Teams & Riders Alberto Contador Discussion Thread

[LaFlorecita]

Trek had a competition on twitter, those who chose the correct 9 riders could win a special TDF edition jersey. From the entry of one of the winners it seems likely this will be their team:

Contador
Degenkolb
Pantano
Felline
De Kort
Mollema
Cardoso
Gogl
Rast

 

[TheYouyou7]

Re:

Trek had a competition on twitter, those who chose the correct 9 riders could win a special TDF edition jersey. From the entry of one of the winners it seems likely this will be their team:

Contador
Degenkolb
Pantano
Felline
De Kort
Mollema
Cardoso
Gogl
Rast

It seems as a nice team not Sky good -obviously- but still good.

 

[DFA123]

Re:

Trek had a competition on twitter, those who chose the correct 9 riders could win a special TDF edition jersey. From the entry of one of the winners it seems likely this will be their team:

Contador
Degenkolb
Pantano
Felline
De Kort
Mollema
Cardoso
Gogl
Rast

Looks a great team for the climbs - especially if Contador can convince Mollema to give 100%. Pretty poor on the flat though. I guess the dream scenario would be to take the yellow jersey late in the race, because I think that team would be vulnerable to getting caught out on a windy flat or rolling stage.

 

[Publicus]

Re: Re:

Trek had a competition on twitter, those who chose the correct 9 riders could win a special TDF edition jersey. From the entry of one of the winners it seems likely this will be their team:

Contador
Degenkolb
Pantano
Felline
De Kort
Mollema
Cardoso
Gogl
Rast

Looks a great team for the climbs - especially if Contador can convince Mollema to give 100%. Pretty poor on the flat though. I guess the dream scenario would be to take the yellow jersey late in the race, because I think that team would be vulnerable to getting caught out on a windy flat or rolling stage.

They have 4 guys (Degenkolb, Felline, De Kort and Rast) that featured on their classics (non-Ardennes) team I think you're Contador bias is clouding your thinking here.

 

[sir fly]

Re: Re:

Trek had a competition on twitter, those who chose the correct 9 riders could win a special TDF edition jersey. From the entry of one of the winners it seems likely this will be their team:

Contador
Degenkolb
Pantano
Felline
De Kort
Mollema
Cardoso
Gogl
Rast

Looks a great team for the climbs - especially if Contador can convince Mollema to give 100%. Pretty poor on the flat though. I guess the dream scenario would be to take the yellow jersey late in the race, because I think that team would be vulnerable to getting caught out on a windy flat or rolling stage.

They have 4 guys (Degenkolb, Felline, De Kort and Rast) that featured on their classics (non-Ardennes) team I think you're Contador bias is clouding your thinking here.

Yes. I even thought they could've switched one of the rouleurs for a climber.
He needs good support on the flats, though. Plenty of rolling this year.

 

[Publicus]

Re: Re:

Trek had a competition on twitter, those who chose the correct 9 riders could win a special TDF edition jersey. From the entry of one of the winners it seems likely this will be their team:

Contador
Degenkolb
Pantano
Felline
De Kort
Mollema
Cardoso
Gogl
Rast

Looks a great team for the climbs - especially if Contador can convince Mollema to give 100%. Pretty poor on the flat though. I guess the dream scenario would be to take the yellow jersey late in the race, because I think that team would be vulnerable to getting caught out on a windy flat or rolling stage.

They have 4 guys (Degenkolb, Felline, De Kort and Rast) that featured on their classics (non-Ardennes) team I think you're Contador bias is clouding your thinking here.

Yes. I even thought they could've switched one of the rouleurs for a climber.
He needs good support on the flats, though. Plenty of rolling this year.

I agree and Trek has provided him with a great/good team for the terrain they're going to face. I think he'll be fine in the mountains if he has the legs--which remains to be seen.

 

[DFA123]

Re: Re:

Trek had a competition on twitter, those who chose the correct 9 riders could win a special TDF edition jersey. From the entry of one of the winners it seems likely this will be their team:

Contador
Degenkolb
Pantano
Felline
De Kort
Mollema
Cardoso
Gogl
Rast

Looks a great team for the climbs - especially if Contador can convince Mollema to give 100%. Pretty poor on the flat though. I guess the dream scenario would be to take the yellow jersey late in the race, because I think that team would be vulnerable to getting caught out on a windy flat or rolling stage.

