Teams & Riders Alberto Contador Discussion Thread

[Jspear]

Re:

Landa:

The climber has been asked about who considered his biggest rivals and barely hesitated: "Nibali is a rider that I've always admired and I will love to ride against him. Contador has been and is the best. Purito is always there and it will be nice to be up against him. And Aru because we will go from being teammates to being rivals,” he told BiciCiclismo.

To be fair, he might have named Froome if they weren't on the same team. Still it's good to see him say this.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

Fun thought: any GT he won a stage in he went on to win. Not many who can say that I think, especially of his caliber

Remarkable, indeed.
There are riders who were winning the stages even when they weren't winning the Tour, while there are riders who can win a stage only when they're winning the whole race.

Yawn.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Heh

Ahh, but it seems the greater interests of cycling have conspired against him.

Sorry, it may just be me but I don't understand.... ?

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

Fun thought: any GT he won a stage in he went on to win. Not many who can say that I think, especially of his caliber

His GT record is astounding. Besides the fact you mentioned, every time he grabbed the lead, he won the race in the end, and he only lost the leader's jersey once, after a crash (last year's Giro) only to reclaim it the next day. He also finished in 1st place 9 times, and finished besides the podium 4 times: he never finished on one of the lower steps of the podium, suggesting that if he is in any sort of shape to contend for the win, he wins. He finished 1st 3 times in all 3 GTs, no other rider in history managed this. Only Hinault managed to win every GT at least 2 times. And as you probably know, he has a 100% track record for the Giro and Vuelta: 6 attempts, 6 victories. Remarkable

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Re: Re:

Fun thought: any GT he won a stage in he went on to win. Not many who can say that I think, especially of his caliber

His GT record is astounding. Besides the fact you mentioned, every time he grabbed the lead, he won the race in the end, and he only lost the leader's jersey once, after a crash (last year's Giro) only to reclaim it the next day. He also finished in 1st place 9 times, and finished besides the podium 4 times: he never finished on one of the lower steps of the podium, suggesting that if he is in any sort of shape to contend for the win, he wins. He finished 1st 3 times in all 3 GTs, no other rider in history managed this. Only Hinault managed to win every GT at least 2 times. And as you probably know, he has a 100% track record for the Giro and Vuelta: 6 attempts, 6 victories. Remarkable

It is indeed remarkable and statistics like these just prove that he's a unique rider and definitely one of the best in the history of cycling. That said, it is pretty funny how you try to turn the fact that's he has finished outside the podium 4 times into some sort of positive thing I mean obviously it would have been better if he finished on the podium these 4 times.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

Fun thought: any GT he won a stage in he went on to win. Not many who can say that I think, especially of his caliber

His GT record is astounding. Besides the fact you mentioned, every time he grabbed the lead, he won the race in the end, and he only lost the leader's jersey once, after a crash (last year's Giro) only to reclaim it the next day. He also finished in 1st place 9 times, and finished besides the podium 4 times: he never finished on one of the lower steps of the podium, suggesting that if he is in any sort of shape to contend for the win, he wins. He finished 1st 3 times in all 3 GTs, no other rider in history managed this. Only Hinault managed to win every GT at least 2 times. And as you probably know, he has a 100% track record for the Giro and Vuelta: 6 attempts, 6 victories. Remarkable

It is indeed remarkable and statistics like these just prove that he's a unique rider and definitely one of the best in the history of cycling. That said, it is pretty funny how you try to turn the fact that's he has finished outside the podium 4 times into some sort of positive thing I mean obviously it would have been better if he finished on the podium these 4 times.

Yes, of course. It would have been better if he had been able to contend for the win 13 times (he would have 13 times ). But my point is that whenever he was in good enough shape to fight for the win, he won Every rider has years in which they aren't at their best but the fact I just wrote above is what seperates a very good rider from a champion, in my opinion

 

[Brullnux]

Re: Re:

Fun thought: any GT he won a stage in he went on to win. Not many who can say that I think, especially of his caliber

His GT record is astounding. Besides the fact you mentioned, every time he grabbed the lead, he won the race in the end, and he only lost the leader's jersey once, after a crash (last year's Giro) only to reclaim it the next day. He also finished in 1st place 9 times, and finished besides the podium 4 times: he never finished on one of the lower steps of the podium, suggesting that if he is in any sort of shape to contend for the win, he wins. He finished 1st 3 times in all 3 GTs, no other rider in history managed this. Only Hinault managed to win every GT at least 2 times. And as you probably know, he has a 100% track record for the Giro and Vuelta: 6 attempts, 6 victories. Remarkable

In all honesty I hope to see him lose the leader's jersey quite a few times next year in the Tour.

