Teams & Riders Alberto Contador Discussion Thread

[May0maniac]

Re:

Looks like Alberto needs to train on responding to attacks, the base is there but he cannot really keep up his accelerations yet.

That's what he said, according to today's La Gazzetta.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

Looks like Alberto needs to train on responding to attacks, the base is there but he cannot really keep up his accelerations yet.

That's what he said, according to today's La Gazzetta.

Great minds etc some work with motopacing will help

 

[BlurryVII]

Re:

Seems we really missed quite a race on the Madeleine, contador put in way more work than i thought he did based on the pics

Yeah, meanwhile Porte didn't do anything and was still worse than him in the end.
Aru who followed on Madeleine exploded early on Meribel.

It's a good sign. Hopefully he does what it takes after this Dauphiné to reach alien form and does a brilliant showing at the spanish championships.

 

[peloton]

Re:

Was the stage recorded in it's entirety today, or will we never get to see his Madeleine attacks?

Fear we only got what we saw. Would be happy to be wrong, mind

 

[Matteo.]

Tomorrow he does Monte Ologno. Roman pulls hard in the beginning of Noyer and then Alberto goes

 

[May0maniac]

Re: Re:

Looks like Alberto needs to train on responding to attacks, the base is there but he cannot really keep up his accelerations yet.

That's what he said, according to today's La Gazzetta.

Great minds etc some work with motopacing will help

LOL, he even talked about motopacing.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

Looks like Alberto needs to train on responding to attacks, the base is there but he cannot really keep up his accelerations yet.

That's what he said, according to today's La Gazzetta.

Great minds etc some work with motopacing will help

LOL, he even talked about motopacing.

Wtf I remember Berto saying something about motopacing before the race, when he was talking about adjusting his training depending on his feelings during the race, but didn't know he also said it in an interview today

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

Seems we really missed quite a race on the Madeleine, contador put in way more work than i thought he did based on the pics

Yeah, meanwhile Porte didn't do anything and was still worse than him in the end.
Aru who followed on Madeleine exploded early on Meribel.

It's a good sign. Hopefully he does what it takes after this Dauphiné to reach alien form and does a brilliant showing at the spanish championships.

The spanish championships don't suit him sadly.

 

[Ataraxus]

Re:

While i only believe Contador has only a very slim chance of beating Froome at the tour he has only lost about 30 seconds on the two mountain stages so it's foolish to completely write him off , especially with a MTT late in the 3rd week where CF tends to struggle .

If i'm Contador and Quintana i'd look to limit the damage in the first two weeks and then go for it any chance i get in the 3rd week when Froome and there team are weaker .

also Contador aside , i don't see Froome in great form at this moment regardless of how people compare him to Alberto

It is a 17 km MTT with 2km descent and 7 km flat. The maximum gaps can be 20-30 seconds.
Froome created bigger gaps than the abovementioned in Mur de Huy only (Bonus seconds included)

 

[Red Rick]

Re: Re:

Looks like Alberto needs to train on responding to attacks, the base is there but he cannot really keep up his accelerations yet.

You need endurance to be able to keep up. Endurance comes from base.
We'll see the quality of his base in the third week of Tour.

Not really. Following attacks like those are really high intensity efforts. Require very high power output. He can reach that power output (aka, it's not like it's above his peak output), but he blows up when it takes too long. That's not really endurance.

 

[sir fly]

Re: Re:

Looks like Alberto needs to train on responding to attacks, the base is there but he cannot really keep up his accelerations yet.

You need endurance to be able to keep up. Endurance comes from base.
We'll see the quality of his base in the third week of Tour.

Not really. Following attacks like those are really high intensity efforts. Require very high power output. He can reach that power output (aka, it's not like it's above his peak output), but he blows up when it takes too long. That's not really endurance.

That's exactly the lack of endurance. Being able to follow for a short period is good explosiveness. Good endurance stretches the lasting of explosiveness.

