Teams & Riders Alberto Contador Discussion Thread

[LaFlorecita]

http://www.cyclist.co.uk/in-depth/963/alberto-contador-hero-or-villain

I bought the digital edition of this magazine because I heard it contained an article with nice pictures and now they put the article online

 

[LaFlorecita]

Ammattipyoraily, renowned "pseudo-scientist" ( ) on twitter:

ammattipyöräily ‏@ammattipyoraily 7 min
"#ParisNice, Stage 7. Cote de Peille
Lawson Craddock climbed first 9:00 at 6.3 W/kg (441 W) "

ammattipyöräily ‏@ammattipyoraily 2 min
"Contador: "Mi estado de forma es parecido al de 2014, que fue el mejor de mi carrera."

I think Contador is right."

 

[Jakub]

Ammattipyoraily, renowned "pseudo-scientist" ( ) on twitter:

ammattipyöräily ‏@ammattipyoraily 7 min
"#ParisNice, Stage 7. Cote de Peille
Lawson Craddock climbed first 9:00 at 6.3 W/kg (441 W) "

ammattipyöräily ‏@ammattipyoraily 2 min
"Contador: "Mi estado de forma es parecido al de 2014, que fue el mejor de mi carrera."

I think Contador is right."

what the hell...who is Lawson Craddock, what does it mena 9:00, 6,3 W/kg??

 

[LaFlorecita]

Ammattipyoraily, renowned "pseudo-scientist" ( ) on twitter:

ammattipyöräily ‏@ammattipyoraily 7 min
"#ParisNice, Stage 7. Cote de Peille
Lawson Craddock climbed first 9:00 at 6.3 W/kg (441 W) "

ammattipyöräily ‏@ammattipyoraily 2 min
"Contador: "Mi estado de forma es parecido al de 2014, que fue el mejor de mi carrera."

I think Contador is right."

what the hell...who is Lawson Craddock, what does it mena 9:00, 6,3 W/kg??

Lawson Craddock is a Cannondale rider who finished 16th in Paris-Nice. He climbed the first 9 minutes of Cote de Peille at 6.3 W/kg. Ammattipyoraily then says he believes Contador is indeed as good as in 2014, and when he says that it's no joke, he checks climbing times and power numbers all the time.
Besides him, Jens_attacks (you may know his website climbing-records) also thinks Contador is close to or at his 2014 level.

 

[jsem94]

We are going to be in for a cracking summer.

 

[Jakub]

Ammattipyoraily, renowned "pseudo-scientist" ( ) on twitter:

ammattipyöräily ‏@ammattipyoraily 7 min
"#ParisNice, Stage 7. Cote de Peille
Lawson Craddock climbed first 9:00 at 6.3 W/kg (441 W) "

ammattipyöräily ‏@ammattipyoraily 2 min
"Contador: "Mi estado de forma es parecido al de 2014, que fue el mejor de mi carrera."

I think Contador is right."

what the hell...who is Lawson Craddock, what does it mena 9:00, 6,3 W/kg??

Lawson Craddock is a Cannondale rider who finished 16th in Paris-Nice. He climbed the first 9 minutes of Cote de Peille at 6.3 W/kg. Ammattipyoraily then says he believes Contador is indeed as good as in 2014, and when he says that it's no joke, he checks climbing times and power numbers all the time.
Besides him, Jens_attacks (you may know his website climbing-records) also thinks Contador is close to or at his 2014 level.

ok, thanks, hopefully he will reach the 2014 level or be even better, otherwise it would be hard.

 

[rm7]

What will Tinkoffs Tour team look like, vs. SKY?

Contador - Kreuziger - Majka(Giro) - Trofimov - Sagan - Tossato - Benatti - Valgren - Rodgers ? Any others doing the Giro? I hope not!

Vs.

Froome, Thomas, Poels, Nieve, Kennaugh, Roche, Kwiatkowski, Stannard, Rowe. - anyone doing the Giro?

Which one is strongest?

