Teams & Riders Alberto Contador Discussion Thread

[ray j willings]

Re: Re:

I'd be so happy if he could win a stage tomorrow or on the alpe.

Me too. It'll be difficult but not impossible. Froome and Quintana are the only ones who are likely stronger uphill and he will be given some leeway by them. I'm crossing my fingers.
Either way, he's shown his heart and courage already. What a fighter. Every time I think it isn't possible for me to admire him more, and then he surprises me yet again

They were not stronger uphill today ,,,,Bertie attacked both climbs and they could not drop him, Infact if you look at the last climb Froome was in trouble....

If he recover's OK then tomorrow could be awesome....the race will be blown to bits

 

[ray j willings]

Re: Re:

Bertie was brilliant today ....attacked and attacked. Strongest of the GT main men.
Froome was definitely wobbly....
Now we are seeing were riders are really at level wise.
Bertie would have won this tour if he had not rode the Giro. I also question if riding the Route du Sud was a wise move, maybe he should have rested instead, he may not have lost time in the early part of the tour.
Im happy because there is no way any Froome fan can deny how strong Bertie is and Looking at where they are in week 3 if Froome had rode the Giro he would be out the back door 10 /15 minutes behind.
Bertie will have another go tomorrow ....

Brilliant stuff

Berti will win the tour next year , after watching this 3rd week it's not in doubt ...He's no1

Amazing crystal ball you have there

Sarcasm ,,,the humour of people with no brains.

 

[damian13ster]

Re: Re:

I'd be so happy if he could win a stage tomorrow or on the alpe.

Me too. It'll be difficult but not impossible. Froome and Quintana are the only ones who are likely stronger uphill and he will be given some leeway by them. I'm crossing my fingers.
Either way, he's shown his heart and courage already. What a fighter. Every time I think it isn't possible for me to admire him more, and then he surprises me yet again

They were not stronger uphill today ,,,,Bertie attacked both climbs and they could not drop him, Infact if you look at the last climb Froome was in trouble....

If he recover's OK then tomorrow could be awesome....the race will be blown to bits

They weren't exactly trying to drop him. They just kind of....disregarded, not noticed?
Just shows that he isn't a threat to them. Not sure how are you interpreting it otherwise.
Until one of those attacks is not pulled back with Sky still having domestiques there, it just shows that he is weak this Tour. Chapeau for attacking though instead of just following

 

[jilbiker]

Re:

I'd be so happy if he could win a stage tomorrow or on the alpe.

Many people write Contador off as a rider, they did it too in 2013. I can't wait for 2016, imo he still needs to win a tour to prove to everyone how good he really is. We can only speculate how good he was in the tour of 2014. He'll be 33 which is still easily possible to be at your best. Every body is different of course.

Didn't LA win 2005 TDF at 33? Cadel Evans won 2011 at 34. Why do we say 33 is old? Or are folks petrified by Froome?? I definitely think Bertie has at least 2 more years left but next year should be his farewell. He should attend to family needs, and I think that is also important to him. Next year he should do like 2014, one last sacrifice, leave family for weeks or months, wake up 4am to run up mountains, measure his food before eating, cut out the wine and beef. Win the TDF and ride a valedictory Vuelta (say farewell to cycling and the Spanish fans).

 

[BlurryVII]

Froome was definetely not looking great today, but he's got it in the bag anyway. Thanks to one MTF and everyone else not being able to be at his level apart from Quintana.

Alberto would actually be a good pick for Alpe d'huez. But with all the bad luck he's had at the Tour post ban, I'm not even sure he'll get anything this year again.

 

[Sky'sthelimit]

Re: Re:

I'd be so happy if he could win a stage tomorrow or on the alpe.