 

[lenric]

http://jap.physiology.org/content/56/4/831.short

Regularly performed endurance exercise induces major adaptations in skeletal muscle. These include increases in the mitochondrial content and respiratory capacity of the muscle fibers. As a consequence of the increase in mitochondria, exercise of the same intensity results in a disturbance in homeostasis that is smaller in trained than in untrained muscles. The major metabolic consequences of the adaptations of muscle to endurance exercise are a slower utilization of muscle glycogen and blood glucose, a greater reliance on fat oxidation, and less lactate production during exercise of a given intensity. These adaptations play an important role in the large increase in the ability to perform prolonged strenuous exercise that occurs in response to endurance exercise training.

If this is the problem with Contador, let's just hope, for the sake of the show, that in less than one month he can correct this.

 

[jsem94]

In 2010 Contador lost the Dauphine to Brajkovic. I think he's fine.

 

[boasson]

Re:

In 2010 Contador lost the Dauphine to Brajkovic. I think he's fine.

And the Tour to Andy Schleck...

 

[ILovecycling]

Re: Re:

I think tomorrow's stage is gonna be fun to watch, Froome seems like he's really got recovering problems, he's never on the same level stage after stage.

Regardless of all of that, AC needs drastically improve and somehow find his Tour 14' shape for next month.

I think it's 2013 all over again in 2009, he doen't give a ****. He was very relaxed, today he was bad

The difference with 2013, is that he was much better in the spring this year, has a great winter base and smashed everyone in the prologue . I find it completely abnormal that he's so bad right now, there's actually a good chance his form shoots up for the Tour.

Reminds me of Nibali in the Dauphiné 2014', he set the fastest time on that hill at the intermediate of the prologue equal with Contador and 3 seconds better than Froome, he finished 3rd at the end. And then he was crap all week.
Perhaps a glimpse of the form he was going to have in July, same way with Contador here. Just a theory.

Contador doesn't work like that, when he is bad, he will be bad in the future. He was very good in spring season but he has been awful in this dauphine. For me, the prologue doesn't mean anything, in tour 2013 he almost won the hilly TT

Lol Taxus has a serious competition on my ignore list

 

[BlurryVII]

Re: Re:

In 2010 Contador lost the Dauphine to Brajkovic. I think he's fine.

And the Tour to Andy Schleck...

 

[ILovecycling]

Re: Re:

In 2010 Contador lost the Dauphine to Brajkovic. I think he's fine.

And the Tour to Andy Schleck...

Hey,those frenchies,they messed up the podium steps

 

[ILovecycling]

Re: Re:

In 2010 Contador lost the Dauphine to Brajkovic. I think he's fine.

And the Tour to Andy Schleck...

Hell,you picked a better photo

 

[jilbiker]

Re: Re:

Looks like Alberto needs to train on responding to attacks, the base is there but he cannot really keep up his accelerations yet.

You need endurance to be able to keep up. Endurance comes from base.
We'll see the quality of his base in the third week of Tour.

Not really. Following attacks like those are really high intensity efforts. Require very high power output. He can reach that power output (aka, it's not like it's above his peak output), but he blows up when it takes too long. That's not really endurance.

That's exactly the lack of endurance. Being able to follow for a short period is good explosiveness. Good endurance stretches the lasting of explosiveness.

You know I don't recall when Alberto had a sustained explosiveness. He has always been in short bursts, its just that his bursts were so intense that very few could stay with him. Froome's burst are not way long, no human can do that but his seem to be longer than Alberto. I think thats what puzzles Alberto and leaves him wondering what next.

 

[jilbiker]

Re:

In 2010 Contador lost the Dauphine to Brajkovic. I think he's fine.

We are making excuses again for Bertie. Sorry but this smells of 2013. Do you remember the same words in 2013? "I don't have speed in my legs". Ha-ha, we couldn't figure what that meant (and he never found those "speed in the legs") and still haven't except we can now wonder if the same results will happen.

