In that Movistar Rui Costa, Valverde and the first Nairo came together
It’s been more than ten years since that, but in this review of squads that marked an era, I didn’t want to leave out the Movistar that attacked the 2013 Tour.
that season, The blues surpassed thirty victories with a choral team in which Alejandro Valverde was already captained at full throttle, after the sanction two years earlier, and Nairo Quintana emerged.
But the team was that, coral, with a brutal middle class that was going to grow in performances today that are difficult to see in the same squadwith a fine-nosed Giovanni Visconti in the Giro, a total killer Rui Costa, and a series of names that will surely sound familiar to you: the Herradas, Fran Ventoso, Iván Gutiérrez, Rubén Plaza and even Alex Dowsett, winner of a time trial in the Giro.
In this context Movistar entered the 2013 Tour with a nine, then there were nine cyclists per team, still brutal.
Alejandro Valverde led, on paper, and was supported by Nairo Quintana, undoubtedly one of the best cyclists of the campaign until the start in Corsica of that edition.
Rui Costa was also there as free versehe guaranteed himself that role, along with Andrey Amador, Jonathan Castroviejo, Imanol Erviti, Iván Gutiérrez, Rubén Plaza and JJ Rojas.
It was the best team of that edition, the “Dream Team” as I called it before the race started, even above Team Sky captained by Chris Froome.
In the course of the race there was a Dantesque episode in the management of so much talent on the day the one in the Pyrenees where Froome found himself alone surrounded by blues and with all his Sky dismounted.
It was a historic opportunity to test the imminent winner of that Tour that someone in the car decided not to force.
We were even able to talk about it with Rubén Plaza at the time of his retirement.
That’s what he said that day.
Then there was that stage in the Pyrenees, 2013 Tour, did you spare Chris Froome’s life?
«Of course we did, we literally shit ourselves. Froome was isolated, alone, with Nairo, with Valverde, Rui Costa, Castroviejo, Amador and me. It was crazy, we had him close but we forgave him, his entire team was behind him and he was isolated. Note that this circumstance has never occurred again.. I have a clipping of that day hanging on the wall in the garage at home and I remember it every day.»
The balance for that reason would be brutal.
Rui Costa would win two stagesafter refusing to go down for Alejandro Valverde, caught behind in a day of fans.
The Portuguese, soon after, would be world champion and would leave the team.
But the sensation of that race was Nairo, who earned his full stripes in those fans and had Chris Froome off the hook on the final day in Semoz.
He could not overcome it, but there was solid hope against the British empire.
That team that did not activate the red button when it could achieved three stages, second place overall and the youth and mountain jerseys.
It wasn’t that long ago, just ten years.
Image: RTVE
2024-01-10 15:59:57
#Indurains #GiroTour #double #years #Roches
