Teams & Riders Alberto Contador Discussion Thread

[PremierAndrew]

Re:

Kreuziger is tweeting nice things about lot of cyclist, not only Froome. I wonder if there are other cyclists fans of that are as paranoic as some Contador's fans...certainly I haven't noticed that.

Kreuziger was definitely taking a shot at Contador with that tweet

 

[Miburo]

If i compare with how he looked in the tour of 2007 or 2009. Man oh man, it's depressing.

The man was never hurting, nothing at all on his face. Even when he accelerated he wasn't hurting, it almost brings tears to my eyes seeing how he looks now on the bike, it's not the same anymore.

But that's the flow of time, no one can beat father time, not even MJ.

The war is over but maybe, just maybe he can win one more big battle.

 

[Miburo]

Writing this last post, I almost cried. It's ok to cry after all, such a great champion. I really hope time gives us one more flashback of his great days in the tour.

One last ride, then he can rest his body until the cyclist clones come out and we'll able to see prime pantani, contador, armstrong, froome battle each other. Jensattacks isn't the only one dreaming of it

 

[Vladivar]

Re:

Writing this last post, I almost cried. It's ok to cry after all, such a great champion. I really hope time gives us one more flashback of his great days in the tour.

One last ride, then he can rest his body until the cyclist clones come out and we'll able to see prime pantani, contador, armstrong, froome battle each other. Jensattacks isn't the only one dreaming of it

When i was young around my early teens my all time favorite footballer Colin Bell got a serious cruciate knee injury. He fought for 2 years to come back, but when he did he was no longer the graceful footballer he once was. The day of his comeback still sends shivers down my spine and it was nearly 40 years ago. He remains my all time sporting hero and i remember him for when he was at his best not from when he was finished.

I do hope you can remember you hero in 40 years time with the same love and affection i still have for mine.

And i have no doubt you will

 

[LaFlorecita]

Don't be sad, Miburo

 

[silvergrenade]

Re:

If i compare with how he looked in the tour of 2007 or 2009. Man oh man, it's depressing.

The man was never hurting, nothing at all on his face. Even when he accelerated he wasn't hurting, it almost brings tears to my eyes seeing how he looks now on the bike, it's not the same anymore.

But that's the flow of time, no one can beat father time, not even MJ.

The war is over but maybe, just maybe he can win one more big battle.

Such passion you have. I hope Contador wins on Aubisque.

 

[Ramon Koran]

You guys need to accept that he's past it and move on. I've personally always forgotten previous heroes and found new ones when I realize who I support is past it I move on. For example I used to support Liverpool in football I then moved on to Man United and now I support Leicester. In cycling I used to support Armstrong after verbier i support Alberto and now I support Chris. There's no shame in it and it keeps us in love with the sport, I wouldn't love cycling today if I still support alberto or Armstrong and I wouldn't love football if I still support Liverpool or Man U. Sometimes you have to do what's best for you and your interest so as not to start hating the sport.

 

[bob.a.feet]

Re:

You guys need to accept that he's past it and move on. I've personally always forgotten previous heroes and found new ones when I realize who I support is past it I move on. For example I used to support Liverpool in football I then moved on to Man United and now I support Leicester. In cycling I used to support Armstrong after verbier i support Alberto and now I support Chris. There's no shame in it and it keeps us in love with the sport, I wouldn't love cycling today if I still support alberto or Armstrong and I wouldn't love football if I still support Liverpool or Man U. Sometimes you have to do what's best for you and your interest so as not to start hating the sport.

Going from Liverpool to Man Utd, is that legal?

 

[burning]

Re:

You guys need to accept that he's past it and move on. I've personally always forgotten previous heroes and found new ones when I realize who I support is past it I move on. For example I used to support Liverpool in football I then moved on to Man United and now I support Leicester. In cycling I used to support Armstrong after verbier i support Alberto and now I support Chris. There's no shame in it and it keeps us in love with the sport, I wouldn't love cycling today if I still support alberto or Armstrong and I wouldn't love football if I still support Liverpool or Man U. Sometimes you have to do what's best for you and your interest so as not to start hating the sport.

No offence, but I really hate bandwagon fans who just hops between teams in NBA or Premier League. (not riders obviously as they could retire)

Edit: I also hate people who only support riders when they are at their peak, which is your case.

 

[Singer01]

Re:

You guys need to accept that he's past it and move on. I've personally always forgotten previous heroes and found new ones when I realize who I support is past it I move on. For example I used to support Liverpool in football I then moved on to Man United and now I support Leicester. In cycling I used to support Armstrong after verbier i support Alberto and now I support Chris. There's no shame in it and it keeps us in love with the sport, I wouldn't love cycling today if I still support alberto or Armstrong and I wouldn't love football if I still support Liverpool or Man U. Sometimes you have to do what's best for you and your interest so as not to start hating the sport.

this is clearly a wind up, how anyone not think so. if not this person deserves to be burned at the stake.

