Teams & Riders Alberto Contador Discussion Thread

[Carols]

Berto at the press conference yesterday

I just realized that even when he is considered "chubby" his fat percentage is probably still 25 to 30 points below mine which is quite depressing

He looks great .

Sometimes people are just having fun ragging on his weight.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

I'd be surprised if that last GT Berto rides isn't the Vuelta

Yeah, me too, especially if it finishes in madrid again

There were rumors Vuelta would have a stage finish in Pinto next year

 

[fungusbear]

Re: Re:

Contador would be a great DS.

"You have bad legs? You must attack, they'll hurt anyway"
"You have good legs? Then you must attack, take time on your rivals"
"You have no legs? Go handbiking, then attack"
"There's wind, attack in echelons"
"I know you're 21, but 2nd place in GC is not good, better attack 50km out"

And So True

haha amen

 

[fungusbear]

Re: Re:

he will do algarve, tirreno, pais vasco, dauphiné, tour and rio

Is this confirmed or? Either way, that sounds plausible.

I would add the vuelta on top of that too

 

[jsem94]

Re: Re:

Oh I just meant that it's a bit weird to see people on here call a rider who is probably still below 8% body fat "fat" or "thick". It's all relative, I know that, and we are so used to seeing him ride at 4.5% body fat (2014) that we feel 6-7-8% is "chubby", but come on. The picture I posted above clearly shows he is still skinny by every normal measure.

I remember that Michael Valgren once replied to someone on twitter, that guy on twitter mentioned that commentators calling Valgren fat annoyed him, Valgren replied he was at 8.3% body fat.... weird standards we have.

In the world of Sumo wrestling someone with 25% bf could be considered "skinny". It's all relative.

I'm at like 11%bf, which of course isn't fat. I get called a skinny bastard all the time IRL, but I'm not even close to the concentration camp levels of professional cyclists or bodybuilders on stage. It's all about the context in which it is said.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

Oh I just meant that it's a bit weird to see people on here call a rider who is probably still below 8% body fat "fat" or "thick". It's all relative, I know that, and we are so used to seeing him ride at 4.5% body fat (2014) that we feel 6-7-8% is "chubby", but come on. The picture I posted above clearly shows he is still skinny by every normal measure.

I remember that Michael Valgren once replied to someone on twitter, that guy on twitter mentioned that commentators calling Valgren fat annoyed him, Valgren replied he was at 8.3% body fat.... weird standards we have.

In the world of Sumo wrestling someone with 25% bf could be considered "skinny". It's all relative.

I'm at like 11%bf, which of course isn't fat. I get called a skinny bastard all the time IRL, but I'm not even close to the concentration camp levels of professional cyclists or bodybuilders on stage. It's all about the context in which it is said.

Someone with 25% body fat is pretty skinny (if you're a lady at least )

 

[jsem94]

Well. Female sumo wrestling isn't something I've explored extensively...

 

[Jelantik]

I've been away for awhile.. but what a good new this one is..

AlbertoContador info @ Contador_Info Sep 11
@ NieveMikel will sign the @ tinkoff_saxo for next season, good climber Alberto. Via (@ martinmeyers0)

 

[damian13ster]

Great signing by Tinkoff. Unless Nieve fades, he will help immensely

 

[ILovecycling]

I've been away for awhile.. but what a good new this one is..

AlbertoContador info @ Contador_Info Sep 11
@ NieveMikel will sign the @ tinkoff_saxo for next season, good climber Alberto. Via (@ martinmeyers0)

yep its a great news

 

[LaFlorecita]

Hmm that man, he's a freelance soigneur for the team, maybe he does know that stuff or maybe he doesn't, wouldn't take it for granted at least.

 

[Carols]

Well he is making the Grand Plan for his final season focusing on le Tour. Oleg says he'll also do the Vuelta! From what we just saw it's unlikely he can podium the Vuelta but he hopefully he won't leave the world cycling stage without saying goodbye to his home tour. It will be a bittersweet year for Alberto fans. But he needs to let down:

"I have been at the very top level for almost 10 years now, and that starts to show. Basically I want to pack it in when I'm still in a good state in my sporting career."

The plan to date:

"I will for certain start competing in the third week of February at either the Volta ao Algarve or the Vuelta a Andalucía.

"Then I'll do a race that will probably be the most important for me, and that's either Tirreno-Adriatico or Paris-Nice. That will be crucial in giving me a base. Then I'll do another one, shortly after, likely to be Catalunya. Then I will start to really focus; I'll do the Dauphiné, and then the Tour. That's more or less the plan."

