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Teams & Riders Alberto Contador Discussion Thread

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Apr 17, 2015
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I'll admit I haven't really followed Cataldo's results in the past, but I don't recall him ever doing a good Time-trial.
I doubt kiryienka will ride hard as he'll save energy.
Contador, Porte and Uran should be the top 3. Aru will be far behind but still in the top 10.
The only riders who will actually try I this TT are the top 20 in GC and some of them are hopeless at time trials.
 

rm7

Mar 14, 2015
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Tbh i don't think Contador have a chance to win this ITT.. but he will definitely be in top8, maybe even top5. It really depends on riders like Zakarin, Boaro, Kangert etc, if they'll go full gas or just roll trough.

It's 44 KM flat, around 8-9 KM hills at low %, and then descent.

44 KM flat, a lot of riders will put time into him, and then hills are also in TT position, not steep climbs where he'll ride like a climb. The descents are technical ones, but i don't think he'll risk anything there to gain maybe 5-10 seconds.

It's a power TT. But the interesting thing is, that Porte really had trouble following his teammates wheel the other day when they were trying to get him back to the peleton. So maybe Contador could beat him.
 
Apr 17, 2015
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I said it before, but I'll say it again. No domestiques will go for the win here. There's no need for them to go full gas and if they do they'll have to be very good because there's no point in for example, Boaro or Kangert going full gas then placing 2nd to say Uran, it's just a waste of energy.

Only top 20 GC riders will ride it hard some by as hard as others.
 
Jul 29, 2012
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Many of you fail to realise that the ITT comes after 2 hard weeks in this race.

And Contador actually can ride very well on the flat in ITT. Well i'm talking about '09 Contador.

Look back at his ITT in the tour that year, he had by far the best time in the first part which was completely flat.
 
Re:

rm7 said:
Tbh i don't think Contador have a chance to win this ITT.. but he will definitely be in top8, maybe even top5. It really depends on riders like Zakarin, Boaro, Kangert etc, if they'll go full gas or just roll trough.

It's 44 KM flat, around 8-9 KM hills at low %, and then descent.

44 KM flat, a lot of riders will put time into him, and then hills are also in TT position, not steep climbs where he'll ride like a climb. The descents are technical ones, but i don't think he'll risk anything there to gain maybe 5-10 seconds.

It's a power TT. But the interesting thing is, that Porte really had trouble following his teammates wheel the other day when they were trying to get him back to the peleton. So maybe Contador could beat him.
A lot of riders will put time into Contador on 44km flat? No way, he's one of the best TTers in this field, especially after 2 weeks of hard racing.

Even mini-Berto got some good results, and he wasn't as powerful as he is now
http://cqranking.com/men/asp/gen/race.asp?raceid=5747
http://cqranking.com/men/asp/gen/race.asp?raceid=5741

In fact, I checked his positions in 40+ km TTs since 2007 (I did count 2012 Vuelta and 2008 Giro which were both 39.4km):
35* - 6 - 5 - 2 - 4 - 1 - 1 - 6 - 35* - 3 - 3 - 2 - 9
Granted we have no results since the 2012 Worlds, and he has never ridden such a long ITT (closest we have are the 2 at the 2007 TDF), and the field was weak in some of these (but then again the field here is weak too). However it shows he is definitely NOT as bad as some people clearly think he is. He has a history of being underrated in ITTs, even though he has proven the doubters wrong many times.
 

rm7

Mar 14, 2015
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Re: Re:

LaFlorecita said:
rm7 said:
Tbh i don't think Contador have a chance to win this ITT.. but he will definitely be in top8, maybe even top5. It really depends on riders like Zakarin, Boaro, Kangert etc, if they'll go full gas or just roll trough.

It's 44 KM flat, around 8-9 KM hills at low %, and then descent.

44 KM flat, a lot of riders will put time into him, and then hills are also in TT position, not steep climbs where he'll ride like a climb. The descents are technical ones, but i don't think he'll risk anything there to gain maybe 5-10 seconds.

It's a power TT. But the interesting thing is, that Porte really had trouble following his teammates wheel the other day when they were trying to get him back to the peleton. So maybe Contador could beat him.
A lot of riders will put time into Contador on 44km flat? No way, he's one of the best TTers in this field, especially after 2 weeks of hard racing.

Even mini-Berto got some good results, and he wasn't as powerful as he is now
http://cqranking.com/men/asp/gen/race.asp?raceid=5747
http://cqranking.com/men/asp/gen/race.asp?raceid=5741

In fact, I checked his positions in 40+ km TTs since 2007 (I did count 2012 Vuelta and 2008 Giro which were both 39.4km):
35* - 6 - 5 - 2 - 4 - 1 - 1 - 6 - 35* - 3 - 3 - 2 - 9
Granted we have no results since the 2012 Vuelta, and he has never ridden such a long ITT (closest we have are the 2 at the 2007 TDF), and the field was weak in some of these (but then again the field here is weak too). However it shows he is definitely NOT as bad as some people clearly think he is. He has a history of being underrated in ITTs, even though he has proven the doubters wrong many times.