Me too. It'll be difficult but not impossible. Froome and Quintana are the only ones who are likely stronger uphill and he will be given some leeway by them. I'm crossing my fingers.
Either way, he's shown his heart and courage already. What a fighter. Every time I think it isn't possible for me to admire him more, and then he surprises me yet again

Difficult yes, he did manage to bridge over quickly to a more advanced group of riders. Very encouraging signs but there are two issues. One the other GC contenders ability to calmly and clinically real him back in. How much energy has he burned in those unsuccessful attacks. He may find himself isolated tomorrow. TS if there is a breakaway group, put men up the road to assist later on, akin to Sky's tactics yesterday. I also wonder if his confidence has taken a knock after the crash on the descent yesterday. He has shown a lot of character over the last few days, a mark of the man. However he is not the strongest GC man some have misguidedly suggested on this thread.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Great image
I soooo hope Berti can win a stage

 

[SeriousSam]

Tomorrow is his chance if someone controls the break. Alpe will be a Froome v Quintana duel.

 

[Matteo.]

Now i prefer a podium getting off Valverde. After today sings , it seems more realisti than a stage win

 

[Brullnux]

Today explained why Nibali and Contador are my favourite riders. They actually try something. Not like Valverde and Quintana. the climb at the start has to e Astana and Saxo going all-out in order to create complete chaos. Then do a Courchevel. Our only hope.

 

[Publicus]

Re: Re:

I'd be so happy if he could win a stage tomorrow or on the alpe.

Me too. It'll be difficult but not impossible. Froome and Quintana are the only ones who are likely stronger uphill and he will be given some leeway by them. I'm crossing my fingers.
Either way, he's shown his heart and courage already. What a fighter. Every time I think it isn't possible for me to admire him more, and then he surprises me yet again

I have to say, Quintana has not impressed me so far. His attacks have been positively weak. Froome looked on the limit a few times and no one was able to push him over the edge. Tomorrow looks like it should be interesting. I hop AC is feeling better

 

[Carols]

Re:

[quote="BrullnuxToday explained why Nibali and Contador are my favourite riders. They actually try something. [/quote]

Spoken for Truth. Both are willing to lay it all on the line, willing to fail. Alberto was just born with more natural talent.

 

[Carols]

Re: Re:

I'd be so happy if he could win a stage tomorrow or on the alpe.

Me too. It'll be difficult but not impossible. Froome and Quintana are the only ones who are likely stronger uphill and he will be given some leeway by them. I'm crossing my fingers.
Either way, he's shown his heart and courage already. What a fighter. Every time I think it isn't possible for me to admire him more, and then he surprises me yet again

I have to say, Quintana has not impressed me so far. His attacks have been positively weak. Froome looked on the limit a few times and no one was able to push him over the edge. Tomorrow looks like it should be interesting. I hop AC is feeling better

Froome did look vulnerable more than once. The problem with that guy is that he can look like he is done for and then he goes on a rampage!

Hopefully Alberto has a good night, his leg is okay and he can go on the attack again tomorrow. Today he did it all on class and guts.

 

[Electress]

Re: Re:

I'd be so happy if he could win a stage tomorrow or on the alpe.

Me too. It'll be difficult but not impossible. Froome and Quintana are the only ones who are likely stronger uphill and he will be given some leeway by them. I'm crossing my fingers.
Either way, he's shown his heart and courage already. What a fighter. Every time I think it isn't possible for me to admire him more, and then he surprises me yet again

Me, exactly.

He's been the only one of the GC riders whose attacked consistently, even though he's clearly not on top form. Nibali has tried latterly, but Quintana is clearly riding for second. He's put in a few digs, but all he does is wait wait wait. Today he had the opportunity to ride right off Nibali's wheel on Glandon - Froome was struggling to close. It would have been a real opportunity. Bridge to Alberto, ride it out. Might not have worked but at the moment it's so cautious, he'll never make back the time he needs. It's been extremely disappointing Tour from the point of the GC. Bascially, the stage 2 issues with Nibali and AC and Nibali's form being off means the only guys with a will to win stronger than the will to secure second have been playing serious catch up.

I don't think the weather has helped him, or anyone - it was absolutely roasting just standing around, let alone riding uphill. I hope AC can win the stage - actually my dream is that he can knock that wheel sucker Piti off the podium, if only for the craven podium protecting approach MoviStar have shown.

