Vuelta a Espana 2021 – Miguel Angel Lopez ‘spat the dummy like a spoilt child’ by quitting with 20km to go
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Published 04/09/2021 at 19:00 GMT
"I think he just spat the dummy, simple as that," said Brian Smith, while Bradley Wiggins was nearly as damning, saying: "It doesn’t make sense at all. It doesn’t show respect for the race, for his teammates." You can watch La Vuelta live and ad-free on the Eurosport app and Eurosport.co.uk. Download the Eurosport app for iOS and Android now.
Miguel Angel Lopez ‘spat the dummy like a spoilt child’
Miguel Angel Lopez (Movistar) “spat the dummy like a spoilt child” when he took the astonishing decision to quit La Vuelta with just 20 kilometres remaining on the penultimate stage, according to Eurosport expert Brian Smith.
The Spaniard had seen his seemingly guaranteed spot on the podium disappear when he was caught out by a split on Stage 20, but rather than accepting his misfortune he parked up and abandoned a little while later.
Lopez, who only signed a two-year contract extension at Movistar recently, was spotted getting into the back of a team car on the side of the road.
The Colombian’s loss was Jack Haig’s gain, with the Bahrain Victorious rider moving into third on GC after hanging with a stellar trio in Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma), Adam Yates (Ineos Grenadiers) and Enric Mas (Movistar) in a thrilling finale.
Smith did not hold back when assessing Lopez's latest misdemeanour, while 2012 Tour de France champion Bradley Wiggins wondered if the tantrum was a sackable offence.
“The one person he didn’t want going up the road was Jack Haig, so where was he? He should have been on him. He wasn’t and I think he just spat the dummy, simple as that,” said Smith.
“We’ve seen him do it before at the Giro d’Italia with that spectator, that’s not on, you don’t do that,” continued Smith, referencing Lopez’s infamous altercation at the 2019 Giro when he lashed out at a roadside observer after coming off his bike.
“Yet again just spitting the dummy like a spoilt child.”
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‘It’s sackable’ – What was Lopez thinking?
'It's sackable, isn't it?'
Only an unprecedented disaster can stop Roglic winning the red jersey for a third year in succession, with Mas 2:38 back and just Sunday’s time trial remaining. Haig is 4:48 adrift with a minute buffer on Yates in fourth.
But with the top spot on GC sewn up long before a stage dubbed a mini Liege-Bastogne-Liege, all the talk was focused on what happened with Lopez.
“It doesn’t make sense at all. It doesn’t show respect for the race, for his teammates,” said Wiggins.
“I worry for him a little bit in the future because I thought he’d got past this stage of his career.
“We were talking about where Movistar go in terms of their big leader, with [Alejandro] Valverde coming into retirement. They haven’t obviously won this race for a while.
“They need someone who can really rally the troops. I don’t think Lopez is that rider for them.
“Mas is a great rider but I don’t see him winning a Grand Tour, he’s just a consistent general classification performer, I don’t think his time trial ability is good enough, I don’t think he has that star quality to really leapfrog the likes of Roglic and [Tadej] Pogacar in the next few years.
“But Lopez does on his day. We’ve seen Lopez at the Tour de France winning and beating Pogacar and Roglic. We saw him on the queen stage the other day, always willing to throw down the gauntlet in the final stages and win.
“He’s capable of winning the world’s biggest bike races. But with that comes this looseness that is so unpredictable. With a day to go, 24 hours left of this bike race, and he’s got off.”
When asked whether he would trust Lopez, former team boss Smith added: “No. I’m not sure he’ll be at Movistar next year.”
“It’s sackable, isn’t it?” suggested Wiggins.
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‘Why didn’t he continue riding? – Wiggins on Yates missing podium shot
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