Gigs_98 said:
I think people are a bit overreacting with this "leave the tour" stuff. Of course the situation is extremely bad and I'm also sad right now but I still see it very differently than many others here.
Yeah, Contador lost 47 seconds today, thats bad and you definitely shouldn't loose so much time in a tour when the mountains haven't even started yet. But 47 seconds sound more than it is. In the last 25 tdf editions (probably even more but I didn't look any further back) there was one single race which was decided by less than 47 seconds, and even races which today are seen as very close like 2011 or 2006 were decided by more. If he doesn't win the tdf, it's very unlikely it is because of the time loss of today.
He won 3 times, in 2007 he had a 23s advantage, in 2009 over 4 minutes and in 2010 39s. So these 47s could very well be decisive, and he might lose even more.
It's simple. To win, he had to be in his best shape and have luck on his side. The latter is clearly not happening. He's badly hurt, yesterday he hurt his right shoulder, hip and knee, today it was his left shoulder and knee. No matter how many times Miburo shouts that it's nothing, those injuries not only hurt and cost him time directly, but they also make it harder to sleep which means less recovery, and the body uses energy to heal the injuries, energy he won't be able to spend in the following stages.