Teams & Riders Alberto Contador Discussion Thread

[TheYouyou7]

I wonder if he's playing a waiting game and so does Quintana. They both haven't shown their hands yet so far. Just followed here and there, and accelerate here and there but not enough to cause any alarm bell. Henao looks pretty good. He'll be hard to drop. Tomorrow will be the telling otherwise I would hear another it's not steep enough, too cold, too much responsibility, or whatever. I'm sure Quintana finally will unleash his wrath. And hope Bertie can match stride for stride or get the better of him and Henao.

You're very much wrong, Quintana has done nothing but stay in AC's wheel... Maybe we should tell him that in the ITT he won't be able to do so...

Anyway, i found him quite good today, he never seemed to be in the red zone even when Henao used the afterburners, he just seemed in control like he knew that he would eventually make it back to him. Bodes well for the TT

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re:

Contador is the only one who has done 3 WT races this year and been highly competitive in all of them, being at least the second strongest.

Henao didn't race catalunya, quintana didn't do PN or TA. Contador was really good today, henao is a just a monster on those hills (prob the best in this world maybe froome) and contador closed the gap on him and was still able to attack afterwards. Good stuff

Pinot chose to ride Criterium International instead of Catalunya, but also did Besseges, so they are even race days-wise

 

[Miburo]

Re: Re:

Contador is the only one who has done 3 WT races this year and been highly competitive in all of them, being at least the second strongest.

Henao didn't race catalunya, quintana didn't do PN or TA. Contador was really good today, henao is a just a monster on those hills (prob the best in this world maybe froome) and contador closed the gap on him and was still able to attack afterwards. Good stuff

Pinot chose to ride Criterium International instead of Catalunya, but also did Besseges, so they are even race days-wise

Competitive races, not fodder french races.

 

[Cance > TheRest]

I wonder if he's playing a waiting game and so does Quintana. They both haven't shown their hands yet so far. Just followed here and there, and accelerate here and there but not enough to cause any alarm bell. Henao looks pretty good. He'll be hard to drop. Tomorrow will be the telling otherwise I would hear another it's not steep enough, too cold, too much responsibility, or whatever. I'm sure Quintana finally will unleash his wrath. And hope Bertie can match stride for stride or get the better of him and Henao.

You're very much wrong, Quintana has done nothing but stay in AC's wheel... Maybe we should tell him that in the ITT he won't be able to do so...

Anyway, i found him quite good today, he never seemed to be in the red zone even when Henao used the afterburners, he just seemed in control like he knew that he would eventually make it back to him. Bodes well for the TT

Interestingly, it was not in the usual out-of-saddle trademark style, but in a seated position. It almost looked weird seeing Alberto ride that way, but I guess the rain made it necessary to stay seated to avoid the backwheel slipping on the surface.

 

[Matteo.]

I wonder if he's playing a waiting game and so does Quintana. They both haven't shown their hands yet so far. Just followed here and there, and accelerate here and there but not enough to cause any alarm bell. Henao looks pretty good. He'll be hard to drop. Tomorrow will be the telling otherwise I would hear another it's not steep enough, too cold, too much responsibility, or whatever. I'm sure Quintana finally will unleash his wrath. And hope Bertie can match stride for stride or get the better of him and Henao.

You're very much wrong, Quintana has done nothing but stay in AC's wheel... Maybe we should tell him that in the ITT he won't be able to do so...

Anyway, i found him quite good today, he never seemed to be in the red zone even when Henao used the afterburners, he just seemed in control like he knew that he would eventually make it back to him. Bodes well for the TT

Interestingly, it was not in the usual out-of-saddle trademark style, but in a seated position. It almost looked weird seeing Alberto ride that way, but I guess the rain made it necessary to stay seated to avoid the backwheel slipping on the surface.

