Teams & Riders Alberto Contador Discussion Thread

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Taxus4a said:
Contador looked very well on the climb and he is now out of the saddle going to the front, so he is ok.
And he is the usual liar: he is better than what said. Anyway he looked a bit in trouble on the final sector of first steep climb
 
Mar 11, 2013
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Contador is going to lose chunks of time in the Pyrenees. It's clear Kreuziger is now their GC rider for this Tour.
 
He's being interviewed now. It went better than he expected today, but he's still really disappointed that all of his hard work preparing for the Tour seems in vain. Also, his spirits are still high, but the body just doesn't respond well. May set other goals than GC, but he'll wait and see.
 
Post-race interview he said that he was content not losing that much (he expected a bigger time loss). He talked about feeling all the months of preparation being for nothing. "It's possible that I will change my focus in this Tour". :(
 
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lenric said:
Contador's 1'21 behind Froome and Quintana now.

Even in top form this would be REALLY hard to overcome.

What do you all think he should do? I'd be happy if he took things easy, went for a couple stage wins later in the Tour, and then went to the Vuelta. He'd get more out of his season then if he tries to continue going for GC in the Tour. He'd end up at best somewhere in the top 10 with no stage win, and then he'd be too tired to do well in the Vuelta.
 
If he stil believes himself in contention, then it's his team's obligation to help. I understand Kreuziger may have a free role, but why, then, if he's going for GC, did he stroll to the line after being dropped in the final gradients instead of giving it all to lose the least amount of time possible? I understand Majka may be going for Polka and breakaway wins, but why, then, did he not drop to the main group after it was obvious GVA had it in the bag and only a couple of points towards the mountain classification were still up for grabs? This ''team'' nevers ceases to amaze. Makes you wish Jesús and Sérgio were here, and that's saying a lot.
 
People expected he'd lose minutes today and it turns out to be seconds. If Majka actually gave a damn he mightn't have leaked anything more than a handful of seconds. Considering it's a punchy climb and his injuries, he did very well today. 1:20 is nothing this early in a Tour. Relax...
 
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fantomas said:
He's being interviewed now. It went better than he expected today, but he's still really disappointed that all of his hard work preparing for the Tour seems in vain. Also, his spirits are still high, but the body just doesn't respond well. May set other goals than GC, but he'll wait and see.
:( :( so disappointing and frustrating, it's already hard for me to see him struggle because I can imagine how hard he worked for this, it must be so much worse for him :(
 
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Pantani Attacks said:
People expected he'd lose minutes today and it turns out to be seconds. If Majka actually gave a damn he mightn't have leaked anything more than a handful of seconds. Considering it's a punchy climb and his injuries, he did very well today. 1:20 is nothing this early in a Tour. Relax...

This isn't true. It is something. Tours have been won and lost on much less time then this. Everyone here is in great shape. This makes it very hard to take this sort of time back. Speaking for myself, I'm relaxed. I'm just trying to look at it objectively. I'd love to see him win a big race this year...now I'm hoping he gets a stage win here and wins the Vuelta.
 
Mar 16, 2009
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LaFlorecita said:
So sick of Tinkoff. Alberto has only 1 teammate - Kiserlovski.

Loyalty to the team leader -> Majka should be called back (no chance to win the stage or whatever ffs... :rolleyes: ), Kreuziger should stay with Contador even if Contador loses 10 minutes in 2 kms, end of story.

If Tinkoff protect Kreuziger for the GC (who lost seconds in the last ramp btw), then Contador should pack his things and go. Target the Vuelta, ride it even all alone, say bye to Tinkoff and head to his new team next year.

He is clearly not alright atm, even if Bardet didn't attack, he would lose 10-15'' in the last ramp.
He might want to wait untin Friday and see how things are going. Two cases:
Case 1: He is still feeling bad, no need to continue imo, trying a stage win and a Top10 (doesn't matter to him or to anyone else).
Case 2: He is feeling better and is the last Tinkoff man standing -> Kreuziger and Majka should get kicked in the a$$.

Disgusted and disappointed at the same time.
 
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BigMac said:
If he stil believes himself in contention, then it's his team's obligation to help. I understand Kreuziger may have a free role, but why, then, if he's going for GC, did he stroll to the line after being dropped in the final gradients instead of giving it all to lose the least amount of time possible? I understand Majka may be going for Polka and breakaway wins, but why, then, did he not drop to the main group after it was obvious GVA had it in the bag and only a couple of points towards the mountain classification were still up for grabs? This ''team'' nevers ceases to amaze. Makes you wish Jesús and Sérgio were here, and that's saying a lot.
This so much.
And if he doesn't care about GC, he could have dropped anyway to help Alberto.
 
People need to chill. Contador has 3 Tours already and is a top five DOA, you'd swear he'd underachieved or something. At this stage a couple of stage wins would probably mean more to him, he's peerless with regards to GTs in this era.