Victory record holder at Volta Portugal, David Blanco, has criticized the national team for the 82nd edition of the race, arguing that the ego of the cyclists, namely the W52-FC Porto and Efapel, interferes with the team’s interests.
“At the Tower stage, I really laughed a lot, because I knew it was going to happen, which is unfortunate. I talked to them [Alejandro Marque e Gustavo Veloso] before and tell them what will happen and it happened like this. It is sad that it is so predictable. I knew vanity would outweigh the team’s interests. And that shouldn’t happen,” the five-time Queen’s Cycling National Champion highlighted to Lusa.
The 46-year-old Galician has never been a person of excessive words, he has always been distinguished by his graceful and honest trees. Now, once again, Blanco has given up on being politically correct, criticizing Peloton’s position, especially the two strongest teams in the edition that ends on Sunday in Viseu.
“I am sad because some teams gave a sad picture of what they consider cycling. In the two days, there were two people who showed the values of cycling. And there were others, in the fourth stage, very angry, but on the day of the tower, for me, they were a shame,” he said, Pointing positively to his great friends Mark and Veloso (both from Atom General/Tavira/Maria Nova Hotel), and on the negative side, to W52-FC runners Porto and Efapel, who “think badly of each other all day”.
Efapel, the former cyclist, defended that if it was Antonio Carvalho, “it was all climbing [da Torre] Hanging, he’s not in good shape, he should be the first to give up his place [de líder] And he started working with his teammates “Frederico Figueiredo and Mauricio Moreira, respectively in third and fifth places, led by Marche, who is five seconds ahead of W52-FC Porto’s Amaro Antunes, who left him with some repairs.
« At W52-FC Porto, right now [Ricardo] Opening Villala, they started to look like fools. “If they chased the three, they would have caught Alex,” he said, referring to the position of Amaro Antunes, Johnny Brandao and Joao Rodriguez, the three line leaders, if they chased the three, they would have caught Alex, what happens is everyone is going to think about where they are in general. Of the dragons, in the third stage, which Mark won, he wore yellow.
Blanco has won the Vuelta five times
For the rest, the Galicians refer to the blue and white team as the dominant team, for having “much better” riders. However, there is a catch: “If they have to use the brain, they short circuit. For me, the biggest problem is that no one says ‘You have to do this, you have to do this.'” W52-FC Porto never works as a team Last year, they were quick to eliminate Gustavo, for example. They are always the strongest and that’s why they win. They never ran as a team, in my opinion. As a team, Tavira runs,” he said, extending his criticism to the rest of the team.
“In Volta, there are teams that are content to put a guy on the run on a flat day, appear on TV, and that’s it. Other teams are ‘patching.’ There were more people in the guard who could win in [quarta] stage but when we have conductors instead of directors what happens,” he stressed.
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