Teams & Riders Alberto Contador Discussion Thread

[Miburo]

Re:

When did Contador come from adversity in a race to win?

Example Nibali at the Giro.

The Vuelta he won in 2012 he was already 2nd and pushing Purito in every stage.

Maybe my memory is failing me, so maybe somebody can point me to the event.

Thanks.

Giro '15.

Giro '08, he was in big trouble in the mountains 2 days in a row.

Tour '11, now he didn't win of course but he made quite a comeback at the end with furious attacks.

 

[rune1107]

Re:

When did Contador come from adversity in a race to win?

Example Nibali at the Giro.

The Vuelta he won in 2012 he was already 2nd and pushing Purito in every stage.

Maybe my memory is failing me, so maybe somebody can point me to the event.

Thanks.

Well I don't remember a Tour where he has been in great shape, but has been set back minutes because of non-form related issues. 2014 could have been a great example after the cobbled stage, but we all know how that went. But his oppertunistic type, is perfectly suited for a great comeback in a GT. The circumstances just hasn't been there yet..

 

[Matteo.]

I fear he will not ready for stage 5 , reading his statement after the stage. He could lose another minute

 

[Red Rick]

Re:

I fear he will not ready for stage 5 , reading his statement after the stage. He could lose another minute

I feel that that stage is either seconds on the finish or losing minutes. Latter would be irrelevant as Aspin disaster would be imminent anyway

 

[ILovecycling]

I cant help myself but I think that his statement is either better or lot worse than he said in his last interview.(CN)
Why to say he is feels "bad but has still hope"? From his pov it doesnt make sense to say that (morale boost for opponets etc) unless he is lying and is better or OTOH is so bad that he knows he will not be a factor.

What do you think?

 

[jens_attacks]

until pas de peyrol and perthus, i still believe.

vamos.

 

[Jelantik]

Re:

I cant help myself but I think that his statement is either better or lot worse than he said in his last interview.(CN)
Why to say he is feels "bad but has still hope"? From his pov it doesnt make sense to say that (morale boost for opponets etc) unless he is lying and is better or OTOH is so bad that he knows he will not be a factor.

What do you think?

Hard to judge from his comment. Why telling his opponent if he is weak? so they can hit him hard and take him out of contention? but on a flip side, he's probably just being honest, and say like it is. So he won't be a factor whatsoever on the next coming stage. There fore fans or media won't be surprise if he bleeds minutes on the next coming stages. Was Quintana hurt after he crashed on the first week during his Giro win?

 

[Jelantik]

One day passed with him stay upright. Checked. It's another glass half full. #OneDayAtATime.

 

[Taxus4a]

Re:

I fear he will not ready for stage 5 , reading his statement after the stage. He could lose another minute

I have another feeling. At least if tomorrow is another quiet stage like today.

Hope him have a good ninght and tomorrow can be better.

 

[SafeBet]

He was way in the back, looks like he didn't care, just didn't wanna crash

In my opinion he didn't care because he thinks that he already lost le tour

You cannot be serious.

 

[Matteo.]

Re: Re:

I fear he will not ready for stage 5 , reading his statement after the stage. He could lose another minute

I have another feeling. At least if tomorrow is another quiet stage like today.

Hope him have a good ninght and tomorrow can be better.

I don't know , i have bad feeling. Yesterday he lost almost a minute in 1- 2kms at 6%. Ok , Le Lioran isn't steep but it's later than two short and hard climbs. 48 hours aren't enough to recover well with the goal of not losing seconds

 

[Taxus4a]

Re: Re:

I cant help myself but I think that his statement is either better or lot worse than he said in his last interview.(CN)
Why to say he is feels "bad but has still hope"? From his pov it doesnt make sense to say that (morale boost for opponets etc) unless he is lying and is better or OTOH is so bad that he knows he will not be a factor.

What do you think?

Hard to judge from his comment. Why telling his opponent if he is weak? so they can hit him hard and take him out of contention? but on a flip side, he's probably just being honest, and say like it is. So he won't be a factor whatsoever on the next coming stage. There fore fans or media won't be surprise if he bleeds minutes on the next coming stages. Was Quintana hurt after he crashed on the first week during his Giro win?

not really, the difference with Contador is than thenn lot of rider crashed that week.

"I have several blows over my body: the shoulder, the elbow, my hip, both knees... to be honest, it was inevitable to crash," Quintana said. "I think more than half of the bunch hit the ground. From our team, half plus one; from the others, I guess it will be the same.

"I got back on my bike quickly thanks to Ventoso, who was riding by my side, and we could bridge the gap to the chase group, where my team-mates did an amazing job. They were phenomenal, because we were losing so much ground and it was difficult to take timeback. I think we must stay thankful, because even with the blows, none of us had to go to hospital and that's important, because it keeps us into the fight.

 

[Chomsky]

I cant help myself but I think that his statement is either better or lot worse than he said in his last interview.(CN)
Why to say he is feels "bad but has still hope"? From his pov it doesnt make sense to say that (morale boost for opponets etc) unless he is lying and is better or OTOH is so bad that he knows he will not be a factor.