Before taking it back on Stage 20

 

[Jspear]

Re: Re:

Fun thought: any GT he won a stage in he went on to win. Not many who can say that I think, especially of his caliber

His GT record is astounding. Besides the fact you mentioned, every time he grabbed the lead, he won the race in the end, and he only lost the leader's jersey once, after a crash (last year's Giro) only to reclaim it the next day. He also finished in 1st place 9 times, and finished besides the podium 4 times: he never finished on one of the lower steps of the podium, suggesting that if he is in any sort of shape to contend for the win, he wins. He finished 1st 3 times in all 3 GTs, no other rider in history managed this. Only Hinault managed to win every GT at least 2 times. And as you probably know, he has a 100% track record for the Giro and Vuelta: 6 attempts, 6 victories. Remarkable

In all honesty I hope to see him lose the leader's jersey quite a few times next year in the Tour.

Before taking it back on Stage 20

My health wouldn't be very good for those 3 weeks.

 

[Jelantik]

Quite nice quote from Landa about Contador:

Alberto Contador: He has been, and is, one of the best – the best. He’s very strong physically and mentally.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/landa-searching-for-time-trial-improvements-ahead-of-giro-ditalia/

 

[Matteo.]

I just saw a picture of berto . He's eating sushi but...he appears skeletal ! Or i'm wrong?
Look fb , now i can't post the picture

 

[ad9898]

Re:

I just saw a picture of berto . He's eating sushi but...he appears skeletal ! Or i'm wrong?
Look fb , now i can't post the picture

Seen the photo, he looks really thin, in fact I'd say he has to be close to race weight there. This is a good sign, it shows his focus is strong mentally, physically he can concentrate on ramping his training rather than losing weight. I think with his mental and physical strength he'll be very difficult to beat this year as long as he as a strong team around him

Really excited to see if he can drop Froome when Froome is at his peak, looking at the photo I see him winning a lot this year.

 

[Publicus]

Re:

I just saw a picture of berto . He's eating sushi but...he appears skeletal ! Or i'm wrong?
Look fb , now i can't post the picture

Nah. He's a fatty.

 

[Matteo.]

Re: Re:

I just saw a picture of berto . He's eating sushi but...he appears skeletal ! Or i'm wrong?
Look fb , now i can't post the picture

Nah. He's a fatty.

Surely according laFlo , he is
anyway , his face is very very thin ! A skull

 

[LaFlorecita]

His face doesn't look extremely skinny/skeletal, but he seems on the right track. Monster shape coming up

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

If that face doesn't count as super-skinny for the middle of January, some of you must be expecting the full Skeletor - Wiggins from him.

 

[Red Rick]

That foto looks healthy and somehow young. We sure it's from this year?

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

If that face doesn't count as super-skinny for the middle of January, some of you must be expecting the full Skeletor - Wiggins from him.

Yes, like I said, for this time of the year he looks good! but he's not at his Tour weight yet (and he shouldn't be)

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

That foto looks healthy and somehow young. We sure it's from this year?

Are you suggesting Alberto is trying to trick us into thinking he's in good shape by posting old pictures

 

[BlurryVII]

Never seen berto looking this sharp in January... Mayhem coming up.

 

[May0maniac]

Is it just me or is he already looking sharper than at the 2013 Tour de France?

 

[Red Rick]

Re: Re:

That foto looks healthy and somehow young. We sure it's from this year?

Are you suggesting Alberto is trying to trick us into thinking he's in good shape by posting old pictures

No, i'm saying the other thing I could mean

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

Is it just me or is he already looking sharper than at the 2013 Tour de France?

Decide for yourself

I was looking at pictures, he looked okay at the start of the season (San Luis & Oman), then it almost looks like he gained weight?? Something must have gone wrong.

 

[ILovecycling]

Hello everybody, winter is coming to an end (just snowing outside ) and we have a new season upon us, so Im returning to duty
I can see the most crazy and great fans just talked about Alberto weight all winter long (as every off season ) so I havent missed anything important for those months off!
Late Happy New year to all AC fans and not fans

As for the topic, to be in the mainstream, I think Alberto's sushi pic gives us nice hope of his form!

Edit: I can see Im a veteran now, wtf?

 

[Red Rick]

That is the most important thing

 

[Electress]

Re: Re:

I just saw a picture of berto . He's eating sushi but...he appears skeletal ! Or i'm wrong?
Look fb , now i can't post the picture

Seen the photo, he looks really thin, in fact I'd say he has to be close to race weight there. This is a good sign, it shows his focus is strong mentally, physically he can concentrate on ramping his training rather than losing weight. I think with his mental and physical strength he'll be very difficult to beat this year as long as he as a strong team around him

Really excited to see if he can drop Froome when Froome is at his peak, looking at the photo I see him winning a lot this year.

Yikes, Berto! He's looking lean.

There is literally nothing I want more this year than Bertie on monster form and winning everything in sight.