Teams & Riders Alberto Contador Discussion Thread

[Miburo]

Re: Re:

I do like Contador - he is one of the last types of riders with Panache like Valverde.

 

[jsem94]

Even there, Froome is just looking at his SRM. And he's not even riding.

 

[B_Ugli]

Very few stylish charisma winning riders these days..............

The 2015 peloton is frequented by head nodding, head down, chicken elbows, gormless fish mouthed, long shorts & sock wearing, aero crash hat wearing, stupid sunglass wearing, silly face pulling, bearded, moustached riders.

Say what you will of Frank VDB but he was stylish.

The peloton doesn't need the UCI it needs a Fashion Police. One that deducts points for any of the above style infractions.

 

[TMP402]

Re:

Even there, Froome is just looking at his SRM. And he's not even riding.

This is better.

 

[ray j willings]

Best Froome stem moment ever

 

[Carols]

Why is this in Alberto's thread? It would be better in Froome's, yes?

 

[ray j willings]

Re:

Why is this in Alberto's thread? It would be better in Froome's, yes?

If you look at the posts above Froome's stem antics are mentioned

 

[Carols]

Re: Re:

Why is this in Alberto's thread? It would be better in Froome's, yes?

If you look at the posts above Froome's stem antics are mentioned

At least Alberto was in those pictures!!

 

[dacooley]

have a long and productive rest to come back in full magic grande alberto! thanks for the double attempt and thanks for hope for it to happen. that was incredible.

ray, you seem to be a covert froome fan. the fact that you mention him so much in different connotations is suggestive

 

[ray j willings]

Re: Re:

Why is this in Alberto's thread? It would be better in Froome's, yes?

If you look at the posts above Froome's stem antics are mentioned

At least Alberto was in those pictures!!

I can't find a photo of Bertie looking at his stem. oh wait try this ,,,,

 

[roundabout]

Re:

I do like Contador - he is one of the last types of riders with Panache like Valverde.

However is form his quite erratic though IMHO. Last year he and Froome crash out of the Tour (Contador a few days later than Froome and with a broken leg). Its unclear whether he will start the Vuelta 2014 until days before and then beats Froome (who hasn't broken a leg) convincingly.

FFW to 2015 and after another convincing win in the Giro he fades to nothing in the Tour.

How can he win a grand tour in 2014 with no training for a month and a broken leg, then in 2015 win a Giro with two fully functioning legs and fail dramatically at the TDF having just dished out a beating to Quintana at the Route de Sud.

Some might say well its because he was tired after the Giro but his performance at Route de Sud would suggest he wasn't tired.

His form just seems quite erratic for somebody at his level.

Don't let appearances fool you. He climbed Bales over 2 minutes slower than Pinot in the last Tour.

The real question is how Quintana was able to improve so much with only 2 weeks to fine tune his form.

 

[ray j willings]

Re:

have a long and productive rest to come back in full magic grande alberto! thanks for the double attempt and thanks for hope for it to happen. that was incredible.

ray, you seem to be a covert froome fan. the fact that you mention him so much in different connotations is suggestive

No I Still hate Sky . You have to be gracious in defeat. Froome did very well to hang on. Movie,Quintana really should have put the tour to bed and I enjoyed watching the race unfold and movies tactics.

A fit Bertie would have been victorious but it wasn't to be and IMO this tour confirmed Bertie's Vuelta a true victory over Froome.
So I enjoyed the tour knowing that Bertie is STILL THE MAN.

 

[Netserk]

Did Quintana at any point try to really raise the tempo?

 

[roundabout]

He claimed that he could only wheelsuck Contador because the tempo was to high for him.

 

[Netserk]

Re:

He claimed that he could only wheelsuck Contador because the tempo was to high for him.

Lol

Seemed more like he couldn't be bothered to go deep enough to drop Alberto, so followed him all the way instead.

 

[ray j willings]

Re: Re:

He claimed that he could only wheelsuck Contador because the tempo was to high for him.

Lol

Seemed more like he couldn't be bothered to go deep enough to drop Alberto, so followed him all the way instead.

He did not have the legs. That was the form he started the tour in, it wasn't until week 3 that he started to look sharp.

 

[ILovecycling]

Re: Re:

I do like Contador - he is one of the last types of riders with Panache like Valverde.

 

[ILovecycling]

Re: Re:

He claimed that he could only wheelsuck Contador because the tempo was to high for him.