They have 4 guys (Degenkolb, Felline, De Kort and Rast) that featured on their classics (non-Ardennes) team I think you're Contador bias is clouding your thinking here.

Sure, they are decent riders, but they're not elite classics riders apart from maybe Degenkolb, who will have a largely free role anyway you'd think. Of course, every rider in the Tour de France is really good at what they do to an extent, but Rast and de Kort as probably the main engines looks a bit weak if they have to defend the race on consecutive stages. Especially if Sky use the likes of Thomas, Kwiatkowski, Kiryienka and Rowe to create chaos. Or BMC with GVA ad Kung could create real damage in crosswinds. There's a clear difference in quality between those riders and what Trek have. While there isn't so much between the climbing domestiques of the big GC teams. I think they're one big engine short - Stuyven would have been nice or maybe Brandle.

Movistar are in a fairly similar situation on the flat, but have the advantage i guess that their riders have a lot of experience in controlling races recently and defending leads.

 

[bob.a.feet]

Pantano will be huge help to Contador - like 2013 Kreuziger

 

[silvergrenade]

That wasn't helping. More like baby-sitting

 

[Leinster]

I don't think the Trek team is designed to defend a yellow jersey for 2 or more weeks, but I don't think anyone anticipates Bertie having to do that. Also, Mollema and Degenkolb could both definitely put in a few turns on the front of a flat stage if a chase situation truly demanded it. Degenkolb buried himself for Dumoulin late on at the 2015 Vuelta, so he's definitely willing to work for a leader with a genuine chance of winning.

 

[DFA123]

Re:

I don't think the Trek team is designed to defend a yellow jersey for 2 or more weeks, but I don't think anyone anticipates Bertie having to do that. Also, Mollema and Degenkolb could both definitely put in a few turns on the front of a flat stage if a chase situation truly demanded it. Degenkolb buried himself for Dumoulin late on at the 2015 Vuelta, so he's definitely willing to work for a leader with a genuine chance of winning.

Completely agree. With that team they certainly can't defend on the flat for more than one or two stages. I guess they will try to make their move late. Perhaps as well they are being a bit pragmatic, and think that Contador is probably more likely to be defending a 3rd place for example, than the maillot jaune. In which case support in the mountains is way more important than on the flat, where the leaders team would be taking on the work of controlling the race.

 

[Red Rick]

Seriously tho, a lot of flat stages should have nothing happening cause sprinters wanna sprint anyway.

 

[DFA123]

Re:

Seriously tho, a lot of flat stages should have nothing happening cause sprinters wanna sprint anyway.

Yeah, most of them will probably be as dull as usual. Especially if Sky and Quickstep are in controlling mode for different reasons. But then on the few occasions where there is any chance of crosswinds, I think BMC, Bora and Lotto could look to spice things up. And Quickstep and Sky probably would fancy joining them rather than shutting them down with their team line ups. Trek and (to a slightly lesser extent) Movistar looks pretty vulnerable to me if the splits start happening.

 

[Leinster]

Re: Re:

I don't think the Trek team is designed to defend a yellow jersey for 2 or more weeks, but I don't think anyone anticipates Bertie having to do that. Also, Mollema and Degenkolb could both definitely put in a few turns on the front of a flat stage if a chase situation truly demanded it. Degenkolb buried himself for Dumoulin late on at the 2015 Vuelta, so he's definitely willing to work for a leader with a genuine chance of winning.

Completely agree. With that team they certainly can't defend on the flat for more than one or two stages. I guess they will try to make their move late. Perhaps as well they are being a bit pragmatic, and think that Contador is probably more likely to be defending a 3rd place for example, than the maillot jaune. In which case support in the mountains is way more important than on the flat, where the leaders team would be taking on the work of controlling the race.

Contador is never going to "defend" 3rd place. If he's sitting in 3rd, he will be attacking to try for 1st, even if it means trying to break away solo on the cat3 ramp 45km from the finish of stage 19 (seriously, what's up with that stage?). That's part of the reason why he's never finished on the podium of a GT. He slipped from 2nd to 4th on the last mountain of the 2013 Tour because he preferred to attack Froome and Quintana rather than defend against Purito.