 

[ray j willings]

Re: Re:

I'd be so happy if he could win a stage tomorrow or on the alpe.

Me too. It'll be difficult but not impossible. Froome and Quintana are the only ones who are likely stronger uphill and he will be given some leeway by them. I'm crossing my fingers.
Either way, he's shown his heart and courage already. What a fighter. Every time I think it isn't possible for me to admire him more, and then he surprises me yet again

Me, exactly.

He's been the only one of the GC riders whose attacked consistently, even though he's clearly not on top form. Nibali has tried latterly, but Quintana is clearly riding for second. He's put in a few digs, but all he does is wait wait wait. Today he had the opportunity to ride right off Nibali's wheel on Glandon - Froome was struggling to close. It would have been a real opportunity. Bridge to Alberto, ride it out. Might not have worked but at the moment it's so cautious, he'll never make back the time he needs. It's been extremely disappointing Tour from the point of the GC. Bascially, the stage 2 issues with Nibali and AC and Nibali's form being off means the only guys with a will to win stronger than the will to secure second have been playing serious catch up.

I don't think the weather has helped him, or anyone - it was absolutely roasting just standing around, let alone riding uphill. I hope AC can win the stage - actually my dream is that he can knock that wheel sucker Piti off the podium, if only for the craven podium protecting approach MoviStar have shown.

Quintana wants to win ,,,he just can't. He has to hope for a Froome capitulation.
I have really enjoyed the last week of this tour and the Movie comedy tactics
Bertie has come good and shown that if he had not rode the Giro then the tour win was a real possibility.
Froome would be hours back if he had rode the Giro well minutes then.
If he's feeling good Bertie will attack again tomorrow.
Lets see what happens.

 

[Electress]

Re: Re:

I'd be so happy if he could win a stage tomorrow or on the alpe.

Me too. It'll be difficult but not impossible. Froome and Quintana are the only ones who are likely stronger uphill and he will be given some leeway by them. I'm crossing my fingers.
Either way, he's shown his heart and courage already. What a fighter. Every time I think it isn't possible for me to admire him more, and then he surprises me yet again

Me, exactly.

He's been the only one of the GC riders whose attacked consistently, even though he's clearly not on top form. Nibali has tried latterly, but Quintana is clearly riding for second. He's put in a few digs, but all he does is wait wait wait. Today he had the opportunity to ride right off Nibali's wheel on Glandon - Froome was struggling to close. It would have been a real opportunity. Bridge to Alberto, ride it out. Might not have worked but at the moment it's so cautious, he'll never make back the time he needs. It's been extremely disappointing Tour from the point of the GC. Bascially, the stage 2 issues with Nibali and AC and Nibali's form being off means the only guys with a will to win stronger than the will to secure second have been playing serious catch up.

I don't think the weather has helped him, or anyone - it was absolutely roasting just standing around, let alone riding uphill. I hope AC can win the stage - actually my dream is that he can knock that wheel sucker Piti off the podium, if only for the craven podium protecting approach MoviStar have shown.

Quintana wants to win ,,,he just can't. He has to hope for a Froome capitulation.
I have really enjoyed the last week of this tour and the Movie comedy tactics
Bertie has come good and shown that if he had not rode the Giro then the tour win was a real possibility.
Froome would be hours back if he had rode the Giro well minutes then.
If he's feeling good Bertie will attack again tomorrow.
Lets see what happens.

Perhaps you're right about Quintana, but if so, then it is as I have been saying - he's WAY overrated as a climber and a GC hope. Just not at the level of FRoome / Contador. But it's the mentality which is lacking - he might want to win, but won't take risks to do it. He's ultra conservative in his approach.

Bertie was in pain today, and riding on courage. But I hope we'll see more tomorrow. He is certainly the only one worth a candle in terms of the actual race. If it weren't for his never say die attitude and Peter Sagan, this would have been the worst tour for a long time. Had a really nasty background narrative, as well.