 

[SevenTimeTdfChamp]

Dont know if Contador is a great descender or just takes a lot of risks. The last 3 tours he has crashed on descends. Not a bad descender though, but it have left me woundering. What do you think ?

 

[Vino attacks everyone]

Re:

What will Tinkoffs Tour team look like, vs. SKY?

Contador - Kreuziger - Majka(Giro) - Trofimov - Sagan - Tossato - Benatti - Valgren - Rodgers ? Any others doing the Giro? I hope not!

Vs.

Froome, Thomas, Poels, Nieve, Kennaugh, Roche, Kwiatkowski, Stannard, Rowe. - anyone doing the Giro?

Which one is strongest?

If Kiserlovski reaches his pre Tinkoff form again, I would like to see him in the team rather than Valgren. AC will need all the fire power he can get in the mountains, and Tosatto, Bennati, Rogers and Sagan should be enough on the flats

 

[HelloDolly]

Re:

What will Tinkoffs Tour team look like, vs. SKY?

Contador - Kreuziger - Majka(Giro) - Trofimov - Sagan - Tossato - Benatti - Valgren - Rodgers ? Any others doing the Giro? I hope not!

Vs.

Froome, Thomas, Poels, Nieve, Kennaugh, Roche, Kwiatkowski, Stannard, Rowe. - anyone doing the Giro?

Which one is strongest?

Kennaugh is not riding the Tour...reported to be doing the Giro...maybe Henao will be in

I think SKY probably have the edge because of age but there are factors like form,etc that come into play
For instance 2 brilliant Doms is better than 4 very good doms, etc But Thomas, Poels, Henao we know are in brilliant form...and if they keep it then they will be very strong

 

[HelloDolly]

Re:

Dont know if Contador is a great descender or just takes a lot of risks. The last 3 tours he has crashed on descends. Not a bad descender though, but it have left me woundering. What do you think ?

He is a very good descender who takes risks....but some of the best descenders are the sprinters .except for maybe SAMU & Nibali

 

[staubsauger]

Re: Re:

Dont know if Contador is a great descender or just takes a lot of risks. The last 3 tours he has crashed on descends. Not a bad descender though, but it have left me woundering. What do you think ?

He is a very good descender who takes risks....but some of the best descenders are the sprinters .except for maybe SAMU & Nibali

Except Samu the only pure climbers which are real good descenders tend to be the former mountainbikers like Aru, Rasmussen etc. That said Pantani was a pretty good one as well, until his 95 Milano - Turino crash ain't he!? Contador looks fine, compared to Basso or the Schleck bro's which were horrible. Il Falco probably stays best one ever of course!

 

[lenric]

If Kiserslovski, Majka and Kreuziger appear in top form (well, in the case of Majka, as good as he can be after riding il Giro), I believe they will be enough for the mountains. With Trofimov putting on some early work and Kreuziger being the last one of the train.
Either way, I don't doubt that Contador will be able to drop any Sky dom, I just have doubts that he will have the stamina required to sustain the high tempo. If he'll have it (and I hope so), he'll win.

 

[damian13ster]

Re:

If Kiserslovski, Majka and Kreuziger appear in top form (well, in the case of Majka, as good as he can be after riding il Giro), I believe they will be enough for the mountains. With Trofimov putting on some early work and Kreuziger being the last one of the train.
Either way, I don't doubt that Contador will be able to drop any Sky dom, I just have doubts that he will have the stamina required to sustain the high tempo. If he'll have it (and I hope so), he'll win.

Oh, he can drop Sky domestiques, maybe bar Henao with acceleration, no doubt about it, even if he shows up in fairly bad shape. But if the attack is farther than couple km out, there is no chance that Sky (or any other opponent) is going to try and match the acceleration. They will simply raise the tempo, wait 30-40s for Contador to fade and slowly (if he is in good shape) or instantly (if in bad shape) bring him back, or at least keep close enough for Froome to counter.
In order to beat Froome, you simply have to have a GC lead, or be within couple of seconds, at the end of 2nd week, otherwise you are screwed

 

[Red Rick]

Re: Re:

Dont know if Contador is a great descender or just takes a lot of risks. The last 3 tours he has crashed on descends. Not a bad descender though, but it have left me woundering. What do you think ?

