Tag: Alejandro Valverde
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Primoz Roglic says nothing but does everything – a recap of stages 11-21 of the 2019 Vuelta a Espana
Favourites for the 2019 Vuelta a Espana A recap of stages 1-10 A recap of stages 11-21 After the first half of this year’s Vuelta, Primoz Roglic was in the lead. He was in the lead after the second half too. How did that happen? Let’s pick up with, ooh, let’s go with Stage 13.…
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Primoz Roglic takes a turn to be favourite – a recap of stages 1-10 of the 2019 Vuelta a Espana
Favourites for the 2019 Vuelta a Espana A recap of stages 1-10 When you’re reporting on the first 10 stages of a 21-stage race, there’s only one logical place to start. Let’s talk about Stage 7. Some things never change Stage 7 was the archetypal Vuelta stage. It finished with 20% gradients and Alejandro Valverde…
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How are you supposed to feel about Alejandro Valverde being world champion?
After two silver medals and four bronze ones, Alejandro Valverde’s world championships bridesmaidery finally came to an end this weekend. A lot of people will say it’s nothing less than a spectacularly good rider deserves. A lot of people will say it’s more than a man who served a two-year doping ban deserves. There’s probably…
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Simon Yates gets to grips with three-week racing | a recap of stages 16-21 of the 2018 Vuelta a Espana
A cast list for the 2018 Vuelta a Espana Week one recap Week two recap Final week recap Earlier this year, in the closing stages of the Giro d’Italia, Simon Yates collapsed like your granny after half a bottle of gin. Fortunately, fears that gin might strike twice proved unfounded and he held it together…
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Alejandro Valverde is no panda
When Dan Martin won Liege-Bastogne-Liege in 2013, he was chased up the final drag by a panda. It was a memorable backdrop to a race-winning, perhaps even career-defining, attack. Look at him (Dan Martin) go! Today, on almost exactly the same patch of road, Martin again found himself at the head of the race having…
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Alejandro Valverde, La Fleche Wallonne, the Mur de Huy, etc, etc
Last year, I wrote: “La Fleche Wallonne pretty much always amounts to a hill climb after a 200km warm-up. Alejandro Valverde is still the fastest hill climber, just as he was last year and the year before.” This year, I’ll write: La Fleche Wallonne pretty much always amounts to a hill climb after a 200km…
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Robert Gesink has a new modus operandi
Without wishing to sound too wilfully contradictory, Robert Gesink is an interesting rider for how boring he is. A man who has finished fourth and sixth in the Tour de France and who has three top ten finishes in the Vuelta a Espana is clearly among the very finest riders in the world. Except that…
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Alejandro Valverde is still in the Giro d’Italia
Alejandro doesn’t always sprint for fourth place. Sometimes there aren’t three riders ahead of him and he has to settle for sprinting for the win. That’s what happened at the end of a short but gruelling stage 16. The attacks started early and continued throughout. Without wishing to walk you through who attacked when, the…
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A reason to warm to Alejandro Valverde
“There were some unexpected moves by Movistar,” said Tom Dumoulin after the stage. What he meant was there was one unexpected move by Movistar, the team, and then about a billion inexplicable attacks by Alejandro Valverde. It was hard to know precisely what Valverde was trying to achieve. He didn’t pick a stretch of road…
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Alejandro Valverde can use Google StreetView
And back to second. After yesterday’s win, normal service has resumed for Peter Sagan. He didn’t seem too bothered. I guess he’s used to it by now. Alejandro Valverde was the latest person to take a turn at being the one person to finish ahead of Sagan. He checked out the up, up, down and…