Teams & Riders Alberto Contador Discussion Thread

[PremierAndrew]

Re: Re:

Can Alberto win Talansky style? Probably not but I need a reason to watch the last two stages

He will try for sure, epic breaks worked quite well in the last years of the dauphine. That doesnt make his shape better though

Contador is probably the only rider in the last 20 years who'd never be let away in a break, no matter how crap his form is and no matter how many minutes he's down.

If he was an hour down, I think they'd let him go

 

[portugal11]

Contador should riding in his own pace when froome accelerates. He is the best riding at his own tempo (Hilly TT and MTT). so he could catch froome later

 

[Matteo.]

Re:

it is only a matter of legs, or are there or not. at this time he does not have to be with Froome.
Speed in legs? Meh, today was the 5th stage, 700km of race aren't enough? In algarve, after the distaser of the first stage, he destroyed the field in Malhao...

 

[Miburo]

Re: Re:

it is only a matter of legs, or are there or not. at this time he does not have to be with Froome.
Speed in legs? Meh, today was the 5th stage, 700km of race aren't enough? In algarve, after the distaser of the first stage, he destroyed the field in Malhao...

No worries mate, he's gonna win tomorrow. just believe

 

[Netserk]

How I feel

 

[BlurryVII]

 

[Miburo]

I would say: watch verbier again but i don't think that's a good idea

 

[filipepc]

Re: Re:

Can Alberto win Talansky style? Probably not but I need a reason to watch the last two stages

He will try for sure, epic breaks worked quite well in the last years of the dauphine. That doesnt make his shape better though

Contador is probably the only rider in the last 20 years who'd never be let away in a break, no matter how crap his form is and no matter how many minutes he's down.

It´s not a metter of a break, what i defend is that he must isolate Froome in the early moutains without any help. Then the game is pretty diferent, and maybe he has a better chance.
That is what i feel, if he can´t go with him in the end. He must attack early and make the race a mess... Then he can attack anywhere, because sky woudn´t be there to follow. I don´t know if that way he can do it, but is a diferente chance to him... That kind of acelaration of Froome is really dificult to follow.

 

[boasson]

Re:

C'mon guys, its the same funny stuff here every year.

January - May:

"Conti will destroy them all. He is the best. No doubt he will win the tour. Froome never raced against the best Conti. Vuelta 2014.... This year he is better then ever...."

June:

"Well, there is a lot of time to the tour to improve the shape. He never was at his best at le dauphine. He suffers allergies. He suffers the heat. He suffers the 3km rule. He suffers mechanicals...."

July:

"F*** the doped Froome."

August - December:

"I hope he will go for the treble next year. He can win the Giro, Tour and Vuelta."

End of December:

Conti: "I will ride the next Tour and win it"

... see above....

 

[bajbar]

Chance of rain tomorrow... Hopefully...

 

[Forever The Best]

Re: Re:

C'mon guys, its the same funny stuff here every year.

January - May:

"Conti will destroy them all. He is the best. No doubt he will win the tour. Froome never raced against the best Conti. Vuelta 2014.... This year he is better then ever...."

June:

"Well, there is a lot of time to the tour to improve the shape. He never was at his best at le dauphine. He suffers allergies. He suffers the heat. He suffers the 3km rule. He suffers mechanicals...."

July:

"F*** the doped Froome."

August - December:

"I hope he will go for the treble next year. He can win the Giro, Tour and Vuelta."

End of December:

Conti: "I will ride the next Tour and win it"

... see above....

Hi,blind nationalism is one of the worst things in life.

 

[BlurryVII]

All the arguments in favor of Contador that have been posted on here were all justified, based on what we've seen, regardless of what happens at the Tour 16', it makes sense to believe that AC can win it and be the best.

Now honestly, how can you predict this kind of crap? The guy did 3 weeks of "supposedly" quality work in Tenerife, looks incredibly fit, storms to the win in the Prologue (no need to remind his Pais Vasco win and the way he dominated Quintana) and then you've got this kind of day where it feels like he just lets us down really, drops like stone for no reason, finishes behind Yates and Martin, loses 30 seconds on a 2nd category climb.

