Teams & Riders Alberto Contador Discussion Thread

[cellardoor]

If Contador doesn't complete the double then in my view he'll focus purely on the Tour next year. I don't think he'll want to finish his career picking off the "easy" GTs, he'll want to come back one last time and show that he really is the best. But let's not focus on such pessimistic things

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

If Contador doesn't complete the double then in my view he'll focus purely on the Tour next year. I don't think he'll want to finish his career picking off the "easy" GTs, he'll want to come back one last time and show that he really is the best. But let's not focus on such pessimistic things

I agree. On both accounts

 

[SeriousSam]

It's not pessimism to think Contador won't win the Tour, it's realism.
Take out two coins from your pocket, flip them. Did you get heads, heads? That's more likely than Contador winning the Tour this year. Just not that likely.

I'm thinking he'll retire this year if he does the double and target only the Tour next year if he doesn't.

 

[BYOP88]

Re:

If Contador doesn't complete the double then in my view he'll focus purely on the Tour next year. I don't think he'll want to finish his career picking off the "easy" GTs, he'll want to come back one last time and show that he really is the best. But let's not focus on such pessimistic things

HAHAHAHAHA

 

[Netserk]

Re:

Well, Contador didnt quit Tour 2013, but he had some option to be on the podium with people as Kreuziger and Nieve helping him, and he was a very good payed rider...but he finished just 6 one day stage races later, he didnt rode La Vuelta.

He quit Giro di Lombardia when the team was worked for him, IMO becouse he wont be top 20.

You can say my vision is quite personal, but i know lot of people inside cycling that think like that, people that in the social net talk well about him but not in private.

Of course Karpets dont think very well..., what did Contador to him that Contador denied when Karpets push him and hit his knee?

Anyway i dont want to disturb his fans, i just want to ask what is a good result for Contador in le Tour, if Giro is a problem for le Tour, and he cant win now, why to ride Giro if the other rivals except Uran didnt rode? Maybe 4th could be a good result, 4 th better than in 2013, when he was only good in the second ITT, perfect for him, but I would like to know now.

Of course if he won, it would be great. If he dont win but he is close, it would be great as well.

Alberto must have raped you hard for you to be so butthurt.

 

[jilbiker]

Re:

Reading "it's not as bad as people think" to do Giro-Tour completely contradicts the obvious fact that the other contenders are not doing it, and why they are not doing it. It is every bit as bad as thought, especially when Astana drills it the entire Giro to make it as hard as possible for Contador. The planned difficulty of the Giro forced by Astana is Nibali's first strike at winning the Tour...I hope he does not of course. If Contador does or does not win the Tour, it will still be a tired Contador. And the odds are against winning if coming in tired. I also think Oleg is mainly pushing him to do it with the, "all top contenders should ride the major races" creed he is barking.

It has nothing to do with Oleg. This is a childhood goal of AC partly from seeing his hero Pantani do it. The average joe rider says impossible but the record breakers say "why not?". Bertie is much smarter than his peers and he has had time with two of people I consider modern masters of the mind games Johann and LA. I don't think we will know the true state of the Giro impact on his system until the tdf. And even during the tdf, its hard to tell.

Keep everyone guessing (including the forum folks ), causes more confusion and makes the job a wee bit easier.

 

[BigMac]

Gratzs on 20k Fleur, had I noticed it earlier I would have opened a thread for you.

Perhaps If I troll this thread hard enough, ****storm would be so widespread mods would have to close it, and you would be back to junior member with only a thousand or so posts.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

Gratzs on 20k Fleur, had I noticed it earlier I would have opened a thread for you.

Perhaps If I troll this thread hard enough, ****storm would be so widespread mods would have to close it, and you would be back to junior member with only a thousand or so posts.

I hadn't even noticed now I have to go back to see which post it was

Edit: it was when I agreed with Taxus

 

[Netserk]

If AC doesnt win Le Tour Im not going to make any excuse He just couldnt get it and thats it... then I'd like for him to try Tour - Vuelta next year and with that form build up for Il Giro - Tour in 2017 and with that maybe retire

Nibali has a really good form and you could see it today, Dawg is still building up and Nairo we still dont know, Le Tour is going to be interesting... for AC Im not asking for 2009 form just a 2011 Giro form and I'll be happy

Tour-Vuelta-Giro-Tour is impossible. Indurain said he still felt the effects of his Giro-Tour double a year later. No way Contador can contest let alone win 4 GTs in a row.

He would have/will do so if it wasn't for his Tour crash last year.

 

[Electress]

He's certainly playing down expectations - his last tweets emphasize how tired he is...

 

[Electress]

Re: Re:

Gratzs on 20k Fleur, had I noticed it earlier I would have opened a thread for you.

Perhaps If I troll this thread hard enough, ****storm would be so widespread mods would have to close it, and you would be back to junior member with only a thousand or so posts.

