Miburo said:
Why are you a fan of Contador? Cause of his exciting racing? All his rivals were so boring but he was exciting, he's fun to watch so you choose him. Am i correct?
Now it doesn't matter, aslong he wins even if it would be worse than a Levi ride. So you want contador to become what his rivals were.
The irony is beautiful.
I think that many of us are fans of Contador because he is from a different era of cycling. Well he is sort of the bridge between the Lance/Jan/Ivan/Roberto/Andreas era and the Chris/Nairo/Vincenzo/Alejandro one. For many of us his rise to the top closely coincided with our own interest in the sport, and that has a lot to do with it.
When AC won the '14 Vuleta he didn't exactly do so via an onslaught of long range attacks. He did it by riding tactically smart, sitting on Froome for key periods on MTF's, before taking some time almost Purito style. Of course ANYTHING that Contador did at that Vuelta would have been incredible given his injuries at the Tour, and we - Alberto fans - adored all of those moments that gave Contador a remarkable GT victory.
I think that's his best win. I can still remember the talk on the forum a month, and then even weeks out from the start of the race. Contador was NO chance to ever START the Vuelta. What happened was **** amazing
Most of us understand now that Alberto isn't quite at the peak of his powers anymore. I think that the absolute best Froome is slightly better than the absolute best Contador, with the first two stages of the '14 Dauphne being a very accurate depiction. That doesn't mean that Contador cannot win this TDF. But he'll likely have to race it super smartly and not race so much to 'entertain'. We'd all love to see Alberto attack halfway through a multi mountain stage as early as stage 8, but such gun ho bravado will likely backfire big time in the long run.
Stage 5 will give us some information on how everyone is tracking, and we don't want to see a repeat of stage 5 of the Dauphne there....
But if Froome goes thermonucleur on Arcalis and Contador loses thirty seconds, then he might actually be the winner. He can lose some time. Just don't get destroyed.
Don't try to hang on for as long as you can, '07 Evans style. Let it go, and limit those losses a little.
The point about the race starting for Contador after Ventoux is a good one. It's to suggest that Froome will peak from around stages 5-12. It is after that when Contador might have a chance to take time back. And he might be close enough to yellow that he doesn't have to ride in the vane of Landis into Morzine, but rather just take time on the final climb (and descent) of the day.
I know. How boring
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