Like seriously, how can you predict this. Makes no *** sense at all. That's why I'm not gonna try to argue in his favor anymore, can't trust his level.

 

[BlurryVII]

And then when nobody expects him to do anything, because everyone is depressed already, he comes outta nowhere and does unbelievable things.

That's pretty much Contador since he came back from suspension.

 

[Jspear]

Re:

He might as well just abandon so he can rest up and prepare better for the Tour

He's to classy for that.

 

[fantomas]

Bought a Tour magazine today. Bjarne Riis offers his opinion on Froome, Quintana, Contador, Aru, Pinot and TJvG. On Contador:

"I am a huge fan of Alberto. From my experience, I know he can beat them all. But I also know that he can't win if his health isn't flawless. He's the best rider of them all. But he makes mistakes causing him not to win. I am a little doubtful he'll be able to win this year. It all depends on his preparation. He suffers quite a lot from allergies. Because of that, last year he wasn't able to recover well for the Tour. If he doesn't contain his allergies, he'll be lagging behind even before the Tour starts. This year's program looks better. He'll be hoping for lots of rain in the Tour. Luckily, July isn't as bad as May and June when it comes to allergies."

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

And then when nobody expects him to do anything, because everyone is depressed already, he comes outta nowhere and does unbelievable things.

That's pretty much Contador since he came back from suspension.

Yeah, it's pretty frustrating
But I guess those unbelievable performances are more satisfying because of the occasional disappointments

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

Bought a Tour magazine today. Bjarne Riis offers his opinion on Froome, Quintana, Contador, Aru, Pinot and TJvG. On Contador:

"I am a huge fan of Alberto. From my experience, I know he can beat them all. But I also know that he can't win if his health isn't flawless. He's the best rider of them all. But he makes mistakes causing him not to win. I am a little doubtful he'll be able to win this year. It all depends on his preparation. He suffers quite a lot from allergies. Because of that, last year he wasn't able to recover well for the Tour. If he doesn't contain his allergies, he'll be lagging behind even before the Tour starts. This year's program looks better. He'll be hoping for lots of rain in the Tour. Luckily, July isn't as bad as May and June when it comes to allergies."

Really interesting. Fingers crossed for rain!
When he says "he can't win if his health isn't flawless" I wonder if he means just the allergies or also other things?

 

[Miburo]

I've allergies, it's a *** ***. It's terrible, especially right now.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re:

Bought a Tour magazine today. Bjarne Riis offers his opinion on Froome, Quintana, Contador, Aru, Pinot and TJvG. On Contador:

"I am a huge fan of Alberto. From my experience, I know he can beat them all. But I also know that he can't win if his health isn't flawless. He's the best rider of them all. But he makes mistakes causing him not to win. I am a little doubtful he'll be able to win this year. It all depends on his preparation. He suffers quite a lot from allergies. Because of that, last year he wasn't able to recover well for the Tour. If he doesn't contain his allergies, he'll be lagging behind even before the Tour starts. This year's program looks better. He'll be hoping for lots of rain in the Tour. Luckily, July isn't as bad as May and June when it comes to allergies."

Lets not forget Riis is hugely Contador-biased. He is one of his biggest fans and also wrote in that magazine you are referring to that Contador is the best rider of them all. Hardly super objective.

The allergies-part is interesting, but I suppose all the die hard Contador fans know that. He has been in TV2's studio a couple of times and spoken about his allergies.

 

[Matteo.]

it is only a matter of legs, or are there or not. at this time he does not have to be with Froome.
Speed in legs? Meh, today was the 5th stage, 700km of race aren't enough? In algarve, after the distaser of the first stage, he destroyed the field in Malhao...

