Teams & Riders Alberto Contador Discussion Thread

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

Btw Flo, I heard you say multiple times that Wuyts doesn't like Contador, but he said this:

De grootste emotie: "Contador gaat Van Avermaet en Gilbert vooraf in driftig koersen"
"Ik ga voor het net niet winnen van Alberto Contador in Parijs-Nice. U zult zich afvragen waar ik nu mee afkom, maar als je Parijs-Nice verliest met 2 seconden, dan is dat een verschrikking. Vooral als je ziet hoe Contador het aanpakte."

"Hij gaat Van Avermaet en Gilbert vooraf in het koersen met drift, ondernemend koersen. Zo iemand mag, moet zelfs van mij winnen. Nu delft hij het onderspit tegen een eerder passieve volger. Dat vond ik jammer. Heel jammer."

Yeah, these days he isn't as negative about him anymore. After the finish of the Eze stage he was almost hoping they would find the few seconds Contador needed and after that he called for a draw.

 

[LaFlorecita]

http://www.zikloland.com/contador-tour-francia-2017-donde-mis-piernas-me-lleven-audio/

Interesting interview with Alberto on his road towards the Tour de France (in Spanish)

About the Dauphiné

Este año el planteamiento es ir mucho más tranquilo al Dauphiné. No sería de extrañar que algún día llegue a mitad de puerto y me deje ir… Sí que es verdad (risas) que es algo que me cuesta plantear, aunque llevo pensando desde noviembre para mentalizarme de ello y tener la cabeza sobre todo pensando en el Tour.

Rough translation:
This year the plan is to go much easier at the Dauphiné, it wouldn't be a surprise if one day I let go halfway up a climb. It's true that this is hard for me (laughs) but I've been thinking about it since November to mentally prepare myself and have my mind on the Tour above all.

 

[Irondan]

Re:

Btw Flo, I heard you say multiple times that Wuyts doesn't like Contador, but he said this:

De grootste emotie: "Contador gaat Van Avermaet en Gilbert vooraf in driftig koersen"
"Ik ga voor het net niet winnen van Alberto Contador in Parijs-Nice. U zult zich afvragen waar ik nu mee afkom, maar als je Parijs-Nice verliest met 2 seconden, dan is dat een verschrikking. Vooral als je ziet hoe Contador het aanpakte."

"Hij gaat Van Avermaet en Gilbert vooraf in het koersen met drift, ondernemend koersen. Zo iemand mag, moet zelfs van mij winnen. Nu delft hij het onderspit tegen een eerder passieve volger. Dat vond ik jammer. Heel jammer."

Please post a translated version of this per forum rules.

 

[Red Rick]

Re:

Btw Flo, I heard you say multiple times that Wuyts doesn't like Contador, but he said this:

Biggest emotion: "Contador precedes Van Avermaet and Gilbert in passionate racing. I'm picking Contador just losing Paris-Nice. You may wonder how I get to this, but when you lose P-N by 2 seconds, it's crushing. Especially if you look at the way Contador approached it.

He precedes GvA and Gilbert in passionate and recourseful racing. Someone like that can win. Someone like that has to win. Now he goes to the wall against a passive follower. That was a shame. A huge shame"

 

[Poursuivant]

Re:

http://www.zikloland.com/contador-tour-francia-2017-donde-mis-piernas-me-lleven-audio/

Interesting interview with Alberto on his road towards the Tour de France (in Spanish)

About the Dauphiné

Este año el planteamiento es ir mucho más tranquilo al Dauphiné. No sería de extrañar que algún día llegue a mitad de puerto y me deje ir… Sí que es verdad (risas) que es algo que me cuesta plantear, aunque llevo pensando desde noviembre para mentalizarme de ello y tener la cabeza sobre todo pensando en el Tour.

Rough translation:
This year the plan is to go much easier at the Dauphiné, it wouldn't be a surprise if one day I let go halfway up a climb. It's true that this is hard for me (laughs) but I've been thinking about it since November to mentally prepare myself and have my mind on the Tour above all.

Interesting, thanks.

What would be the thinking behind "letting go on a climb?"

 

[Escarabajo]

Re:

http://www.zikloland.com/contador-tour-francia-2017-donde-mis-piernas-me-lleven-audio/

Interesting interview with Alberto on his road towards the Tour de France (in Spanish)

About the Dauphiné

Este año el planteamiento es ir mucho más tranquilo al Dauphiné. No sería de extrañar que algún día llegue a mitad de puerto y me deje ir… Sí que es verdad (risas) que es algo que me cuesta plantear, aunque llevo pensando desde noviembre para mentalizarme de ello y tener la cabeza sobre todo pensando en el Tour.

Rough translation:
This year the plan is to go much easier at the Dauphiné, it wouldn't be a surprise if one day I let go halfway up a climb. It's true that this is hard for me (laughs) but I've been thinking about it since November to mentally prepare myself and have my mind on the Tour above all.

You see Flo, this is what I have been saying for a long time. But He admits that it is hard for him to let go. It is not his personality.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

Interesting, thanks.

What would be the thinking behind "letting go on a climb?"

He doesn't want to go too deep just a few weeks before the Tour. While trying to follow Froome and Porte he would most likely blow up which can't be good for your body. Don't expect him to go for long raids either. Maybe he will drop time on purpose so he is allowed some room to go for a stage win and get off that gosh darn big zero?

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

You see Flo, this is what I have been saying for a long time. But He admits that it is hard for him to let go. It is not his personality.