Lol

Seemed more like he couldn't be bothered to go deep enough to drop Alberto, so followed him all the way instead.

yep, its sad he doesnt have the same competition beast in him like Alberto

 

[Jelantik]

Re: Re:

Albert is out of CSS:

Alberto Contador ✔@albertocontador
Good morning all,3 days after the Tour still continue with fever.Sorrowfully I cannot be in San Sebastian.
12:21 PM - 29 Jul 2015

ohhh , get well soon Berto.Probably the season is over now?

boy, his fatigue must finally overcome him.. Well, get some rest, recharge and get ready for 2016!!!

 

[Jelantik]

Re: Re:

I hope he hangs up the competition wheels for the year and lets his body recuperate. Then he can start his preparation for his final year and begin in great shape with an early season mini peak and a super peak for le Tour. It's a shame he never got to enjoy his Giro win and instead ends the season on a whimper . Rest Well Alberto and no babies until you are retired

Yes to both of these. Speaking of babies, when are Froome and his wife expecting? If it is early in 2016, it will definitely impact his TdF build (I don't care what he says to the contrary, it will). Which means we'll hear about how he wasn't at 100% when Contador stomps a mudhole in him.

EDIT: Oh and no books until he retires!

i think little frommey is expected to be on earth around december or something Agreed. with everyone, his body is crying for rest. I hope he come back next year twice motivated with twice monster form, winning all his early season race and super peak for his final grand tour. Hope this time the lady luck is with him. *finger crossed*

 

[No_Balls]

Re: Re:

I am not that sad of not seeing AC in San Sebastian. He is in a terrible shape and i doubt he would made an impact there either way. Three weeks with Alberto totally impotent and unable to make an impact at all (like a passenger) was an unusal experience and not what we are used to. Having said that i am somewhat pleased he is a champion willing to take risks and put his legacy on the table. In other words: he is willing to lose in order to win.

How many riders werent they, for the last 20-25 years, who didnt dare to step out of the boundaries: Dauphine Libere, Paris-Nice and so on, just to the arrive in the same fashion as the year before in order to claim another coup in Paris: Indurain, Armstrong and what it looks like, Froome? The same old script was being used for the same old story so that cycling aficionados should remember that their primary focus is on the Tour. AC could easily been one of them but if this was the case then his eventual downfall, when the day came, would have been so much harder. If 2015 would have been his first failure, in a spectacle he obsessed about, many of us would have had a much harder time grasping it. We are used with his attitude of following in his own footsteps rather then those before him. He is willing to sacrifice a Tour for the possibility of a double.

Now the experiment is over and next year is for the Tour and the Tour only. If this means hanging up his wheel already in July then so be it. Just do what it takes one last time and arrive as a beast on the other side.

 

[Taxus4a]

Re:

I do like Contador - he is one of the last types of riders with Panache like Valverde.

However is form his quite erratic though IMHO. Last year he and Froome crash out of the Tour (Contador a few days later than Froome and with a broken leg). Its unclear whether he will start the Vuelta 2014 until days before and then beats Froome (who hasn't broken a leg) convincingly.

FFW to 2015 and after another convincing win in the Giro he fades to nothing in the Tour.

How can he win a grand tour in 2014 with no training for a month and a broken leg, then in 2015 win a Giro with two fully functioning legs and fail dramatically at the TDF having just dished out a beating to Quintana at the Route de Sud.

Some might say well its because he was tired after the Giro but his performance at Route de Sud would suggest he wasn't tired.

His form just seems quite erratic for somebody at his level.

By no training for 2 weaks, he had a good preparation for la Vuelta, one mont training after 8 days in le Tour, better than Froome.

He has his merit to do that preparation despite his injury (not so hard as press said), but reality is that he was maybe with doubts about his sahpe, but he was on of the best prepared riders... Purito strange season styarting Giro and Tour, Valverde did a tired Tour, just Quintana was maybe better, but he crashed before the best stages for him.

By the contrary to be 5th after win il Giro wit all the rivals there till the end, is a good result, although he expected even to win.

If you think that he was in more disasvantage in la Vuelta is the contrary

 

[the-big-bad-wolf]

Re: Re:

Even there, Froome is just looking at his SRM. And he's not even riding.

This is better.

He's probably looking to Alberto's SRM

 

[ninjadriver]

Re: Re:

I do like Contador - he is one of the last types of riders with Panache like Valverde.