No worries mate, he's gonna win tomorrow. just believe

Verily, I'm not so worried, but quite surprised given the excellent form which had come out from the Basque country. I thought that the Spanish race was the starting point for the Dauphiné, or at least that he was on a similar level. But today came out his worst performance of the season (that of Algarve was the first race of the year).
The question is not losing 20s, but the way of how he lost them. He is completely imploded, and if the climb was longer I fear we talked much more than a minute. For this I am surprised. Nobody expected such a result today after what we saw in the prologue and above all in the spring.
We'll see the next day because as I said I do not exclude that he can improve this poor performance.

 

[fantomas]

Re: Re:

Bought a Tour magazine today. Bjarne Riis offers his opinion on Froome, Quintana, Contador, Aru, Pinot and TJvG. On Contador:

"I am a huge fan of Alberto. From my experience, I know he can beat them all. But I also know that he can't win if his health isn't flawless. He's the best rider of them all. But he makes mistakes causing him not to win. I am a little doubtful he'll be able to win this year. It all depends on his preparation. He suffers quite a lot from allergies. Because of that, last year he wasn't able to recover well for the Tour. If he doesn't contain his allergies, he'll be lagging behind even before the Tour starts. This year's program looks better. He'll be hoping for lots of rain in the Tour. Luckily, July isn't as bad as May and June when it comes to allergies."

Lets not forget Riis is hugely Contador-biased. He is one of his biggest fans and also wrote in that magazine you are referring to that Contador is the best rider of them all. Hardly super objective.

The allergies-part is interesting, but I suppose all the die hard Contador fans know that. He has been in TV2's studio a couple of times and spoken about his allergies.

Yeah, he's super biased. But he does consider Froome to be the number favourite, though. So he isn't blinded by his love for Alberto.

I personally think Alberto in his prime was stronger than Froome, but I am biased as well.

 

[BlurryVII]

The prologue hierarchy was almost respected today, Porte, Froome at the front, Yates and Martin 20 secs off, Bardet 25 secs off, Alaphilippe 27 secs off, Mollema even better than at the Prologue.

And who went south? Contador, go figure

 

[Miburo]

We get it. Contador underperformed xD

 

[lenric]

Re:

Bought a Tour magazine today. Bjarne Riis offers his opinion on Froome, Quintana, Contador, Aru, Pinot and TJvG. On Contador:

"I am a huge fan of Alberto. From my experience, I know he can beat them all. But I also know that he can't win if his health isn't flawless. He's the best rider of them all. But he makes mistakes causing him not to win. I am a little doubtful he'll be able to win this year. It all depends on his preparation. He suffers quite a lot from allergies. Because of that, last year he wasn't able to recover well for the Tour. If he doesn't contain his allergies, he'll be lagging behind even before the Tour starts. This year's program looks better. He'll be hoping for lots of rain in the Tour. Luckily, July isn't as bad as May and June when it comes to allergies."

Yes, well, to be fair, half of the posters in this thread could have said the same. Fanboys always tend to overrate their idols.
What we saw today was weakness from Contador in a head-to-head with the best GT rider of the past 3 years (when it comes to results).

Contador hasn't been able to deliver good performances in the most important GT of them all since 2011 (though he didn't win, he still showed a couple of good things).

This year, in the first head-to-head with Froome in the mountains, when it is starting to be important, he was decimated. He lost 20 seconds in 2 kms. There are no excuses. If tomorrow he loses time again, then it is preocupating, because the clock is ticking, the Tour is coming and he can't expect to win it next year, if in this year he won't be able to perform accordingly to what he did in the past.

It doesn't matter how good he feels in training, it only matters what he does in races. Numbers in training are good only for mental masturbation between fans, because wins are made on the road, and today Froome won to a fairly disappointing Alberto.

 

[Pricey_sky]

Re:

I've allergies, it's a **** ***. It's terrible, especially right now.

Yes I agree, my hayfever has been horrendous the past 4-5 days. Perhaps Contador has allergy problems too, I expected him to be better.