Tal día como hoy, en 2019, 🇪🇸Alejandro Valverde conseguía una magistral victoria en Mas de la Costa, luciendo el maillot de 🌈 campeón del mundo, ante el que se proclamaría posteriormente ganador de La Vuelta, 🇸🇮Primoz Roglič. #GraciasBala #LaVuelta23 🎥 #VueltaRTVE30A
Alejandro Valverde's immense 2016 compared to Sepp Kuss's 2023 heroics
CyclingTuesday, 05 September 2023 at 13:00
Sepp Kuss is having an extraordinary season. After helping Primoz Roglic win the Giro d'Italia and then Jonas Vingegaard win the Tour de France, the American is leading the Vuelta a España.
It's not normal to see a cyclist race the three majors in the same year, let alone do it at his level. However, what Alejandro Valverde did in 2016 is above and beyond. The Jumbo-Visma rider himself recognized it: "I am comfortable racing all three Grand Tours. For me it hasn't been too demanding a schedule because I was able to recover and train again after each race. I was only in two appointments before the Giro. I've seen that Valverde in 2016 did almost 92 days of competition with the three Grand Tours, the World Championship... so it's a bit more difficult."
And if what Kuss is doing this year is being fabulous, Valverde's at 36 years of age had Homeric dyes. The American barely raced the UAE Tour and the Volta a Catalunya before facing the 3 grand tours and Valverde's was much more...
ALEJANDRO VALVERDE 2016.
He started the season racing the trophies of Mallorca and getting a second place in the Vuelta a Murcia. He then won the queen stage and the overall of the Vuelta a Andalucía. After being tenth in Strade Bianche and not having a great performance in Tirreno Adriatico, he finished 15th in Milan-San Remo, fourth in Amorebieta and then won 2 stages and the overall in Castilla y Leon and La Flèche Wallonne. Almost nothing...
Before the Giro d'Italia he finished 16th in Liège-Bastogne-Liège. In the Giro he won a stage and finished third overall. Then, of course, he did take a break in his calendar. He returned to compete in the Spanish Championships, finishing third in the time trial and fourth in the road race before taking on the Tour de France, where he finished sixth after coming close to winning more than one stage;
He did not stop. He made the podium at the Clásica de San Sebastián and then raced without much luck at the Tokyo Games. After that, he took on the Vuelta a España, finishing 12th overall, second in one stage and third in three. As if that wasn't enough, he finished the season sixth in Il Lombardia;
claps 0visitors 658
Just in
Subscribe to our Daily Newsletter today!
Nov 05, 13:04
0
Popular news
Latest comments
- Yeah.... gear 😅.mikolajjj24-12-2024
- It shouldn’t be about expectations in the first place should it? Besides, if you look at everyone’s calculations as a whole they don’t add up in the first place. There’ll be 2-3 riders with a 50% chance, a dozen with 10 or 20% and dozens more with a 5% so we’re expecting at least 2 if not 3 winners. Remind me again who won before her? Says it all about using data to decide on participation.Mistermaumau24-12-2024
- Ok, happy I’m not too interested in this team coz’ the account of what happened is really hard to follow.Mistermaumau24-12-2024
- The UCI is worse than USA CyclingVeganpotter24-12-2024
- It's not like they wanted her to not win😅 She had an outstanding Olympics. But there's a reason why she wasn't expected to win the road race and that's ok. Things like this happen and it's great...better than seeing expected winners win.Veganpotter24-12-2024
- Bruyneel ? The man with a lifetime ban from cycling...why do you keep giving him and his doper mate, Armstrong, a platform?DJ24-12-2024
- yeah, agree. on the subject of being a “complete rider,” i do think that’s getting more interesting. mathieu seems to have decided he wants to get much better at climbing the the high mountain passes. he appears to be looking for new challenges, which should be interesting to watch. in most cases you’d dismiss a goal like that at age 30, but it’s mvdp. he’s never going to climb with the real climbers, but if he can improve enough it could open up stage wins when the parcours isnt just purely toothy and punchy.OCexile24-12-2024
- I'm loving the level of competition and the compositions of teams in 2025. Sure Pogi had an historic 2024. Slate is clean in 2025. And lots of great athletes--MvdP, Vingo, Primoz, Remco, Marc Hircshi, Pidcock, Carlos Rodriquez--and strong teams want to win. I think Pogi will have another great season in 2025. But I think we will talk about others having great seasons too. Who? I don't know. I'll watch the classics and tours and will root for spirited competition.pidginbil24-12-2024
- Sorry but 50€ a day for an international hotel was already a joke 6 years ago. Combined with the fact a lot of them are international chains, this is just capitalism as the West has taught. I think the business term used now is « dynamic pricing « and it happens everywhere. Maybe some will now reflect on how 3rd world delegations are discriminated by prices when they have always had to travel to meetings, hence distorting results and silverware. We will also still have to see how things work out visa-wise, how many participants will be refused as in Glasgow and on what basis? As regards Pog, the coach had better put in place a strategy to avoid his boycotting for personal political reasons, that’s at least as big a problem as logistics.Mistermaumau24-12-2024
- By the way AI can only answer what it knows and there are many things it doesn’t and will never know.Mistermaumau24-12-2024