Teams & Riders Alberto Contador Discussion Thread

[Angliru]

Re: Re:

I need one of the really die hard AC fans to confirm this for me, but....hasn't AC made this claim himself? I'm pretty sure he has.

I think he said something similar last year about only wanting to do the Giro, Tour double if he believed he could win them both. So perhaps it was a very time specific mantra - which, fortunately, he has decided to abandon now.

Now you're backing off your statement that someone made it up? It is an actual quote from him that made it quite clear that he rides for the win. Just because you aren't aware of it doesn't make it a fantasy of those that actually recall it. Normally this is a trait that is admired. A rider that is willing to risk it all to get the win in dramatic fashion. Yet you want to question his guts and humility. I strongly believe that motivations for this kind of foolishness is derived more from an adversarial attitude towards some of the devoted Contador fans than any real rational thought.

 

[fantomas]

Re:

The Tinkoff leader summed up the final climb from the finish. “I tried to sit with Froome and Quintana, but the changes in rhythm and pace made it hard to follow them. On the other hand, it wasn’t that difficult to follow the other riders. Maybe people will find this surprising, but I’m feeling well. I focussed on Froome and Quintana and for a long time I was riding easily with them, but there were a lot of attacks from dangerous riders that I also had to control – because only for me they were dangerous and not for them.”

With riders going slow on the Aubisque, Alberto found it hard to find a good rhythm. “When Chaves attacked, we were going really slow. The way we rode up the climb didn’t really suit me – we had many slow moments and when Chaves attacked, we were really, really, really slow, so it was hard for me to accelerate. The truth is that I felt well and I attacked, but that was only to change the rhythm and to switch to a constant climbing pace. I tried to have a stable power output so that the riders that were ahead of me couldn’t go, but at the end I wasn’t able to get to the finish with Nairo and Froome.”

This pretty much says it all. The thing he used to excel in, he now dislikes.

 

[Red Rick]

That's a shape thing, not a change in the rider. He did it himself as recent as the Dauphine. If Quintana and Froome had ridden a steady pace they would've done better than Contador as well. I think he mostly lacks in the high intensity. He's turning a huge gear, and I don't know why, but that doesn't work if you have to accelerate as hard as they have.

 

[fantomas]

Re:

That's a shape thing, not a change in the rider. He did it himself as recent as the Dauphine. If Quintana and Froome had ridden a steady pace they would've done better than Contador as well. I think he mostly lacks in the high intensity. He's turning a huge gear, and I don't know why, but that doesn't work if you have to accelerate as hard as they have.

No, it's not a shape thing. It's how he rides. Or how he used to ride. He just can't ride like that anymore. It's no shame admitting age is catching up.

 

[carton]

When Chaves went past them Contador was already spent, you could see it there and then. When he stood up as Chavito passed and he had nothing. It was almost a Colombierfakie. They were going so slow that Moreno had made up quite a bit of time on them without really trying to. Contador went on what seemed like raw bravado as Froome was slowing down and they almost collided. But I do think he was telling the truth, in that he just wanted to be let go at that point. He kept looking back all the way. But Quintana actually tried to use him as a springboard more than anything, I thought he just gave him some space so he could attack off him. Contador had decided to end his attack upon seeing Nairo coming up to him, however, and Nairo decided to press on regardless for a while since Froome hadn't completely regained the wheel. It ended up being one of his longer attacks. When Contador tried to follow Froome, instead of just waiting for them to slow down right away, he went into the red again. I think he might've actually made the conscious decision to slow down at that point, as he looked smooth when he sat down on the saddle. But he took too long to make it. Then Moreno, who had been ahead of Alberto all the while but was passed by Nairo's second kick, caught up with them. This allowed him to set pace for Nairo for a few meters before Quintana went again. Then for another few meters before Quintana went again. Then, again, for the most of the last 2km. It was really some of the heaviest cat-and-mousing since the Alberto&Andy trackstand specials. Even though he was completely spent, if it hadn't been for a little bad luck and Dani Moreno's steady riding, Contador should've finished in the Quintana/Froome/Sanchez group on Aubisque.

It goes to show just how much more taxing the start and stop riding is than just pacing yourself up a hill. Any hill interval set will also tell you that. On his form, it's quite clear he can hold on to Nairo's first volley, if he wants to, and the only other rider in the race that may be able to say that is Chris Froome. So I would wager his form is actually better than some of those who finished ahead of him, even though he hasn't yet proven it. But he's clearly not at the same level as Froome and Quintana.

At the end of the day, everyone took time on him, bar Valverde. But then again Valverde is probably the best time-triallist out of that lot. I think the podium place has been on his mind for a while now. We might see that bear out tomorrow if he lets Nairo go.