He is a very good descender who takes risks....but some of the best descenders are the sprinters .except for maybe SAMU & Nibali

I think Contador handles the bike pretty well, but he doesn't always take the best lines in the bends. However he can correct himself pretty well. He's also somewhat of a risk taker, but I've never seen him in tuck position, so that hurts him on longer, steeper stretches. Plenty of guys who descend better. I also think it depends on the situation. If he's on the attack or in good shape, he tends to descend better than when he's not

 

[CheckMyPecs]

Ammattipyoraily, renowned "pseudo-scientist" ( ) on twitter:

Why would you quote a pseudo-scientist?

 

[LaFlorecita]

Ammattipyoraily, renowned "pseudo-scientist" ( ) on twitter:

Why would you quote a pseudo-scientist?

Because I, for one, do value their opinion.
By the way, I was sarcastic (that's why I put quotation marks and a smiley) because people like ammattipyoraily, who time the riders up climbs and calculate power outputs, are completely disregarded and called "pseudo-scientists" by Team Sky

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

What will Tinkoffs Tour team look like, vs. SKY?

Contador - Kreuziger - Majka(Giro) - Trofimov - Sagan - Tossato - Benatti - Valgren - Rodgers ? Any others doing the Giro? I hope not!

Vs.

Froome, Thomas, Poels, Nieve, Kennaugh, Roche, Kwiatkowski, Stannard, Rowe. - anyone doing the Giro?

Which one is strongest?

Contador
Sagan
Majka
Kreuziger
Trofimov
Valgren
Tosatto
Bennati
Kiserlovski/Poljanski/Hansen/McCarthy

 

[dacooley]

Re:

What will Tinkoffs Tour team look like, vs. SKY?

Contador - Kreuziger - Majka(Giro) - Trofimov - Sagan - Tossato - Benatti - Valgren - Rodgers ? Any others doing the Giro? I hope not!

Vs.

Froome, Thomas, Poels, Nieve, Kennaugh, Roche, Kwiatkowski, Stannard, Rowe. - anyone doing the Giro?

Which one is strongest?

no brainer, tinkoff is much stronger

 

[LaFlorecita]

Majka and Kreuziger > Thomas and Poels (providing all are in shape). Then Sky have a lot more decent-to-good climbing domestiques, but really, Contador only needs two really strong ones. If Contador is behind and needs to attack, Sky can do their trainy trainy choo choo thing the entire stage, and then Kreuziger ups the pace to drop half of Sky's domestiques, and then Majka does a sprint leadout like we saw this weekend. Even if Froome follows, likely all his domestiques will have been dropped.
And in case Contador is in the lead, Froome will have to attack at some point, after which Contador just has to follow Froome and maybe counter like at the Vuelta 2014.

 

[dacooley]

tinkoff clearly are not even going to compete against sky at strength of climbing trains. That will be more of individual effort from bertie. also i don't think a post-giro Majka can be on the level of the best climbers in the race. however it's very likely if he skips the giro.

 

[Metabolol]

In regards to Contador's descending skills, they seem just fine to me. Especially if it's pretty technical. There aren't many GC guys that will put him into real trouble in a descent. But of course, if it's more a question of power then he won't be the strongest.

 

[KyoGrey]

I don't remember late Spanish GC guys who were bad o mediocre descenders.

Contador, like Valverde, are decent to good descenders.

Of the historical greats, I suppose Bahamontes (ice-cream stories) would be the worst and Indurain the best.

 

[KyoGrey]

Majka the eye-winking wannabe a superstar is better than Geraint Thomas.

Majka the teammate riding tempo is worst than Geraint Thomas doing the same work.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Majka the eye-winking wannabe a superstar is better than Geraint Thomas.

Majka the teammate riding tempo is worst than Geraint Thomas doing the same work.

That's why Majka shouldn't do tempo riding but rather sprinting leadouts uphill like in Paris-Nice