Exactly. Contador confirms it in his statement after the stage. Me too , i had the feeling he was in control

 

[Carols]

I wonder if he's playing a waiting game and so does Quintana. They both haven't shown their hands yet so far. Just followed here and there, and accelerate here and there but not enough to cause any alarm bell. Henao looks pretty good. He'll be hard to drop. Tomorrow will be the telling otherwise I would hear another it's not steep enough, too cold, too much responsibility, or whatever. I'm sure Quintana finally will unleash his wrath. And hope Bertie can match stride for stride or get the better of him and Henao.

You're very much wrong, Quintana has done nothing but stay in AC's wheel... Maybe we should tell him that in the ITT he won't be able to do so...

Anyway, i found him quite good today, he never seemed to be in the red zone even when Henao used the afterburners, he just seemed in control like he knew that he would eventually make it back to him. Bodes well for the TT

Interestingly, it was not in the usual out-of-saddle trademark style, but in a seated position. It almost looked weird seeing Alberto ride that way, but I guess the rain made it necessary to stay seated to avoid the backwheel slipping on the surface.

Exactly!

 

[bajbar]

He looked much better today than on stage 2. The gap he made on the steepest section was really nice. And how he closed down Henao was super cool. But I liked that he had dropped Quintana on the last short climb, even though Quintana came back on the downhill.

What I fail to see is why did Quintana not want to cooperate with Contador when they were together with Henao. They could have got a gap to the other guys. Especially Pinot, who is a danger for the TT. Henao did have an excuse that he has the leader behind, but Quintana really cannot rely on the last TT...

 

[cellardoor]

Re:

He looked much better today than on stage 2. The gap he made on the steepest section was really nice. And how he closed down Henao was super cool. But I liked that he had dropped Quintana on the last short climb, even though Quintana came back on the downhill.

What I fail to see is why did Quintana not want to cooperate with Contador when they were together with Henao. They could have got a gap to the other guys. Especially Pinot, who is a danger for the TT. Henao did have an excuse that he has the leader behind, but Quintana really cannot rely on the last TT...

Quintana has his "spring win" and I don't think he's desperate to win this race. I think he's more concerned with not giving Contador any psychological advantage in the lead up to the Tour.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Sounds like I should definitely try to find the final kms on youtube so happy to hear he looked really good

 

[LaFlorecita]

You're very much wrong, Quintana has done nothing but stay in AC's wheel... Maybe we should tell him that in the ITT he won't be able to do so...

He's earned himself a nickname on twitter: I saw a lot of "chuparruedas" today... "wheelsucker"

 

[bajbar]

Re:

Sounds like I should definitely try to find the final kms on youtube so happy to hear he looked really good

http://cyclinghub.tv/videos

Here you go

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

Sounds like I should definitely try to find the final kms on youtube so happy to hear he looked really good

http://cyclinghub.tv/videos

Here you go

Thanks

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

http://cyclinghub.tv/videos

Here you go

Just skipped through it looking for fluoro yellow. Will watch it in full later. He looked strong responding to Henao's attack. Seated Great cadence. Very determined His attack with 2km to go was nice as well. Quintana struggled to respond

 

[Taxus4a]

Re: Re:

Contador is the only one who has done 3 WT races this year and been highly competitive in all of them, being at least the second strongest.

Henao didn't race catalunya, quintana didn't do PN or TA. Contador was really good today, henao is a just a monster on those hills (prob the best in this world maybe froome) and contador closed the gap on him and was still able to attack afterwards. Good stuff

Pinot chose to ride Criterium International instead of Catalunya, but also did Besseges, so they are even race days-wise

Competitive races, not fodder french races.

CI has been one of the most pretigious races in Europe. Today is a race more for french people, but the same way we love in Spain that Valverde make lot of races prestiguous, France need Pinot in some races, so it is normal. But CI is a very competitive race, with similar level to Cataluña. Lok at were at these people in Pais Vasco:

PINOT Thibaut FDJ 6h46'34" 160
2. FRA LATOUR Pierre ALM 37" 120
3. NED OOMEN Sam TGA 46" 100
4. FRA JEANNESSON Arnold COF 48" 84
5. FRA VUILLERMOZ Alexis ALM 01'02" 74
6. USA CRADDOCK Lawson

Cataluña had too mucch stars, better to see more races with good people as well.

