Tour de France 2017

he can beat Froom maybe, can he and his new team beat Sky? An he will be on a big contract I bet.

Everyone seems to know the destination already, and Sky have said nothing about retaining him so it must be a done deal..

If he goes to Movistar does he play second fiddle to Quintana? Or do they get equal billing?

Landa will get the magic motor wheel only when he is team leader.

#tinfoilhat

What about Valverde? He would probably have been team leader this Tour given Quintana's form and the fact he'd done the Giro.

He's old but he's not likely to want to be shoved aside.

Suppose it depends how well he recovers from his fooked knee.

I've been bad and listened to a couple of Lance's latest podcast's on the tour and sadly found them quite insightful. He said the contract is signed with Movistar for Landa but there is an unwritten rule to not report transfer news until August 1st in the cycle media. He said it is wierd Sky took him to the tour if he is 100% leaving though as thats not the done thing to do and you almost always leave a departing team member at home for various reasons, most notably if they do well, it makes you look foolish for letting them leave.

Landa moves from Sky, ends up Quintana's domestique. Quits and moves back to Spain.

Opens tapas bar.

Makes a fortune.

Makes a fortune.

Sponsors Pro racing team, wins Tour

Landa with a full Sky support team could easily win a grand tour, particularly a hillier, TT light version. Movistar have a strong support team too, and perhaps have realised that Quintana might be good for only one grand tour a year, so some GTs open for him to lead.

Also Spanish leader of a Spanish team, probably an easy choice. I expect that would offer greater endorsements and sponsorship money for his personal income, compared to being a leader at Sky, even with a larger salary.

Well Froomey/Froomedog bided his time when it looked like he was right up there with Wiggins

Bided his time? I'm not convinced. He was leader the year after Wiggins won (which was the year most people would have recognized him as being as strong/stronger). Maybe that's a precedent though.

As people have said upthread, based on that alone, there's a better precedent for riders staying on and leading the team in GCs than leaving Sky and doing well in a 'lesser' team.

That doesn't mean that an individual convinced they are stronger than their leader will not want, at least, the opportunity to win. Who knows what Landa's thinking, but it wouldn't surprise me to see him piss off.

It's like the lottery. You can't win if you don't play.

#terriblemetaphor

He said it is wierd Sky took him to the tour if he is 100% leaving though as thats not the done thing to do and you almost always leave a departing team member at home for various reasons, most notably if they do well, it makes you look foolish for letting them leave.

On the other hand, Sky would also look like mugs if they failed to win the tour due to lack of quality domestique support in the mountains.

If Landa has signed with Movistar already, he needs to change agents. His value is only going one way at the moment.

I don't see why he'd go to Movistar anyway, as he'll be down the pecking order behind Valverde and Quintana, whatever the team management is saying.

He'd be best served by joining a team where he is the undisputed GC leader, not one where he shares leadership duties. The trouble is, there aren't many teams looking for a new GC rider at the moment, so he's probably limited to UAE or Astana (although that depends on where Aru chooses to go) so he's probably going to have to accept joint leadership. If that's the case there's an argument that he should stay at Sky, because they've shown before that they'll back a stronger upcoming rider ahead of the established star.

I personally think it's strange Landa ended up at Sky at all: would have thought Movistar would have firstly because he's Spanish and secondly after riding the 2015 Giro in support of Aru he showed he was capable of winning a GT. maybe the timing was off and the team felt they didn't want three leaders on the books. Although Valverde is still winning for fun (and this Tour really misses him) surely his time going for GC is close to an end, it makes sense to snaffle the best Spanish GT rider out there.

And being Spanish he might find he leapfrogs Quintana in the pecking order, especially what has been so far a disappointing season by Quintana's standards. Was sad seeing him go backwards yesterday.

Or what @andyp said haha

Can outclimb Nairo, outsprint Peter and his luft game is on point too.

I wish people would stop saying on point. Its a fucking awful piece of language.

Surely what Movistar can offer Landa over sky is they can promise him the Vuelta even if he has to support Nairo at the Tour for a year or two where as Froome seems determined to keep the Vuelta up his sleeve, I guess for if a tour goes pear shaped

Talk is cheap.

Where does Valverde fit into this? He is going to slow at some point (we hope - maybe all that reinfused blood has halted the ageing process), but Movistar is his team and Quintana struggles to get their full support. Why would Landa be any different?

I'd hazard a guess that it would be different as Landa has shown he can surpass Froome over a three week GT whereas Valverde and Quintana can't.

Hang on, we have a week left to go.

Landa has shown he can surpass Froome over a three week GT

Pls show your workings

Brailsford losing his shit: http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/brailsford-launches-rant-against-cyclingnews-journalist/

Brailsford needs to stay away from the press generally. That said Cyclingnews is a steaming turd, interesting that the comments are as anti-CN as they are Sky.