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Teams & Riders Alberto Contador Discussion Thread

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King Boonen

King Boonen

Jul 25, 2012
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Re:

buchanan said:
Quite a good commentary from velonews that I'm sure a few of us can agree with:

http://velonews.competitor.com/2016/07/commentary/commentary-time-contador-focus-vuelta_413927
Click to expand...


Have to say I can't agree with it. If you want to be one of the greats, these days you need to win the Tour 3 or more times, it's that simple. He can win as many Vueltas and Giros as he wants, but without those Tour wins he will go down as good but not great, no matter how close he gets to Merckx and Hinault.
 
jilbiker

jilbiker

Jul 10, 2009
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I recall Froome crashing multiple times in 2014. Was that also due to nervousness and fear of one's opponent? Contador's first crash came in a high speed corner going onto a road divided by a raised island.......The best bike handlers will hit the pavement eventually. It is often beyond one's control.

ANGLIRU: It seems to me Contador, who rarely used to crash, has been crashing more in recent times, including in the 2014 Tour and in this year's Tour. Armstrong similarly crashed more upon his return. A product of age? Loss of confidence? Deterioration of bike handling skills? Loss of balance brought on by age, which I see in large quantities for Roger Federer, and also did for Kobe Bryant?
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I have to say the correlation of the facts across the different sports supports the hypothesis. Its a correlation so if we are in the 60-70% range, I say noted. I have seen that Contador looks around more and more, is more conscious of what other people are doing around him. When he attacks he spend quite a bit of time looking back and wondering was next. He wasn't like that in his younger days. Froome, hardly looks around, guess too busy looking at the Stem but certainly does not spend time and energy looking around. It will be interesting what he will be doing in 2 years.

So it appears as folks get older, loss in body confidence, wariness about the young fellows around them, looking around more, not paying attention to goals ahead, leads to crash galore. Interesting Valverde is older than Contador but hardly crashes, well I don't see him looking around, he just does his own thing but thats another conversation.
 
B

buchanan

Mar 11, 2013
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Re: Re:

King Boonen said:
buchanan said:
Quite a good commentary from velonews that I'm sure a few of us can agree with:

http://velonews.competitor.com/2016/07/commentary/commentary-time-contador-focus-vuelta_413927
Click to expand...


Have to say I can't agree with it. If you want to be one of the greats, these days you need to win the Tour 3 or more times, it's that simple. He can win as many Vueltas and Giros as he wants, but without those Tour wins he will go down as good but not great, no matter how close he gets to Merckx and Hinault.
Click to expand...

The writer thinks Contador would trade his 3 Vuelta wins for just one Tour de France where he could have beaten Chris Froome fair and square.

I think Contador will be remembered as a great Grand Tour rider and probably one of the overall greats, but not necessarily a Tour de France great.

Although I actually consider Contador to have won 3 Tours, even though one was officially removed from the record books. So maybe based on the 3 Tours theory, I will consider him a Tour great after all. :)
 
Miburo

Miburo

Jul 29, 2012
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Rode the biggest race of the year, for a week with some small breaks in his leg, his will power is from another league.

In cycling, i don't know, it's been a while since i've seen it. His will to win is maybe on jordan's level, the highest possible. The only difference with Jordan is that contador isn't willing to be a douche in order to get certain things done.

In competition, that's a flaw but for the rest, his desire to win is above any rider that's currently racing.
 
Gigs_98

Gigs_98

Feb 18, 2015
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Re:

buchanan said:
Quite a good commentary from velonews that I'm sure a few of us can agree with:

http://velonews.competitor.com/2016/07/commentary/commentary-time-contador-focus-vuelta_413927
Click to expand...
I don't really agree. Many things are absolutely right but I disagree that he is already really getting worse. Since his comeback he has only really had one season where he seemed to be stronger and just like in that season (2014) he might have won the tdf if he hadn't crashed. At least I think this year he wouldn't have lost time up to this point so his situation right now would be pretty good.

The question is however if he will still be as good as this year in 2017, but weren't there rumors that Froome wants to go to the Giro next year? If thats the case it wouldn't look that bad for Contador.
 
Pantani Attacks

Pantani Attacks

Jul 7, 2015
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Re: Re:

Gigs_98 said:
buchanan said:
Quite a good commentary from velonews that I'm sure a few of us can agree with:

http://velonews.competitor.com/2016/07/commentary/commentary-time-contador-focus-vuelta_413927
Click to expand...
I don't really agree. Many things are absolutely right but I disagree that he is already really getting worse. Since his comeback he has only really had one season where he seemed to be stronger and just like in that season (2014) he might have won the tdf if he hadn't crashed. At least I think this year he wouldn't have lost time up to this point so his situation right now would be pretty good.

The question is however if he will still be as good as this year in 2017, but weren't there rumors that Froome wants to go to the Giro next year? If thats the case it wouldn't look that bad for Contador.
Click to expand...

Froome will never do the Giro again. Too cold.
 
Carols

Carols

Mar 20, 2010
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Re:

Pantani Attacks said:
LOL I wonder will the same idiots calling him a quitter a few days ago still plague this forum with their drivel upon hearing the doctor confirming two leg breaks. Some people aren't worth the chair they sit on.
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Spoken for Truth.

Guy guts it out for days with 2 leg fractures, what a Hero!

EDIT: Evidently Not leg fractures, 'fibrillar breaks' is soft tissue.
 
Miburo

Miburo

Jul 29, 2012
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We all know the 2 weeks rest is most likely bs. It was a lie in 2014 as Contador was seen training before the tour even ended.

But he's certainly the big favorite for the vuelta, winning at least 5 stages :)
 
Angliru

Angliru

Mar 10, 2009
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Re: Re:

Kokoso said:
Carols said:
I think Greg Lemond's explanation was perfectly sensible. Indeed, he said he had done the same himself: You think you will have to quit. You don't want to. You give yourself one more test, to see, if by some miracle, it turns out you are better than you think. It turns out you are not (no surprise really), so you finally (reluctantly) have to accept that the best thing to do is to admit defeat and abandon the race. I also happen to think that Contador would want to go out trying - for himself, his view of himself, for his sponsors and his fans.
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What LeMond says might be. Truth is, he knows same nothing as armchair players, it's just speculation, too. At the end it boils down to what you want or what you don't want to believe (or you may stay say neutral a consider both options possible).
I only wonder why did he not simply wait for stage itself to test him? It wasn't really necesessary to test himself this, by going on attack. He could just stay there and wait till real test comes and untill than he could eventually get better (or worse, of course).
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To test himself at the point in the stage that he did opened up the end of the stage for Kreuziger, Majka and Sagan to ride their races once he ultimately did pull out of the race. Waiting till the end would have compromised the future prospects of their three remaining principle riders
 
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