 

[movingtarget]

Re: Re:

That's a shape thing, not a change in the rider. He did it himself as recent as the Dauphine. If Quintana and Froome had ridden a steady pace they would've done better than Contador as well. I think he mostly lacks in the high intensity. He's turning a huge gear, and I don't know why, but that doesn't work if you have to accelerate as hard as they have.

No, it's not a shape thing. It's how he rides. Or how he used to ride. He just can't ride like that anymore. It's no shame admitting age is catching up.

Yes it was Quintana riding like Contador used to. He lacks his best acceleration now and has been riding much bigger gears for a while. When he used to attack he was always spinning a gear, not as much Froome of course but still much faster than he does now and when he attacks now he pays for the efforts more plus the injuries and fatigue is also a factor. I don't see him winning another GT as I don't expect him to do the Giro and if he does the Tour he won't win the Vuelta. Possibly he has a shot at the podium in the Tour if things go his way but it does seem that age is finally catching up with him.

 

[Thepirateisgood]

Stop with the age BS(what is he, 33?), there are many variables in play here - not least the fact that his team has been horrible the last few years, he's under Tinkov which he dislikes obviously and he lost confidence because of that - hence crashing more - training worse and so on.

The attack will come, it will not be enough to win the Vuelta probably, but it will make for interesting tv for sure

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

That's a shape thing, not a change in the rider. He did it himself as recent as the Dauphine. If Quintana and Froome had ridden a steady pace they would've done better than Contador as well. I think he mostly lacks in the high intensity. He's turning a huge gear, and I don't know why, but that doesn't work if you have to accelerate as hard as they have.

Yes, I agree with this. Maybe his acceleration is not as strong as it used to be (he himself isn't as strong as he used to be either...) but he is still fairly explosive and even this year he's used the stop-and-start technique to try to break his opponent. The issue here is that these opponents are stronger than he is, their accelerations are faster than he can manage and as a result they are breaking him, similarly to what he used to do and did to his opponents in spring. So I would also say it's a shape thing.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Stop with the age BS(what is he, 33?), there are many variables in play here - not least the fact that his team has been horrible the last few years, he's under Tinkov which he dislikes obviously and he lost confidence because of that - hence crashing more - training worse and so on.

The attack will come, it will not be enough to win the Vuelta probably, but it will make for interesting tv for sure

Well, considering the average rider peaks between 28 and 31, I don't think it's that ridiculous to believe he's lost a bit of his power now he's 33/almost 34. I must say I agree with you though that other variables are in play, this cannot be a reflection of his true form, it does not compute with what he showed in spring.

 

[Lexman]

any comments from him after yesterdays stage?

 

[Matteo.]

It is a good day to try to recover a few seconds to Chaves and Yates.
Contador has to repeat the operation on the col d'Eze with maika: strong pace in the last kilometers of the climb and then an all-in attack in the last 2km without looking back. Yates could pay efforts of yesterday

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

any comments from him after yesterdays stage?

Yeah I posted them a few pages back, fantomas quoted me on the previous page

 

[boasson]

Re:

It is a good day to try to recover a few seconds to Chaves and Yates.
Contador has to repeat the operation on the col d'Eze with maika: strong pace in the last kilometers of the climb and then an all-in attack in the last 2km without looking back. Yates could pay efforts of yesterday

I don't think that the last climb is hard enough to gain time on anyone. In the end its an effective 3.5km climb with 7 percent average. And a pretty short stage. So i think the best 7-8 riders in GC will have the same time at the finish.

 

[arvc40]

Contador has been injured more than once in past weeks. No doubt his form at Tour and prep for Spain and then form in Spain have been greatly affected by his crashes.

 

[Lexman]

Re: Re:

any comments from him after yesterdays stage?

Yeah I posted them a few pages back, fantomas quoted me on the previous page

thanks found it...

 

[Jelantik]

Well, at least look at the bright sight, he can use Vuelta to build his base form for next year.

It's quite depressing to see Contador got spanked by Yates (btw awesome ride) and Chavez. They both move forward while Contador moves backward. As I said, he didn't seem to have the fitness to win the Vuelta. Still not bad to use it as a training springboard for next year.

 

[IndianCyclist]

He needs a tactical DS like Riis to make the best of his late career. Just look at Orica and Tinkoff difference. Orica team is not capable of climbing yet they have 2 riders gunning for the podium despite the fact that both are less than Contador's current form

 

[Red Rick]

Re:

He needs a tactical DS like Riis to make the best of his late career. Just look at Orica and Tinkoff difference. Orica team is not capable of climbing yet they have 2 riders gunning for the podium despite the fact that both are less than Contador's current form

Tactics like that are super easy. Anyone can do that. Going with Yates could've been interesting, but I think Contador doesn't get the leeway that Yates does.