 

[peloton]

Re: Re:

In 2010 Contador lost the Dauphine to Brajkovic. I think he's fine.

We are making excuses again for Bertie. Sorry but this smells of 2013. Do you remember the same words in 2013? "I don't have speed in my legs". Ha-ha, we couldn't figure what that meant (and he never found those "speed in the legs") and still haven't except we can now wonder if the same results will happen.

Not sure how you can compare this year to 2013, but ok.
If he's not affected with the allergies too much, he'll go out guns blazing. Why I like him so much,
he animates every race he takes part. When did he finish in grupetto?

 

[Red Rick]

Just saw the last 4k. He actually did it again. Try so hard to follow and lose more time because you blow up. Not surprising considering he'd been attacking a lot during the stage. Froome looked quite human. Porte slowing down on big mountain stages/back to back mountain stages already.

 

[sir fly]

Re: Re:

Looks like Alberto needs to train on responding to attacks, the base is there but he cannot really keep up his accelerations yet.

You need endurance to be able to keep up. Endurance comes from base.
We'll see the quality of his base in the third week of Tour.

Not really. Following attacks like those are really high intensity efforts. Require very high power output. He can reach that power output (aka, it's not like it's above his peak output), but he blows up when it takes too long. That's not really endurance.

That's exactly the lack of endurance. Being able to follow for a short period is good explosiveness. Good endurance stretches the lasting of explosiveness.

You know I don't recall when Alberto had a sustained explosiveness. He has always been in short bursts, its just that his bursts were so intense that very few could stay with him. Froome's burst are not way long, no human can do that but his seem to be longer than Alberto. I think thats what puzzles Alberto and leaves him wondering what next.

He's been dropping all week when prolonged intensive efforts were required. He has the initial punch, but struggles to maintain the intensity. The worrying thing is that it wasn't just Froome and/or Porte who were dropping him, there were riders he should've been able to follow even off racing form.
I'm not sure what type of exercise can improve him in 3-4 weeks. The base is what it is, can't be corrected now, moto pacing will help him, but to what extent - I'm not sure.

 

[StryderHells]

Re: Re:

In 2010 Contador lost the Dauphine to Brajkovic. I think he's fine.

We are making excuses again for Bertie. Sorry but this smells of 2013. Do you remember the same words in 2013? "I don't have speed in my legs". Ha-ha, we couldn't figure what that meant (and he never found those "speed in the legs") and still haven't except we can now wonder if the same results will happen.

Possibly but he has been in much better form so far this season than he ever was in 2013. I think people are all getting a little over excited by what they are seeing in the Dauphine

 

[calleking]

Re: Re:

That's exactly the lack of endurance. Being able to follow for a short period is good explosiveness. Good endurance stretches the lasting of explosiveness.

Good endurance?

Contador not being able to match Froomes insane one minute power has nothing to do with endurance. Even Martin was impressed by it which says a lot. Base training was done this winter and he's conserving himself for efforts by running on fat for most sections of these stages. There's no glycogen shortage and his threshold wattage is at or very close to what it should be at this point.

The difference between them is how their bodies handle the lactic acid during these shorter efforts. I'm pretty sure Froome has done very specific training for this as their tactic relies on having their strong lineup that more or less high speed tows him up to the last few km before finish before he does his trademark burst (Ventoux, La Pierre Saint Martin etc).

I think Alberto can match him in w/kg as we saw in the prologue but he just doesn't have the race legs as he described. He builds up a higher value of lactic acid mmol/liter and is fried after following Froome. He can attack and use his very small w/kg advantage but the truth is that many climbs are not only about w/kg. They're semi-steep and absolute wattage is an important component. SKY team just ups the tempo by burning a few riders and eventually catches him.

It's an uphill battle for Alberto in many perspectives. Froome has faded a bit last week of TDF as some pointed out so that might be his only chance. Michael Rogers said in some pod that Albertos old attacks don't work as good anymore. Numbers are similar but guys are just better these days so he's constantly trying to reinvent himself.