I hadn't even noticed now I have to go back to see which post it was

Edit: it was when I agreed with Taxus

A red letter day indeed, congrats.

 

[ninjadriver]

Re:

He's certainly playing down expectations - his last tweets emphasize how tired he is...

I was exhausted last week watching Landa and Aru drop Contador on back-to-back stages (I was actually cold sweating on my cheap couch, fearing that Contador would lose the Giro).

And I'm actually depressed thinking about July, as Froome hunches the shoulders and Nibali accelerates and Quintana follows both while Contador grits his teeth and tailguns behind Tom Boonen. I need to lie down now....

 

[Electress]

Re: Re:

He's certainly playing down expectations - his last tweets emphasize how tired he is...

I was exhausted last week watching Landa and Aru drop Contador on back-to-back stages (I was actually cold sweating on my cheap couch, fearing that Contador would lose the Giro).

And I'm actually depressed thinking about July, as Froome hunches the shoulders and Nibali accelerates and Quintana follows both while Contador grits his teeth and tailguns behind Tom Boonen. I need to lie down now....

I so hope not. Let's not get depressed before we need to eh?

Though I know what you mean about the Giro. I was a wreck during that Giro. If his lead hadn't been so big by the mountains, I would have been all over the place!

Just saw a quite horrible image of Froome's knee in the Poel's thread. No one should be that thin. It's ghastly.

 

[HelloDolly]

Re: Re:

He's certainly playing down expectations - his last tweets emphasize how tired he is...

I was exhausted last week watching Landa and Aru drop Contador on back-to-back stages (I was actually cold sweating on my cheap couch, fearing that Contador would lose the Giro).

And I'm actually depressed thinking about July, as Froome hunches the shoulders and Nibali accelerates and Quintana follows both while Contador grits his teeth and tailguns behind Tom Boonen. I need to lie down now....

I so hope not. Let's not get depressed before we need to eh?

Though I know what you mean about the Giro. I was a wreck during that Giro. If his lead hadn't been so big by the mountains, I would have been all over the place!

Just saw a quite horrible image of Froome's knee in the Poel's thread. No one should be that thin. It's ghastly.

Romain Bardet, Pierre Rolland , JC Peraud,, are just as skinny....don;t see any comments about these guys

 

[Jspear]

Re: Re:

He's certainly playing down expectations - his last tweets emphasize how tired he is...

I was exhausted last week watching Landa and Aru drop Contador on back-to-back stages (I was actually cold sweating on my cheap couch, fearing that Contador would lose the Giro).

And I'm actually depressed thinking about July, as Froome hunches the shoulders and Nibali accelerates and Quintana follows both while Contador grits his teeth and tailguns behind Tom Boonen. I need to lie down now....

I so hope not. Let's not get depressed before we need to eh?

Though I know what you mean about the Giro. I was a wreck during that Giro. If his lead hadn't been so big by the mountains, I would have been all over the place!

Just saw a quite horrible image of Froome's knee in the Poel's thread. No one should be that thin. It's ghastly.

Romain Bardet, Pierre Rolland , JC Peraud,, are just as skinny....don;t see any comments about these guys

Very simple; they aren't as tall! It doesn't look as odd. Rolland is one inch shorter so he is close. Still that one inch makes a difference.

 

[Iker_Baqueiro]

If AC doesnt win Le Tour Im not going to make any excuse He just couldnt get it and thats it... then I'd like for him to try Tour - Vuelta next year and with that form build up for Il Giro - Tour in 2017 and with that maybe retire

Nibali has a really good form and you could see it today, Dawg is still building up and Nairo we still dont know, Le Tour is going to be interesting... for AC Im not asking for 2009 form just a 2011 Giro form and I'll be happy

Tour-Vuelta-Giro-Tour is impossible. Indurain said he still felt the effects of his Giro-Tour double a year later. No way Contador can contest let alone win 4 GTs in a row.

I don't get your comment about Miguelon. He did a Giro-Tour double in 93 and another such double in 94. So, in effect, the great Miguel won back to back double and still won the Tour in 95. That doesn't sound to me like he was too tired of too many doubles.

 

[cellardoor]

If AC doesnt win Le Tour Im not going to make any excuse He just couldnt get it and thats it... then I'd like for him to try Tour - Vuelta next year and with that form build up for Il Giro - Tour in 2017 and with that maybe retire

Nibali has a really good form and you could see it today, Dawg is still building up and Nairo we still dont know, Le Tour is going to be interesting... for AC Im not asking for 2009 form just a 2011 Giro form and I'll be happy

Tour-Vuelta-Giro-Tour is impossible. Indurain said he still felt the effects of his Giro-Tour double a year later. No way Contador can contest let alone win 4 GTs in a row.