 

[jilbiker]

I have to question if cycling is an individual sport or if it is a team sport. if it is a team sport they should scrap the GC category, its a joke when one uses a train to rule the race. I question if Froome would be this strong if it was Froome one-on-one with the other GC contenders. While cycling has been a sport where teams have been sent to competition, the use of the train strategy started with I believe with Mr Lance. As far as I can remember with watching and following cycling, teams even strong teams never had this kind of impact where they could decimate attacks and rule the race tempo. AC has never had a strong team that rode solely for him, he has literally won all his GTs on his own (which is one reason is is far and away the best GC rider of his generation), can't say the same for Froome or for Wiggins,

 

[Jelantik]

Re: Re:

I'd be so happy if he could win a stage tomorrow or on the alpe.

Me too. It'll be difficult but not impossible. Froome and Quintana are the only ones who are likely stronger uphill and he will be given some leeway by them. I'm crossing my fingers.
Either way, he's shown his heart and courage already. What a fighter. Every time I think it isn't possible for me to admire him more, and then he surprises me yet again

I have to say, Quintana has not impressed me so far. His attacks have been positively weak. Froome looked on the limit a few times and no one was able to push him over the edge. Tomorrow looks like it should be interesting. I hop AC is feeling better

I'm with you. If this is what we called "100% Quintana".. meh. Then he can't drop 100% Froome. He might be a pure climber but he doesn't have big engine to sustain his attack. Remind me of Jose Rujano (but the better version of course). So his attack is as good as it gets. Only 100% contador can give froome the runs for his money. Quinana attack so far, only gains him 1 seconds... Interesting interview by Alberto. Looks like he was observing something during today's stage. So I hope he wakes up tomorrow, feeling good and use his knowledge on stage 18, to do some damage. Today his attack is good enough but fruitless. At least it's better than someone like Quintana.. who has been hiding in the mountain for 1 month and supposedly fresh and 100%, .. didn't do anything until the last climb. Meh..

 

[Jelantik]

Re: Re:

I'd be so happy if he could win a stage tomorrow or on the alpe.

Me too. It'll be difficult but not impossible. Froome and Quintana are the only ones who are likely stronger uphill and he will be given some leeway by them. I'm crossing my fingers.
Either way, he's shown his heart and courage already. What a fighter. Every time I think it isn't possible for me to admire him more, and then he surprises me yet again

They were not stronger uphill today ,,,,Bertie attacked both climbs and they could not drop him, Infact if you look at the last climb Froome was in trouble....

If he recover's OK then tomorrow could be awesome....the race will be blown to bits

i'm hoping that they get a better hotel with working AC!!!! that's important for his recovery...*finger crossed*

 

[Jelantik]

just found another article. Apparently today contador was having a bad day?

But he couldn’t get a significant gap and was caught on the descent of the Glandon. And suffering the after-effects of his crash on the descent of the Col d’Allos on Wednesday, Contador admitted he’d had a terrible day in the saddle.

 

[LaFlorecita]

just found another article. Apparently today contador was having a bad day?

But he couldn’t get a significant gap and was caught on the descent of the Glandon. And suffering the after-effects of his crash on the descent of the Col d’Allos on Wednesday, Contador admitted he’d had a terrible day in the saddle.

Yes, like I posted earlier, he said he felt really bad today.

 

[riodouro]

Re:

I'd be so happy if he could win a stage tomorrow or on the alpe.

Many people write Contador off as a rider, they did it too in 2013. I can't wait for 2016, imo he still needs to win a tour to prove to everyone how good he really is. We can only speculate how good he was in the tour of 2014. He'll be 33 which is still easily possible to be at your best. Every body is different of course.

It would be great, i can only hope, but i dont see it happening, yesterday looked like sky were going to let him go, but it was against Movistar interests.

Yesterday Sean Kelly said something like this, at the time of Contador's attack:
"in good shape, in bad shape, never fails to attack, never fails to try" .
That is what Contador is all about, i dont see what some people need more from him.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

I'd be so happy if he could win a stage tomorrow or on the alpe.

Many people write Contador off as a rider, they did it too in 2013. I can't wait for 2016, imo he still needs to win a tour to prove to everyone how good he really is. We can only speculate how good he was in the tour of 2014. He'll be 33 which is still easily possible to be at your best. Every body is different of course.