What do you think?

Hard to judge from his comment. Why telling his opponent if he is weak? so they can hit him hard and take him out of contention? but on a flip side, he's probably just being honest, and say like it is. So he won't be a factor whatsoever on the next coming stage. There fore fans or media won't be surprise if he bleeds minutes on the next coming stages. Was Quintana hurt after he crashed on the first week during his Giro win?

This is a 1st. I have never heard anyone accuse Contador of honesty before.

 

[Jungle Cycle]

Reaaaaly chearing for him to hold on until d'Aspin. Maybe 1 more minute until then. Sky+Movi+Astana will go 110% to eliminate him wednesday and he knows it. To me he'ld never go for stages. What i like a lot about him is exactly the attitude of "all-in" or go home. He doesnt defend a 3rd(!?). He'll go for broke and I'll be cheering for him doing it and if the gods of cycling give a little help..
For the record i'm a Quintana fan but waiting for this big clash for years..... maybe Quintana learns a thing or two in the process...

 

[ILovecycling]

I cant help myself but I think that his statement is either better or lot worse than he said in his last interview.(CN)
Why to say he is feels "bad but has still hope"? From his pov it doesnt make sense to say that (morale boost for opponets etc) unless he is lying and is better or OTOH is so bad that he knows he will not be a factor.

What do you think?

Hard to judge from his comment. Why telling his opponent if he is weak? so they can hit him hard and take him out of contention? but on a flip side, he's probably just being honest, and say like it is. So he won't be a factor whatsoever on the next coming stage. There fore fans or media won't be surprise if he bleeds minutes on the next coming stages. Was Quintana hurt after he crashed on the first week during his Giro win?

This is a 1st. I have never heard anyone accuse Contador of honesty before.

I agree with you. Actually its pretty unlikely that he is honest DURING a race like Tour

I hope he is actually better than he says!

 

[Campervan man]

33-1 on Alberto for outright win. Let's hope for good of the GC he's still in touch after this weekend. A 3 way fight is way better than a 2 way battle. Today might be another opportunity to recover slightly if they race a long stage at a moderately slowish pace. I won't be rushing home today, tomorrow's day will be of much more interest regarding Alberto.

 

[Billopoulos]

https://www.facebook.com/tinkoffsport/videos/844877332280907/

Just posted on FB.
Quick translation?

 

[The Hitch]

Re:

Reaaaaly chearing for him to hold on until d'Aspin. Maybe 1 more minute until then. Sky+Movi+Astana will go 110% to eliminate him wednesday and he knows it. To me he'ld never go for stages. What i like a lot about him is exactly the attitude of "all-in" or go home. He doesnt defend a 3rd(!?). He'll go for broke and I'll be cheering for him doing it and if the gods of cycling give a little help..

Umm contador rode for 3rd both the last 2 tour de France's he finished.

 

[Red Rick]

Re: Re:

Reaaaaly chearing for him to hold on until d'Aspin. Maybe 1 more minute until then. Sky+Movi+Astana will go 110% to eliminate him wednesday and he knows it. To me he'ld never go for stages. What i like a lot about him is exactly the attitude of "all-in" or go home. He doesnt defend a 3rd(!?). He'll go for broke and I'll be cheering for him doing it and if the gods of cycling give a little help..

Umm contador rode for 3rd both the last 2 tour de France's he finished.

He didn't have the form to attack anyway. Hopefully that's different this year

 

[The Hitch]

Re:

https://www.facebook.com/tinkoffsport/videos/844877332280907/

Just posted on FB.
Quick translation?

Hard to hear with the announcer talking. Mostly about this stage then a little about how hes not had an ideal tdf up to now, has fans behind him and is going to give everything himself as well

 

[Taxus4a]

Re:

Reaaaaly chearing for him to hold on until d'Aspin. Maybe 1 more minute until then. Sky+Movi+Astana will go 110% to eliminate him wednesday and he knows it. To me he'ld never go for stages. What i like a lot about him is exactly the attitude of "all-in" or go home. He doesnt defend a 3rd(!?). He'll go for broke and I'll be cheering for him doing it and if the gods of cycling give a little help..
For the record i'm a Quintana fan but waiting for this big clash for years..... maybe Quintana learns a thing or two in the process...

The race is not everybody againts Contador. Froome said his main rival is Quintana and not just Froome said that, so everybody is going to folllow his previous plan.

Movistar and SKy could have already put Contador out by making very hard the race after Contador crash and by doing yesterday a hard stage and they didnt. They want Contador at his best as a contender, that is good for le Tour and for everybody, and later yes, to try to eliminate him as well other contenders. But the race cant stop tomorrow for Contador, tomorrow is an important day for Froome to try to put in problems Quintana and if Contador pay it, it is nothing possible to do.

But maybe Contador tomorrow will be ok and can follow the attack.. or maybe no. It is Contador team that must protect him properly. It is looks like Sagan is more importnat.