I don't get your comment about Miguelon. He did a Giro-Tour double in 93 and another such double in 94. So, in effect, the great Miguel won back to back double and still won the Tour in 95. That doesn't sound to me like he was too tired of too many doubles.

Yes, but what was the long term effect of that as he finished his career fairly early. I remember Delgado commenting that he felt his collapse in '96 related to him being over-raced.

 

[rhubroma]

These guys are paid to race, they are paid to ride for glory. I can't believe that 5 weeks isn't enough time to recover from a GT. There used to be a week to 10 days less, when the double was done. Lemond, who finished the Giro third (crashing) and 4th (supporting Hinault), says he always felt great come the Tour with the Giro in his legs.

I'm more and more convinced Contador can win the Tour, while the Route du Sud should reignite the enginee just in time. We will also see how Quintana is I believe.

 

[ILovecycling]

Re:

These guys are paid to race, they are paid to ride for glory. I can't believe that 5 weeks isn't enough time to recover from a GT. There used to be a week to 10 days less, when the double was done. Lemond, who finished the Giro third (crashing) and 4th (supporting Hinault), says he always felt great come the Tour with the Giro in his legs.

I'm more and more convinced Contador can win the Tour, while the Route du Sud should reignite the enginee just in time. We will also see how Quintana is I believe.

nahh, that was a lot different cycling , but we cant discuss it here

 

[rhubroma]

Re: Re:

These guys are paid to race, they are paid to ride for glory. I can't believe that 5 weeks isn't enough time to recover from a GT. There used to be a week to 10 days less, when the double was done. Lemond, who finished the Giro third (crashing) and 4th (supporting Hinault), says he always felt great come the Tour with the Giro in his legs.

I'm more and more convinced Contador can win the Tour, while the Route du Sud should reignite the enginee just in time. We will also see how Quintana is I believe.

nahh, that was a lot different cycling , but we cant discuss it here

They extended the time because of the "new cycling" for guys to think they can do it. Point is a rider today has more time to recover than before. It's doable.

 

[arvc40]

Re:

These guys are paid to race, they are paid to ride for glory. I can't believe that 5 weeks isn't enough time to recover from a GT. There used to be a week to 10 days less, when the double was done. Lemond, who finished the Giro third (crashing) and 4th (supporting Hinault), says he always felt great come the Tour with the Giro in his legs.

I'm more and more convinced Contador can win the Tour, while the Route du Sud should reignite the enginee just in time. We will also see how Quintana is I believe.

Agree. He will play it down but he is ready !. Nobody is dropping him in the Tour

 

[No_Balls]

Re: Re:

That awkard moment when the summary is even worse then the previous post.

Be kind. Your post definitely made me laugh though. I did understand his summary better than the original post.
Admittedly I do have trouble making sense of some his/her posts but I have comprehension issues on occasion so it may just be me.

Ok. I'll try.

 

[murali]

Re: Re:

Gratzs on 20k Fleur, had I noticed it earlier I would have opened a thread for you.

I hadn't even noticed now I have to go back to see which post it was

Edit: it was when I agreed with Taxus

Strange things happen

good sign for Bertie to do a triple

 

[LaFlorecita]

If AC doesnt win Le Tour Im not going to make any excuse He just couldnt get it and thats it... then I'd like for him to try Tour - Vuelta next year and with that form build up for Il Giro - Tour in 2017 and with that maybe retire

Nibali has a really good form and you could see it today, Dawg is still building up and Nairo we still dont know, Le Tour is going to be interesting... for AC Im not asking for 2009 form just a 2011 Giro form and I'll be happy

Tour-Vuelta-Giro-Tour is impossible. Indurain said he still felt the effects of his Giro-Tour double a year later. No way Contador can contest let alone win 4 GTs in a row.

I don't get your comment about Miguelon. He did a Giro-Tour double in 93 and another such double in 94. So, in effect, the great Miguel won back to back double and still won the Tour in 95. That doesn't sound to me like he was too tired of too many doubles.

They are his words not mine.

 

[ILovecycling]

Re: Re:

These guys are paid to race, they are paid to ride for glory. I can't believe that 5 weeks isn't enough time to recover from a GT. There used to be a week to 10 days less, when the double was done. Lemond, who finished the Giro third (crashing) and 4th (supporting Hinault), says he always felt great come the Tour with the Giro in his legs.

I'm more and more convinced Contador can win the Tour, while the Route du Sud should reignite the enginee just in time. We will also see how Quintana is I believe.

nahh, that was a lot different cycling , but we cant discuss it here

They extended the time because of the "new cycling" for guys to think they can do it. Point is a rider today has more time to recover than before. It's doable.

Source? Results?

Maybe it is doable when a rider is superior to his rivals in recovery, which Alberto might be or might not be.Hard to say, but you cant be sure at all.