When I say a lot of riders, what i really ment was a few riders. But "a lot of riders" when you walk about Contador is maybe 3-4 who's going faster than him.
I'm not saying his TT is bad at all, i even said that he'll definitely top8, maybe top3, but it really depends on who's riding full gas.

I don't want to use his pre-2012 TT results really, but after 2012 in the TT's he have gained more time on the hilly sections than he loose to some of the TT riders on the flat parts. He also said himself that the TT course wasn't as hard as he expected. But he'll have the advantage of the TT being 2 weeks in the race. I think he'll put around 2 mins into Aru, and him, Porte and Uran will finish:

Uran -
Porte + 20 seconds
Contador +30 seconds
Aru + 2.30 mins

But there's also riders like Kangert, Boaro, Zakarin, Cataldo.. Maybe a few other who could ride a very good TT.
 
Jelantik said:
contador earned a new nick name: "anaconda" ... Seems perfect to describe him now.

http://velonews.competitor.com/2015/05/news/one-more-squeeze-contador-tightening-grip-on-pink-jersey_371118

Wow Astana DS speaks:
“It’s not only difficult to beat Contador, it’s all but impossible,” Martinelli told VeloNews. “What Fabio should do is improve on his third place from last year, and a second place overall right now, I’d take that.”

They are already shooting for 2nd :)
 
Nah. Just mind games from Martinelli speaking the language of Contador. Any DS bossing the strongest team throwing in the towel before we´ve even reached any serious mountains yet should be fired on spot.

But i´ll give him that it will be very hard if they are massacred on Saturday.
 
No_Balls said:
Nah. Just mind games from Martinelli speaking the language of Contador. Any DS bossing the strongest team throwing in the towel before we´ve even reached any serious mountains yet should be fired on spot.

But i´ll give him that it will be very hard if they are massacred on Saturday.

I agree. Martinelli is just playing mind games here.
 
Publicus said:
No_Balls said:
Nah. Just mind games from Martinelli speaking the language of Contador. Any DS bossing the strongest team throwing in the towel before we´ve even reached any serious mountains yet should be fired on spot.

But i´ll give him that it will be very hard if they are massacred on Saturday.

I agree. Martinelli is just playing mind games here.

With who? Alberto already has the guys measure, he won't dismiss him though, he's to race savvy for that.
 
Publicus said:
No_Balls said:
Nah. Just mind games from Martinelli speaking the language of Contador. Any DS bossing the strongest team throwing in the towel before we´ve even reached any serious mountains yet should be fired on spot.

But i´ll give him that it will be very hard if they are massacred on Saturday.

I agree. Martinelli is just playing mind games here.

Mind games have an end goal. What does saying this get him? How is it supposed to help him win the race?
 
Jul 29, 2012
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Publicus said:
No_Balls said:
Nah. Just mind games from Martinelli speaking the language of Contador. Any DS bossing the strongest team throwing in the towel before we´ve even reached any serious mountains yet should be fired on spot.

But i´ll give him that it will be very hard if they are massacred on Saturday.

I agree. Martinelli is just playing mind games here.

You'd think so but astana hasn't used their team at all. The way they race it looks they gave up.
 
Carols said:
Publicus said:
No_Balls said:
Nah. Just mind games from Martinelli speaking the language of Contador. Any DS bossing the strongest team throwing in the towel before we´ve even reached any serious mountains yet should be fired on spot.

But i´ll give him that it will be very hard if they are massacred on Saturday.

I agree. Martinelli is just playing mind games here.

With who? Alberto already has the guys measure, he won't dismiss him though, he's to race savvy for that.

Perhaps he hopes that it will cause Contador to relax/stop viewing Aru as a threat to the maglia rosa. It seems very defeatist and frankly completely unsupportive of Aru and the team. Even if he really believes this, I wouldnt say it. Aru is ONLY 17" down and as literally every stage has demonstrated so far anything can and will happen in this race.
 
How does it benefit Contador saying he gladly offers 10-15 watts for the sake of "comfort" in a monster TT? False sense of security or a signal that he feels so good he can do that? These words from Martinelli does not have to be necessary aimed at AC (he´s to battle-hardened and experienced for that) but against TS in the same order of having their guards down. He is speaking what Aru should so that the focus is on Aru while they yet have Landa as a card to play out. Is he to be revealed as their main hope later when the focus was on Fabio?

He has to try everything since they haven´t been successful on the road this far and a shrink in the Astana-armour has been exploited.

Makes a lot more sense then plain and simply stating its over for his boys before it even has begun.
 

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