 

[Ramon Koran]

I love the sport and love the spectacle and want to enjoy it, with football in particular people are so blinded by there own club that they can't admire the beautiful game. I feel less in cycling but contador supporters are like that, they see only Alberto and his greatness and a lot can't admire other riders and the sport which is a shame imo

 

[Angliru]

Re:

You guys need to accept that he's past it and move on. I've personally always forgotten previous heroes and found new ones when I realize who I support is past it I move on. For example I used to support Liverpool in football I then moved on to Man United and now I support Leicester. In cycling I used to support Armstrong after verbier i support Alberto and now I support Chris. There's no shame in it and it keeps us in love with the sport, I wouldn't love cycling today if I still support alberto or Armstrong and I wouldn't love football if I still support Liverpool or Man U. Sometimes you have to do what's best for you and your interest so as not to start hating the sport.

Going from Armstrong to Contador is like, in a fictional universe where Andy never had to abruptly end his career due to injuries, me, as a true Contador fan, bailing on him as he reaches the twilight of his career and jumping on the Schleck or Froome bandwagon. Never rooted for either one and just because my fav is no longer able to dominate in the fashion that was his peak, I personally could never root for his 2 chief rivals, for multiple reasons but the primary being it would seem like a betrayal. I can root for Chaves, the Yates, Quintana, Pinot, Bardet, Landa and Henao even (they're on Sky!).

 

[Ramon Koran]

Re: Re:

You guys need to accept that he's past it and move on. I've personally always forgotten previous heroes and found new ones when I realize who I support is past it I move on. For example I used to support Liverpool in football I then moved on to Man United and now I support Leicester. In cycling I used to support Armstrong after verbier i support Alberto and now I support Chris. There's no shame in it and it keeps us in love with the sport, I wouldn't love cycling today if I still support alberto or Armstrong and I wouldn't love football if I still support Liverpool or Man U. Sometimes you have to do what's best for you and your interest so as not to start hating the sport.

Going from Armstrong to Contador is like, in a fictional universe where Andy never had to abruptly end his career due to injuries, me, as a true Contador fan, bailing on him as he reaches the twilight of his career and jumping on the Schleck or Froome bandwagon. Never rooted for either one and just because my fav is no longer able to dominate in the fashion that was his peak, I personally could never root for his 2 chief rivals, for multiple reasons but the primary being it would seem like a betrayal. I can root for Chaves, the Yates, Quintana, Pinot, Bardet, Landa and Henao even (they're on Sky!).

I don't know sometimes you have to admire something at its best and move on that's my mentality in sport and in life as a general make the most of something while its at its best and most beautiful then move on to the next best thing. It works for me I understand people who stay loyal to a rider or who hate specific riders due to there favorite rider I just feel you don't get to appreciate the best of the sport in those cases

 

[Angliru]

Re:

I love the sport and love the spectacle and want to enjoy it, with football in particular people are so blinded by there own club that they can't admire the beautiful game. I feel less in cycling but contador supporters are like that, they see only Alberto and his greatness and a lot can't admire other riders and the sport which is a shame imo

Seeing things in a very narrow focus as this post implies, is an insulting generalization of most of the Contador fans. Speaking for myself, while I am truly emotionally wrapped up in the trevails of Contador as his career winds down, I am still able to appreciate the sport, as I ride with my club regularly, and admittedly go so far as to say that I am in love with the sport such that the first news that I read is from this particular website. I'd listen to it on my car radio on the way to work if there was a station focused on it. True, some have, in a fit of emotional turmoil, threatened to stop following the sport for whatever personal reasons they gave at the time, but I'm quite certain that the large percentage of them have wiped away their tears, took a brief break to compose themselves and returned to loving this beautiful sport.

 

[Gigs_98]

Re:

You guys need to accept that he's past it and move on. I've personally always forgotten previous heroes and found new ones when I realize who I support is past it I move on. For example I used to support Liverpool in football I then moved on to Man United and now I support Leicester. In cycling I used to support Armstrong after verbier i support Alberto and now I support Chris. There's no shame in it and it keeps us in love with the sport, I wouldn't love cycling today if I still support alberto or Armstrong and I wouldn't love football if I still support Liverpool or Man U. Sometimes you have to do what's best for you and your interest so as not to start hating the sport.

I hated contador pre ban, stopped hating him after his ban since I disliked sky even more and started to like him this year. I think I can learn something from you

But actually I think what you do makes no sense. A fan should root for his team in good and bad times. Thats what being a fan is about.

