much irrational hate for the man.
Who says I hate him? Actually, I don't like him, but it has nothing to do with how he rides.
It was a general comment.
I would rather 1 Valverde then 25 factory boys riding tempo.
I provided the example, there are more if you want to find them yourself. Not to mention the huge number of top 5 placings. In his ten years as a pro, his CQ rankings are as follows: 4, 4, 1, 1, 3, 2, 14, 4, 6, 338. A better palmares than almost the entire pro peloton.
(Just an fyi, Froome`s rankings are as follows: 741, 275, 367, 475, 42, 11, 1....total lightweight)Contador is the Greatest0 -
frenchfighter wrote:It was a general comment.
I would rather 1 Valverde then 25 factory boys riding tempo.
I provided the example, there are more if you want to find them yourself. Not to mention the huge number of top 5 placings. In his ten years as a pro, his CQ rankings are as follows: 4, 4, 1, 1, 3, 2, 14, 4, 6, 338. A better palmares than almost the entire pro peloton.
(Just an fyi, Froome`s rankings are as follows: 741, 275, 367, 475, 42, 11, 1....total lightweight)
His ranking has nothing to do with how he wins (or gets placings) at races. It was a genuine question, I couldn't remember him winning anything big on his own. OK, you have given one example and that win shows he doesn't just need to wait for the sprint. Which is what he did on Sunday.0 -
The irony of using that '12 Tour stage to illustrate a recent Valverde victory is that everybody knows he would have been hunted down and dropped mercilessly had Froome been allowed off the leash...0
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It is entirely probable to me that he didnt have the legs. After all, riding for over 7 hours in the pouring rain and having made an effort to keep up with Nibs and JRod up the climbs, may make a rider`s legs tired...drafting at that point of such a race for a handful of km while at the same time trying to maintain a gap from the chasers is not exactly going to rejuvenate your legs much either.
All four of those riders hardly sprinted at all.
You can be sure that Valverde wants a WC win more than anything else other than a Tour win. And I would bet good money that if he could he would have latched onto Costa`s wheel immediately and would have tried to outsprint JRod if Costa bridged.Contador is the Greatest0 -
frenchfighter wrote:It is entirely probable to me that he didnt have the legs. After all, riding for over 7 hours in the pouring rain and having made an effort to keep up with Nibs and JRod up the climbs, may make a rider`s legs tired...drafting at that point of such a race for a handful of km while at the same time trying to maintain a gap from the chasers is not exactly going to rejuvenate your legs much either.
All four of those riders hardly sprinted at all.
Of course, but watch the video, doesn't look like it. He doesn't even react to Costa's move. He was just focused on Nibali.frenchfighter wrote:You can be sure that Valverde wants a WC win more than anything else other than a Tour win. And I would bet good money that if he could he would have latched onto Costa`s wheel immediately and would have tried to outsprint JRod if Costa bridged.
I don't think so. Costa would have just sat up if Valverde was on his wheel, so Rodriguez would have won. Probably... 0 -
greasedscotsman wrote:Of course, but watch the video, doesn't look like it. He doesn't even react to Costa's move. He was just focused on Nibali.
He was expecting Nibali to close the gap, but Nibali didn't have the legs. At that point, if he had anything left he should have jumped across, but he didn't. Notice that in the sprint finish he barely got a bike length on Nibali - normally when a rider is sitting in and has a powerful sprint they will go clear by a lot more.greasedscotsman wrote:
I don't think so. Costa would have just sat up if Valverde was on his wheel, so Rodriguez would have won. Probably...
Costa would then have ended up with bronze. Better to ride and have a chance for gold with a probable silver.0 -
Nonsense. Nibali had been doing all the work chasing J-Rod for miles, he was never going to be the first to react. All Valverde had to do was react when Costa jumped. He had no problem at all following Nibali on the Via Selviati; I really do not buy he didn't have the legs, and even if he was tired, he could at least have made an attempt to react to Rui Costa. Minguez (and J-Rod) does not buy his story; I think he should have a pretty good insight in what goes on in his team, right?TheBigBean wrote:greasedscotsman wrote:Of course, but watch the video, doesn't look like it. He doesn't even react to Costa's move. He was just focused on Nibali.
He was expecting Nibali to close the gap, but Nibali didn't have the legs. At that point, if he had anything left he should have jumped across, but he didn't.0 -
Froome was so tired yesterday that he managed to go for a visit to the Sidi factory:
http://instagram.com/p/e43EiSGxgq/Contador is the Greatest0 -
TheBigBean wrote:
He was expecting Nibali to close the gap, but Nibali didn't have the legs. At that point, if he had anything left he should have jumped across, but he didn't. Notice that in the sprint finish he barely got a bike length on Nibali - normally when a rider is sitting in and has a powerful sprint they will go clear by a lot more.
Yes that would be my guess too, he probably hoped Nibali would react and by the time it became obvious he wasn't going to Costa had a gap which Valverde didn't have the legs to close. Tactical error but after 270k hard to know just how much they had left.[Castle Donington Ladies FC - going up in '22]0 -
FJS wrote:I really do not buy he didn't have the legs, and even if he was tired, he could at least have made an attempt to react to Rui Costa. Minguez (and J-Rod) does not buy his story; I think he should have a pretty good insight in what goes on in his team, right?
I've only read that they think Valverde should have gone with Costa. We all think that. The only matter for debate is why he didn't. It might have been part of his wicked plan to get bronze for himself and a gold for Costa, or it might have been becuase he was tired. I favour the latter reasoning.
As I said upthread, it is almost exactly the same situation as LBL this year. Valverde didn't react to the move by Dan Martin - is that because he wanted Dan Martin to win, or because he didn't have the legs and thought someone else would chase?0