Some very interesting quotes in the article.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/contador-planning-final-season-of-tour-de-france-success/

EDIT: No mention of Rio. I wonder how he'll manage to fit that in if Oleg wants him in the Vuelta?

 

[Miburo]

Bruyneel said it 2 months ago already, doing the route du sud was a bad move.

 

[ray j willings]

Re:

Bruyneel said it 2 months ago already, doing the route du sud was a bad move.

I said it as well ...who you going to listen to , me or Bruyneel

 

[LaFlorecita]

No mention of Pais Vasco in that article, hopefully he does ride it.

 

[TheYouyou7]

I think he will make like in 2014 and luckily he won't crash this time, if he doesn't, TDF wont be a big deal, Vuelta will be harder...

 

[Valv.Piti]

No mention of Pais Vasco in that article, hopefully he does ride it.

Pais Vasco >>> Shitty Catlunya.

Ruta - > T-A -> Pais Vasco -> Dauphine -> Tour. Not too many race days.

 

[LaFlorecita]

No mention of Pais Vasco in that article, hopefully he does ride it.

Pais Vasco >>> Shitty Catlunya.

Ruta - > T-A -> Pais Vasco -> Dauphine -> Tour. Not too many race days.

Algarve, Tirreno, Catalunya, Pais Vasco, Dauphiné worked perfectly for him in 2014. I say, let's try that again

 

[Valv.Piti]

But since he also wants (or Oleg wants) him to do the Vuelta, I think cutting down race days early on is pretty important. To do T-A, Catalunya and Vasco is almost like a mini GT on a month. But yes, it worked super fine in 2014.

Anyways, I think he knows better

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

But since he also wants (or Oleg wants) him to do the Vuelta, I think cutting down race days early on is pretty important. To do T-A, Catalunya and Vasco is almost like a mini GT on a month. But yes, it worked super fine in 2014.

Anyways, I think he knows better

In that case he should skip Catalunya (although I'd like him to have a win there "officially" too ) and do Pais Vasco, too many days between Catalunya and Dauphiné IMO.

 

[Velolover2]

Nice with Nieve. Then he wouldn't need Majka who is better at riding for himself and being a captain than a dom.

I'd sign Valls too before Lampe extend with him. Would make the Tour team super strong.

 

[Angliru]

Great signing by Tinkoff. Unless Nieve fades, he will help immensely

Agreed. He's the perfect addition in that he's not overly ambitious but has the climbing chops to be of great assistance to Contador in the mountains. Hopefully this minimize the times that Contador is isolated in the mountains. They were far too often last year.

 

[Matteo.]

Many laughing when i talked about Berto and his mistake to not ride il Lombardia.

I just saw again the details on final kms, so i repeat: what a mistake! The last 15km include climb of Civiglio ( 4km 10%) and San Fermo ( 2km 8.8%). And all of that after Sormano and Ghisallo !
How he couldn't be competitive with this kind of route ? With a decent shape he could win it

 

[Escarabajo]

Re:

But since he also wants (or Oleg wants) him to do the Vuelta, I think cutting down race days early on is pretty important. To do T-A, Catalunya and Vasco is almost like a mini GT on a month. But yes, it worked super fine in 2014.

Anyways, I think he knows better

I believe that the approach is different next year. IMHO he is going all in thinking about the Tour only. Anything else is a bonus. But I don't believe that he will change his program thinking of the double. If any change will harm his Tour performance because of the double he will not do it. I actually think it would not be smart.

 

[Red Rick]

Re: Re:

But since he also wants (or Oleg wants) him to do the Vuelta, I think cutting down race days early on is pretty important. To do T-A, Catalunya and Vasco is almost like a mini GT on a month. But yes, it worked super fine in 2014.

Anyways, I think he knows better

I believe that the approach is different next year. IMHO he is going all in thinking about the Tour only. Anything else is a bonus. But I don't believe that he will change his program thinking of the double. If any change will harm his Tour performance because of the double he will not do it. I actually think it would not be smart.

Yeah, he's said he wants to win the Tour one more time. After that, the Olympics, Vuelta are all a bonus.

And regarding Lombardia, it suits him quite well, but he was spent in July and he wants to focus on the Tour next year, so he's probably still resting now. It's not worth the effort to be in shape in Octobre for one day of racing.