It would be great, i can only hope, but i dont see it happening, yesterday looked like sky were going to let him go, but it was against Movistar interests.

Yesterday Sean Kelly said something like this, at the time of Contador's attack:
"in good shape, in bad shape, never fails to attack, never fails to try" .
That is what Contador is all about, i dont see what some people need more from him.

I don't need more from him. But a stage win would be brilliant and thoroughly deserved

 

[Broccolidwarf]

Re: Re:

It's one thing to take risks and it works out. But too often of late Alberto's descending has let him down or caused him to crash. He may well have won last year's Tour had it not been for a lapse in concentration or whatever it was in the Vosges last year when he crashed at 80km/h. (For the record, Nibali said afterward that Contador was descending dangerously when he crashed). Remember in 2013 Froome said the same thing when AC attacked him coming off the Alpe du'Ez? Again Contador crashed and almost took Froome out. Then just yesterday he loses a couple of minutes after crashing downhill.

I just want to know why people (like Broccolidwarf) say that Contador will take time out of Froome on descents? I just want them to name even ONE descent in a Grand Tour where he has taken a chunk of time out of Froome? Just ONE. I have named 3 recent Tour descents where he has crashed all on his own, at a big cost to himself. Especially last year when he was in such good form.

Yet they come on here saying how Froome is going to lose time to Contador on the descents, lose time on the cobbles, etc. I think it's just a combination of wishful thinking and utter bollocks.

His rivals say he is one of the better descenders among the grand tour contenders and that is good enough for me. If you listened to interviews this is a common refrain.

I repeat my appeal here (yet again) for anybody to give an example in a Grand Tour where Contador has taken a chunk of time out of Froome. Nobody can give an example because it hasn't happened. This is the point. But people (like Broccolidwarf) are already talking about how Contador might take time out of Froome on wet descents in next year's Tour! Talk about grasping at straws.

Anyone who follows cycling, has seen Froome look like Bambi on ice, when decending in the wet, and have seen Contador attack in the same conditions.

After watching yesterdays stage, I will concede that Froome has improved significantly in his decending - he was vulnerable on top of Glandon, but still managed to sit with Nibali downhill..... but I will maintain it will be different in the wet.

Froome is simply not as good a bike handler as the other top contenders...... no matter how much of a fanboy you are

 

[Ludwig's Olaf]

Re: Re:

It's one thing to take risks and it works out. But too often of late Alberto's descending has let him down or caused him to crash. He may well have won last year's Tour had it not been for a lapse in concentration or whatever it was in the Vosges last year when he crashed at 80km/h. (For the record, Nibali said afterward that Contador was descending dangerously when he crashed). Remember in 2013 Froome said the same thing when AC attacked him coming off the Alpe du'Ez? Again Contador crashed and almost took Froome out. Then just yesterday he loses a couple of minutes after crashing downhill.

I just want to know why people (like Broccolidwarf) say that Contador will take time out of Froome on descents? I just want them to name even ONE descent in a Grand Tour where he has taken a chunk of time out of Froome? Just ONE. I have named 3 recent Tour descents where he has crashed all on his own, at a big cost to himself. Especially last year when he was in such good form.

Yet they come on here saying how Froome is going to lose time to Contador on the descents, lose time on the cobbles, etc. I think it's just a combination of wishful thinking and utter bollocks.

His rivals say he is one of the better descenders among the grand tour contenders and that is good enough for me. If you listened to interviews this is a common refrain.

I repeat my appeal here (yet again) for anybody to give an example in a Grand Tour where Contador has taken a chunk of time out of Froome. Nobody can give an example because it hasn't happened. This is the point. But people (like Broccolidwarf) are already talking about how Contador might take time out of Froome on wet descents in next year's Tour! Talk about grasping at straws.

I believe Bertie finished 10 minutes+ ahead of Froome in the Vuelta 2012, and he wasn't in top shape either. Remember? A most amazing grand tour just after the boring one won by the Elvis impersonator.