 

[Ramon Koran]

Re: Re:

I love the sport and love the spectacle and want to enjoy it, with football in particular people are so blinded by there own club that they can't admire the beautiful game. I feel less in cycling but contador supporters are like that, they see only Alberto and his greatness and a lot can't admire other riders and the sport which is a shame imo

Seeing things in a very narrow focus as this post implies, is an insulting generalization of most of the Contador fans. Speaking for myself, while I am truly emotionally wrapped up in the trevails of Contador as his career winds down, I am still able to appreciate the sport, as I ride with my club regularly, and admittedly go so far as to say that I am in love with the sport such that the first news that I read is from this particular website. I'd listen to it on my car radio on the way to work if there was a station focused on it. True, some have, in a fit of emotional turmoil, threatened to stop following the sport for whatever personal reasons they gave at the time, but I'm quite certain that the large percentage of them have wiped away their tears, took a brief break to compose themselves and returned to loving this beautiful sport.

Yes sorry my post was badly worded and to generalized, I feel some of the posters on here though can only love cycling with Alberto to me it's a great shame as he's most likely past it, to get those emotions you need to move on and admire someone else imo

 

[Ramon Koran]

Re: Re:

You guys need to accept that he's past it and move on. I've personally always forgotten previous heroes and found new ones when I realize who I support is past it I move on. For example I used to support Liverpool in football I then moved on to Man United and now I support Leicester. In cycling I used to support Armstrong after verbier i support Alberto and now I support Chris. There's no shame in it and it keeps us in love with the sport, I wouldn't love cycling today if I still support alberto or Armstrong and I wouldn't love football if I still support Liverpool or Man U. Sometimes you have to do what's best for you and your interest so as not to start hating the sport.

I hated contador pre ban, stopped hating him after his ban since I disliked sky even more and started to like him this year. I think I can learn something from you

But actually I think what you do makes no sense. A fan should root for his team in good and bad times. Thats what being a fan is about.

Life is to short to go through the lows look at fans of teams like Newcastle or Tottenham in football they will never see the beauty of football like barca fans can. So they don't get the experience of the great sport and are missing out. Same in cycling Alberto is never going to give us the emotions from his peak again so fans are missing out on great emotions (not all of them)

 

[PremierAndrew]

Re: Re:

I hated contador pre ban, stopped hating him after his ban since I disliked sky even more and started to like him this year. I think I can learn something from you

But actually I think what you do makes no sense. A fan should root for his team in good and bad times. Thats what being a fan is about.

Same here to some extent. As a big Schleck fan, it was hard to like Contador when he was constantly beating him, but always respected and appreciated his abilities. But post-ban, I've really warmed up to Contador (can't say I share your hatred of Sky/Froome though )

 

[Simurgh]

Re:

You guys need to accept that he's past it and move on. I've personally always forgotten previous heroes and found new ones when I realize who I support is past it I move on. For example I used to support Liverpool in football I then moved on to Man United and now I support Leicester. In cycling I used to support Armstrong after verbier i support Alberto and now I support Chris. There's no shame in it and it keeps us in love with the sport, I wouldn't love cycling today if I still support alberto or Armstrong and I wouldn't love football if I still support Liverpool or Man U. Sometimes you have to do what's best for you and your interest so as not to start hating the sport.

Nothing personal against you, but that's the mentality of a glory hunter...one thing is to admire Leicester as a Man U fan, but to switch sides (or riders) like that is treachery for most football fans. In cycling it is easier, since riders retire (while football clubs don't), but in my opinion, there is shame in switching teams/riders because of glory...excuse my rant, but as a football fan too, reading something like this is just..

Contador may not be what he once was, but he is still one of the best GT-riders today, and certainly the best of his generation (2007-2015/16?). A tour win in the future seems very unlikely, but this man is one of the greatest in history (for a youngster like me), and he will not be a "forgotten hero", but a remembered and admired one.

In the end, what is a hero, if he is forgotten?

 

[Red Rick]

Re: Re:

You guys need to accept that he's past it and move on. I've personally always forgotten previous heroes and found new ones when I realize who I support is past it I move on. For example I used to support Liverpool in football I then moved on to Man United and now I support Leicester. In cycling I used to support Armstrong after verbier i support Alberto and now I support Chris. There's no shame in it and it keeps us in love with the sport, I wouldn't love cycling today if I still support alberto or Armstrong and I wouldn't love football if I still support Liverpool or Man U. Sometimes you have to do what's best for you and your interest so as not to start hating the sport.

Going from Armstrong to Contador is like, in a fictional universe where Andy never had to abruptly end his career due to injuries, me, as a true Contador fan, bailing on him as he reaches the twilight of his career and jumping on the Schleck or Froome bandwagon. Never rooted for either one and just because my fav is no longer able to dominate in the fashion that was his peak, I personally could never root for his 2 chief rivals, for multiple reasons but the primary being it would seem like a betrayal. I can root for Chaves, the Yates, Quintana, Pinot, Bardet, Landa and Henao even (they're on Sky!).