Yes but you want him to do it in all races except the Tour, and that's what we disagree on
But about a week ago I had a discussion with some people on here and I said Alberto has said he would take it easy at the Dauphiné, but they didn't believe he would do that so let's see

 

[Poursuivant]

Re: Re:

Interesting, thanks.

What would be the thinking behind "letting go on a climb?"

He doesn't want to go too deep just a few weeks before the Tour. While trying to follow Froome and Porte he would most likely blow up which can't be good for your body. Don't expect him to go for long raids either. Maybe he will drop time on purpose so he is allowed some room to go for a stage win and get off that gosh darn big zero?

Seems plausible. Yer blowing up like that stage in Dauphine last year where Froome and Porte came to finish together can't be good for his confidence.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Personally I wouldn't be opposed to him trying out a new approach at the Dauphiné: pacing himself instead of hanging on for dear life and exploding. But, I've sort of given up on him ever seeing the light.

 

[Captain_Obvious]

Re:

Has he ever commented on the change in his climbing cadence in the past few years? It seems like it must have been intentional, but I'm curious why he made that decision and whether he feels it has paid off for him. From the outsider's perspective, it seems dubious.

I've also wondered about this.

Btw: What brand shoes does he ride on now? He must have gotten used to specialized.

 

[dacooley]

I don't think he'll adapt to pacing himself uphill. for bertie it would mean betrayal of his own ideals. flaunting upfront and fighting out until the end is what's called a trademark of one of the greats ever, measuring effort with a goal of minimizing the losses is not.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

I don't think he'll adapt to pacing himself uphill. for bertie it would mean betrayal of his own ideals. flaunting upfront and fighting out until the end is what's called a trademark of one of the greats ever, measuring effort with a goal of minimizing the losses is not.

Of course he won't adapt. Doesn't make it the right decision, necessarily.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

Has he ever commented on the change in his climbing cadence in the past few years? It seems like it must have been intentional, but I'm curious why he made that decision and whether he feels it has paid off for him. From the outsider's perspective, it seems dubious.

I've also wondered about this.

Btw: What brand shoes does he ride on now? He must have gotten used to specialized.

Simply Bontrager

 

[movingtarget]

I see that Tinkov is ripping into Contador again. To paraphrase he says Contador is a bad investment, not worth the money he is paid, crashes too much, does not have the fire in the belly and has not won a race for 11 months. As usual, no holding back with Tinkov. I don't think Contador will be able to ignore those comments.

 

[Irondan]

Re:

I see that Tinkov is ripping into Contador again. To paraphrase he says Contador is a bad investment, not worth the money he is paid, crashes too much, does not have the fire in the belly and has not won a race for 11 months. As usual, no holding back with Tinkov. I don't think Contador will be able to ignore those comments.

What investment does Tinkov have in Trek?

Why would Tinkov badmouth a person that gave him his best memories in cycling? AC won the Giro for Tinkoff, but not the Tour, apparently that's enough to put the mouth on the best rider he's ever had the pleasure to buy.

This is coming from a guy that also put the mouth on Peter Sagan at one point...

What a blowhard!

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

I see that Tinkov is ripping into Contador again. To paraphrase he says Contador is a bad investment, not worth the money he is paid, crashes too much, does not have the fire in the belly and has not won a race for 11 months. As usual, no holding back with Tinkov. I don't think Contador will be able to ignore those comments.

Basically he's whining that Contador isn't worth 4mln (assume that's what he got at Tinkoff).
I highly doubt he earns more than 2.5mln at Trek so Tinkov paid at least 1.5mln for a Vuelta al Pais Vasco victory :lol:
Berto will ignore him as usual. With every one of Tinkov's comments that gets ignored by Berto, Berto looks better and Tinkov looks worse :lol: total classless tool, the Russian

 

[LaFlorecita]

It's clearly not personal, although Tinkov tries to make it seem that way. Berto's only fault is that he didn't win the Tour in his years with Tinkoff. If he had won the Tour, Tinkov wouldn't stop praising him.

 

[Carols]

I just totally ignore Tinkov, he's not worth one minute of my life

 

[dacooley]

tinkov acting like a typical loving / hating internet warrior is always hilarious. i'm looking forward to bertie finally replying something to him.

 

[dusty red roads]

Why is CN publishing that crap? It's tabloid material, way below CN's usual publications!

 

[LaFlorecita]

3 days, 3 tweets from Tinkov attacking Alberto. I can't wait to see what he comes up with tomorrow

Even his biggest fan Nina is losing track of the contradictions, poor girl

 

[lenric]

Re: Re:

I see that Tinkov is ripping into Contador again. To paraphrase he says Contador is a bad investment, not worth the money he is paid, crashes too much, does not have the fire in the belly and has not won a race for 11 months. As usual, no holding back with Tinkov. I don't think Contador will be able to ignore those comments.

What investment does Tinkov have in Trek?

Why would Tinkov badmouth a person that gave him his best memories in cycling? AC won the Giro for Tinkoff, but not the Tour, apparently that's enough to put the mouth on the best rider he's ever had the pleasure to buy.

This is coming from a guy that also put the mouth on Peter Sagan at one point...

What a blowhard!

He also won the Vuelta for Tinkoff in the previous year... which only puts further weight into your argument.

About Tinkov, sometimes he speaks good things. Other times, he only speaks crap.

 

[LaFlorecita]

3 days, 3 tweets from Tinkov attacking Alberto. I can't wait to see what he comes up with tomorrow

Even his biggest fan Nina is losing track of the contradictions, poor girl

But wait, there's more

 

[Red Rick]

In other news, water is wet