 

[Kwibus]

Re: Re:

Reaaaaly chearing for him to hold on until d'Aspin. Maybe 1 more minute until then. Sky+Movi+Astana will go 110% to eliminate him wednesday and he knows it. To me he'ld never go for stages. What i like a lot about him is exactly the attitude of "all-in" or go home. He doesnt defend a 3rd(!?). He'll go for broke and I'll be cheering for him doing it and if the gods of cycling give a little help..

Umm contador rode for 3rd both the last 2 tour de France's he finished.

Thing is he was in poor shape those 2 TdF's and his legs didn't give him any chance of winning the TdF so there was not much else to do.
Yes I know some AC-fans keep on saying he only rides for the win and it's almost always true, but if he simply doesn't have it he rides to maintain a high as possible position.

The thing is if he has good legs and is behind he will absolutely try anything to get back in the lead. Everybody with good legs tries this ofcourse, but AC really takes this to extremes, but you know that.

I think it's unfortunate we haven't seen him in great form in the TdF in recent years (except 2014). I'm not going to say he would've won the TdF if he had great form, but it certainly would've been a lot more interesting race.

 

[Taxus4a]

Re:

https://www.facebook.com/tinkoffsport/videos/844877332280907/

Just posted on FB.
Quick translation?

Conntador knnew his possibilities here were thing go well for him and nnot so well for the rest... and he is dissapoinnted becouse till now everything is againt him...2 crashes, one of them quite hard despite no injuries, and a day where hiss own team make him lose about 10 aditional seconds. so he is not happy.

But he looks quite confident anyway by saying the time pass helping him...and he smiled.

He said it will be good another quite stage for recover better.

It was a long time to get ready for le tour, sponsors, suporters who want I give here everything and later we will see what I can do.

The word in english to say what I unnderstad he is now is: resigned. Not optimistic, not depfressed, just resigned to his bad luck and hoping to be better day by day.

IMO if the race is not hard today, he could be close to his best level tomorrow

 

[LaFlorecita]

I think Hitch is being unfair on Alberto. We shouldn't take this "all or nothing" mantra too literally. When he says 2nd doesn't mean anything, 2nd or 10th it's the same to me, only the win counts, he doesn't mean he will "win or die trying". He means that he will continue to look up, he won't ride to defend his placing, he will look for opportunities to try to get higher in the rankings, preferably 1st.
Of course, this doesn't always work, and no, when it doesn't work, he doesn't always drop multiple places which "all or nothing", "win or die trying" would suggest.
Every time he isn't in the lead, he'll attack to try and gain time, both in GTs and in smaller races. At the TDF, he did it in 2011, 2013 and 2015. No, he wasn't successful, but he tried. We have to understand that successfully attacking and gaining time is much, much harder when you're out of shape or fatigued.

 

[The Hitch]

Re: Re:

I think Hitch is being unfair on Alberto. We shouldn't take this "all or nothing" mantra too literally. When he says 2nd doesn't mean anything, 2nd or 10th it's the same to me, only the win counts, he doesn't mean he will "win or die trying". He means that he will continue to look up, he won't ride to defend his placing, he will look for opportunities to try to get higher in the rankings, preferably 1st.
Of course, this doesn't always work, and no, when it doesn't work, he doesn't always drop multiple places which "all or nothing", "win or die trying" would suggest.
Every time he isn't in the lead, he'll attack to try and gain time, both in GTs and in smaller races. At the TDF, he did it in 2011, 2013 and 2015. No, he wasn't successful, but he tried. We have to understand that successfully attacking and gaining time is much, much harder when you're out of shape or fatigued.

I don't remember this at all re 2013 and 2015. I remember it in 2011 and 2012 VUelta and 2014 Tirreno, but not at all in 2013 or 2015. Just Contador saying "I will attack" but with the exception of that one descent where he and Kreuziger attacked for about 2 minutes, nothing.
In 2013 I even remember a stage in the Pyranees where Froome was isolated and Saxo were content to let Movistar ride to the finish for him. I also remember another stage where Froome was almost isolated early and Saxo didn't try anything either.

Reaaaaly chearing for him to hold on until d'Aspin. Maybe 1 more minute until then. Sky+Movi+Astana will go 110% to eliminate him wednesday and he knows it. To me he'ld never go for stages. What i like a lot about him is exactly the attitude of "all-in" or go home. He doesnt defend a 3rd(!?). He'll go for broke and I'll be cheering for him doing it and if the gods of cycling give a little help..

Umm contador rode for 3rd both the last 2 tour de France's he finished.

Thing is he was in poor shape those 2 TdF's and his legs didn't give him any chance of winning the TdF so there was not much else to do.

The problem I have with that is, it was obvious from the very start he had no form. In 2013 some people reported it before the Tour had even began (and the results showed) that Contador had no form.

But he and a lot of the fans kept deluding themselves that it was magically going to come in the 3rd week.
2015 same thing. He did the Giro. A number of us said when he announced he would do the Giro that this was a mistake. Unless he had a plan.

He had no plan. Again it was - lets just ride and see what happens.

Does anyone believe Contador won any of the 9 gts he has by turning up and "seeing what happens". Maybe, maybe the 2008 Giro but that was against weaker competition. The others, no.

So for Contador to turn up to these races with no form but act like he felt he could actually win, was disapointing.