I also think there's ego into play between Froome, Quintana and Contador. Contador tries to follow the accelerations, though he knows he can't, Quintana attacks after Contador, even though Contador isn't dangerous anymore

 

[Jelantik]

Re: Re:

The Tinkoff leader summed up the final climb from the finish. “I tried to sit with Froome and Quintana, but the changes in rhythm and pace made it hard to follow them. On the other hand, it wasn’t that difficult to follow the other riders. Maybe people will find this surprising, but I’m feeling well. I focussed on Froome and Quintana and for a long time I was riding easily with them, but there were a lot of attacks from dangerous riders that I also had to control – because only for me they were dangerous and not for them.”

With riders going slow on the Aubisque, Alberto found it hard to find a good rhythm. “When Chaves attacked, we were going really slow. The way we rode up the climb didn’t really suit me – we had many slow moments and when Chaves attacked, we were really, really, really slow, so it was hard for me to accelerate. The truth is that I felt well and I attacked, but that was only to change the rhythm and to switch to a constant climbing pace. I tried to have a stable power output so that the riders that were ahead of me couldn’t go, but at the end I wasn’t able to get to the finish with Nairo and Froome.”

So he is concerned about finishing as high as possible. All those posts about going for 1st or nothing were nonsense.

Well what else he would do? He can't compete with Froome and Quinatana, so winning vuelta is out of the question at the moment. Stage win? not if he kept getting dropped by other GC rider and Froome/Quintana b/c no one will let him run away on a breakaway, so that option is out of the question too. Podium? well, he said he ride only for the win, so he doesn't care about that. Either way, none of the option above seems to be doable with his fitness. But he definitely won't spend the rest of the Vuelta sight seeing (like Tejay :lol.. so he should have at least a goal. Which one .. I don't know.

 

[Jelantik]

Re: Re:

He needs a tactical DS like Riis to make the best of his late career. Just look at Orica and Tinkoff difference. Orica team is not capable of climbing yet they have 2 riders gunning for the podium despite the fact that both are less than Contador's current form

Tactics like that are super easy. Anyone can do that. Going with Yates could've been interesting, but I think Contador doesn't get the leeway that Yates does.

I also think there's ego into play between Froome, Quintana and Contador. Contador tries to follow the accelerations, though he knows he can't, Quintana attacks after Contador, even though Contador isn't dangerous anymore

Quintana attacks Contador because he can and just because. I bet, he enjoys being able to toy with Contador. If I were him, that's a great feeling… to be able to do anything you want and drop your rival like a stone. So Contador confidence once again got the beating.

 

[red zone]

Re: Re:

He needs a tactical DS like Riis to make the best of his late career. Just look at Orica and Tinkoff difference. Orica team is not capable of climbing yet they have 2 riders gunning for the podium despite the fact that both are less than Contador's current form

Tactics like that are super easy. Anyone can do that. Going with Yates could've been interesting, but I think Contador doesn't get the leeway that Yates does.

I also think there's ego into play between Froome, Quintana and Contador. Contador tries to follow the accelerations, though he knows he can't, Quintana attacks after Contador, even though Contador isn't dangerous anymore

Quintana attacks Contador because he can and just because. I bet, he enjoys being able to toy with Contador. If I were him, that's a great feeling… to be able to do anything you want and drop your rival like a stone. So Contador confidence once again got the beating.

of course he can out ride Contador at this time but why bother exerting the energy to chase him down when he isn't a threat ?

the smart move would have been to let Froome chase him if he wanted so he could save his energy to try to put time into his main rival

 

[movingtarget]

Stop with the age BS(what is he, 33?), there are many variables in play here - not least the fact that his team has been horrible the last few years, he's under Tinkov which he dislikes obviously and he lost confidence because of that - hence crashing more - training worse and so on.

The attack will come, it will not be enough to win the Vuelta probably, but it will make for interesting tv for sure

Well, considering the average rider peaks between 28 and 31, I don't think it's that ridiculous to believe he's lost a bit of his power now he's 33/almost 34. I must say I agree with you though that other variables are in play, this cannot be a reflection of his true form, it does not compute with what he showed in spring.

The age thing happens at different times for different riders. Not everyone fades at 36 some fade at 32. Of course there are other variables at play but Contador has had a long career in GTs and a lot of injuries and falls in the past few years. Even his biggest fan could not say he is not the rider he was even if he rides like he was 25 or tries to.

 

[Amnes2015]

today is the day , pretty even matched between a Fuente De repeat and a disaster

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

today is the day , pretty even matched between a Fuente De repeat and a disaster

Actually I don't expect anything interesting to happen

 

[Scarponi]

Fuente De cant be rematched with Sky and Movistar. That katusha team was a joke