However is form his quite erratic though IMHO. Last year he and Froome crash out of the Tour (Contador a few days later than Froome and with a broken leg). Its unclear whether he will start the Vuelta 2014 until days before and then beats Froome (who hasn't broken a leg) convincingly.

FFW to 2015 and after another convincing win in the Giro he fades to nothing in the Tour.

How can he win a grand tour in 2014 with no training for a month and a broken leg, then in 2015 win a Giro with two fully functioning legs and fail dramatically at the TDF having just dished out a beating to Quintana at the Route de Sud.

Some might say well its because he was tired after the Giro but his performance at Route de Sud would suggest he wasn't tired.

His form just seems quite erratic for somebody at his level.

By no training for 2 weaks, he had a good preparation for la Vuelta, one mont training after 8 days in le Tour, better than Froome.
* * * * *
By the contrary to be 5th after win il Giro wit all the rivals there till the end, is a good result, although he expected even to win.

If you think that he was in more disasvantage in la Vuelta is the contrary

B_Ugli: Enjoyed your post, and totally agree with you about Contador's "panache." He's my all-time favorite rider to watch, and most of my permanent recordings of cycling stages involve him.

How can Contador win the 2014 Vuelta with little training and a (hairline) fractured leg and then flop at the 2015 TDF after his Route de Sud beating of Quintana? (1) He did not exhaust himself at the 2014 TDF, since he abandoned relatively early, and had plenty in the tank for the 2014 Vuelta, and (2) I highly doubt Quintana was on peak form at the Route de Sud, and was going for a July peak when it mattered most. The Route de Sud wasn't televised in the US, as far as I could find, so I didn't see it.

Taxus: I like most of your analysis, except I disagree about Contador's 5th place 2015 TDF finish as being "a good result." Contador finished 9:48 back, that's almost 10 minutes, for the best Grand Tour racer in history (never saw Merckx). Nibali even leapfrogged him, and Froome faded over the last 2 stages.

9:48. Not quite Ben Johnson's 100 meter 9.79, but almost....

 

[VayaVayaVaya]

Re: Re:

I do like Contador - he is one of the last types of riders with Panache like Valverde.

However is form his quite erratic though IMHO. Last year he and Froome crash out of the Tour (Contador a few days later than Froome and with a broken leg). Its unclear whether he will start the Vuelta 2014 until days before and then beats Froome (who hasn't broken a leg) convincingly.

FFW to 2015 and after another convincing win in the Giro he fades to nothing in the Tour.

How can he win a grand tour in 2014 with no training for a month and a broken leg, then in 2015 win a Giro with two fully functioning legs and fail dramatically at the TDF having just dished out a beating to Quintana at the Route de Sud.

Some might say well its because he was tired after the Giro but his performance at Route de Sud would suggest he wasn't tired.

His form just seems quite erratic for somebody at his level.

By no training for 2 weaks, he had a good preparation for la Vuelta, one mont training after 8 days in le Tour, better than Froome.
* * * * *
By the contrary to be 5th after win il Giro wit all the rivals there till the end, is a good result, although he expected even to win.

If you think that he was in more disasvantage in la Vuelta is the contrary

B_Ugli: Enjoyed your post, and totally agree with you about Contador's "panache." He's my all-time favorite rider to watch, and most of my permanent recordings of cycling stages involve him.

How can Contador win the 2014 Vuelta with little training and a (hairline) fractured leg and then flop at the 2015 TDF after his Route de Sud beating of Quintana? (1) He did not exhaust himself at the 2014 TDF, since he abandoned relatively early, and had plenty in the tank for the 2014 Vuelta, and (2) I highly doubt Quintana was on peak form at the Route de Sud, and was going for a July peak when it mattered most. The Route de Sud wasn't televised in the US, as far as I could find, so I didn't see it.

Taxus: I like most of your analysis, except I disagree about Contador's 5th place 2015 TDF finish as being "a good result." Contador finished 9:48 back, that's almost 10 minutes, for the best Grand Tour racer in history (never saw Merckx). Nibali even leapfrogged him, and Froome faded over the last 2 stages.

9:48. Not quite Ben Johnson's 100 meter 9.79, but almost....

I'm not totally sure I'm getting this right - might be misattributing this statement to Taxus - but I think Taxus said that, in his opinion, 5th is actually a good result for Contador in the Tour, generally speaking, that this is more representative of his form, relative to contemporaries and past greats, than his Tour victories. Taxus clearly thinks Froome is a much better rider than Contador, but I think he is Basque and thus seems not to like Spaniards.