 

[Põhja Konn]

Contador looked strong today. Anything else than a win now in Pais Vasco, would be a disappointment.

On his Tour prospects, he seems to be well on his way to be competitive in July. And for me, that is quite enough. Time waits for no-one and its unreasonable to expect him to crush his competition like he once used to do. But when he has been close enough to challenge in GT-s, he has always found a way to win.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

Contador looked strong today. Anything else than a win now in Pais Vasco, would be a disappointment.

On his Tour prospects, he seems to be well on his way to be competitive in July. And for me, that is quite enough. Time waits for no-one and its unreasonable to expect him to crush his competition like he once used to do. But when he has been close enough to challenge in GT-s, he has always found a way to win.

Exactly. He needs to be competitive, and when he is competitive, anything can happen. In 2013 and also last year, he just wasn't strong enough to even consider trying something.

 

[Matteo.]

just rewatch the race as usual... the first time, iI had not noticed how Quintana was struggling to follow him in the final climb. Good signs

 

[BlurryVII]

Looked pretty good but then again, why not be as strong on the MTFs? If he had been that good on tuesday, he'd be leading the damn race. or much closer to it. I don't understand.

We'll see tomorrow, but Arrate is that type of climb where it's just easy to hold wheels. So the TT will decide.

Whether he wins this or not, he'll have to work harder in Tenerife than in 2014.

 

[BlurryVII]

Re: Re:

Exactly. He needs to be competitive, and when he is competitive, anything can happen. In 2013 and also last year, he just wasn't strong enough to even consider trying something.

Very true. Everytime he's been just decent in a GT, not necessarily above the pack, he ended up winning. I can see that aspect.

But man, I just want him to dominate the *** of everyone at the Tour. After all those years, and this amount of bad luck. That'd be 10 times better than winning with a long range attack or whatever.

 

[Red Rick]

Tbh, long range crazy attack winning it would be way better at signifying his awesomeness.

 

[Miburo]

Re:

Tbh, long range crazy attack winning it would be way better at signifying his awesomeness.

my favorite GT of him was tour 2011, the most boring one tour 2009

 

[ray j willings]

Re:

Tbh, long range crazy attack winning it would be way better at signifying his awesomeness.

That's what I want see. I want Bertie to mash up Quintana and the rest so come the tour they will know they are only riding for second place.

 

[BlurryVII]

Re:

Tbh, long range crazy attack winning it would be way better at signifying his awesomeness.

Yeah I'd love it too but some people would still question his abilities, and you'll see a few "oh but overall he just got lucky with that attack". It's sad, but it's cycling fans these days lol

We already know that aspect of Contador, that he's got 'panache' and that he's able to do something crazy like that from far out. But I can assure you, AC dominating fair and square at the Tour would be much more symbolic and would make him go down as truly the best even post ban.

 

[Jakub]

After I read all the happy comments here I rewatched today's stage, but I saw again what I had seen in tge afternoon: Henao was the strongest and looked easy, Quintana was dropped the same way Bertie was dropped by Henao in the steepest section. Bertie unable to follow Samu's counterattack (did this ever happen before?) I am not that sure about tomorrow.

But I am with you and my figers are crossed. Nice to see Roman doing some work, he is still a level below where he should be and most of his "attacks" were pointless, weren't they.

Nice to see Sky losing the dress, that's for sure and hopefully are all bots already tired

 

[Alexandre B.]

After I read all the happy comments here I rewatched today's stage, but I saw again what I had seen in tge afternoon: Henao was the strongest and looked easy, Quintana was dropped the same way Bertie was dropped by Henao in the steepest section. Bertie unable to follow Samu's counterattack (did this ever happen before?) I am not that sure about tomorrow.

Morzine-Avoriaz?