That's the spirit. I'm gonna watch him either win or go down one last time. Then I'll be sad, get drunk, wake up sad again, and next time I watch a stage race, I'll be reminiscing about more exciting days until another prospect takes up the hatchet where Contador dropped it.

 

[Gigs_98]

Re: Re:

I hated contador pre ban, stopped hating him after his ban since I disliked sky even more and started to like him this year. I think I can learn something from you

But actually I think what you do makes no sense. A fan should root for his team in good and bad times. Thats what being a fan is about.

Same here to some extent. As a big Schleck fan, it was hard to like Contador when he was constantly beating him, but always respected and appreciated his abilities. But post-ban, I've really warmed up to Contador (can't say I share your hatred of Sky/Froome though )

I don't dislike sky as much as I did back in 2012 though.
But generally I think that there are probably a lot of people who used to be schleck fans and after schleck became bad started to like contador more and more.

 

[LaFlorecita]

You can't just choose who to admire. You can't wake up one morning and decide - I was always a fan of Contador but from now on I'm going to be a fan of Froome. That's not how it works. It is an emotion and you can't control it.
And I think it's really sad to stop admiring and supporting Alberto just because he's getting older and isn't as successful anymore. It makes me sad to read some people treat him that way. At least there are also people who like him more now he's less dominant.

 

[jens_attacks]

I keep believing until formigal.

 

[Kwibus]

Re: Re:

You guys need to accept that he's past it and move on. I've personally always forgotten previous heroes and found new ones when I realize who I support is past it I move on. For example I used to support Liverpool in football I then moved on to Man United and now I support Leicester. In cycling I used to support Armstrong after verbier i support Alberto and now I support Chris. There's no shame in it and it keeps us in love with the sport, I wouldn't love cycling today if I still support alberto or Armstrong and I wouldn't love football if I still support Liverpool or Man U. Sometimes you have to do what's best for you and your interest so as not to start hating the sport.

No offence, but I really hate bandwagon fans who just hops between teams in NBA or Premier League. (not riders obviously as they could retire)

Edit: I also hate people who only support riders when they are at their peak, which is your case.

So much hate.
You know what I find ridiculous? That at some point in your life you choose (or your surroundings choose it for you) a favourite football team and then you are supposed to support it in bad or good times.
It always makes me wonder why no one came to the same realisation as me how *** that is.
These days I barely watch football and that's mostly because there is a lot of stuff going wrong in that sport. I like the game so I do watch at times and I just watch it for seeing a good game. When it's crap I stop watching.

I used to support Ajax and I really enjoyed good times with it, but I also watched god awful games and during those games I always wondered why the hell I'm even watching... At some point I realised it was because the football society expected me to watch and support my team. Because that's what you are supposed to do.
Slowly I figured out that what I was doing was completely insane so I stopped supporting a single team.
Strangely I still prefer Ajax over any team, but I can't be arsed if they play like ***.

Cycling does the same. I have riders I prefer and I dislike, but normally doesn't change during their careers. Allthough I really disliked Froome, but I've come to like him quite a bit. Still I always hope someone else wins over him, while he entertains as a rider. I do admit I prefer underdogs quite a bit.
The early years of Contador I didn't like him

 

[Brullnux]

Re:

You guys need to accept that he's past it and move on. I've personally always forgotten previous heroes and found new ones when I realize who I support is past it I move on. For example I used to support Liverpool in football I then moved on to Man United and now I support Leicester. In cycling I used to support Armstrong after verbier i support Alberto and now I support Chris. There's no shame in it and it keeps us in love with the sport, I wouldn't love cycling today if I still support alberto or Armstrong and I wouldn't love football if I still support Liverpool or Man U. Sometimes you have to do what's best for you and your interest so as not to start hating the sport.

You are, what they call, a glory hunter

You can't just choose who to admire. You can't wake up one morning and decide - I was always a fan of Contador but from now on I'm going to be a fan of Froome. That's not how it works. It is an emotion and you can't control it.
And I think it's really sad to stop admiring and supporting Alberto just because he's getting older and isn't as successful anymore. It makes me sad to read some people treat him that way. At least there are also people who like him more now he's less dominant.

I agree to an extent to the first bit. I agree that it's impossible to wake up one morning, but it is very possible to warm to a rider, and become a fan slowly. In early 2014 I didn't really like Contador (Nibali fan, allow it, AC was destroying him all the time), but after that began to warm to him and in late 2015 I became a fan (Before then I had no strong opinion, but I only really started following cycling in like 2011-12). Wouldn't say fanboy, but fan. Second part is 100% spot on.