 

[Publicus]

Re: Re:

I don't think the Trek team is designed to defend a yellow jersey for 2 or more weeks, but I don't think anyone anticipates Bertie having to do that. Also, Mollema and Degenkolb could both definitely put in a few turns on the front of a flat stage if a chase situation truly demanded it. Degenkolb buried himself for Dumoulin late on at the 2015 Vuelta, so he's definitely willing to work for a leader with a genuine chance of winning.

Completely agree. With that team they certainly can't defend on the flat for more than one or two stages. I guess they will try to make their move late. Perhaps as well they are being a bit pragmatic, and think that Contador is probably more likely to be defending a 3rd place for example, than the maillot jaune. In which case support in the mountains is way more important than on the flat, where the leaders team would be taking on the work of controlling the race.

I'm not a cycling expert, but I would think any GC team would look for the sprinters teams to control the flat stages--at least that's typically what happens. I just don't see this as a material weakness for Trek versus any other GC team--but again I'm not a cycling expert by any stretch of the imagination.

 

[bob.a.feet]

Re: Re:

Seriously tho, a lot of flat stages should have nothing happening cause sprinters wanna sprint anyway.

Yeah, most of them will probably be as dull as usual. Especially if Sky and Quickstep are in controlling mode for different reasons. But then on the few occasions where there is any chance of crosswinds, I think BMC, Bora and Lotto could look to spice things up. And Quickstep and Sky probably would fancy joining them rather than shutting them down with their team line ups. Trek and (to a slightly lesser extent) Movistar looks pretty vulnerable to me if the splits start happening.

Contador usually does well in the crosswinds

 

[Valv.Piti]

All I see i is heavily laboured climbing, at a pretty high level nevertheless. Still, its pretty much do or die and I very much doubt it.

 

[Jspear]

Re:

All I see i is heavily laboured climbing, at a pretty high level nevertheless. Still, its pretty much do or die and I very much doubt it.

Nope. As of last week, he now pedal's like Froome. He is ready for July.

 

[MightyWheelSucker]

Interesting lack of Ninja in the squad. Might
Trek be thinking about Vuelta. But I wonder if there are some relations issues based on Astana story back in Amstrong days...

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

Interesting lack of Ninja in the squad. Might
Trek be thinking about Vuelta. But I wonder if there are some relations issues based on Astana story back in Amstrong days...

I doubt it, they were seen together a lot at training camps etc.

 

[wheresmybrakes]

Reading some of the posts about Contador wanting to win, with 2nd and 3rd place being as equal as 20th or 21st place, all or nothing attitude. What would his team think if they are busting a gut for him all the way round, hoping he wins, or at least aim as high as possible (i.e. podium finish) which is reasonably achievable for him, if he goes on one of his kamikaze attempts to win, only to blow up and end up with nothing? If the team leader was within a reasonable time of the GC leader that an attack from far out would give him a chance to win overall then I can understand but if he was way off time wise then would he protect his podium place?

I would be quite pi$$ed off if I had ridden all out for someone who was currently in 2nd or 3rd place going into the last stages only for the leader to blow it all with the I'm an ex champion attitude and its first or nothing for me. Yes, the riders are paid to do what the team want them to, but surely they would like to be on a team that achieved a podium place at the tour than nothing because their leader wants first or nothing.

I'm hoping Contador does well in this race and achieves a good result to show his rivals he still has it and not blow it all on a win or nothing mentality.

 

[LaFlorecita]

You can't "blow it all" with an all-or-nothing attack, he might drop one or two places but you'll never ever drop from 2nd to 20th due to an all-or-nothing attack.
Personally I'd like to be on a team with a leader that tries everything to win and not with one that is happy to protect a podium place.

 

[Blanco]

Re: Re:

I don't think the Trek team is designed to defend a yellow jersey for 2 or more weeks, but I don't think anyone anticipates Bertie having to do that. Also, Mollema and Degenkolb could both definitely put in a few turns on the front of a flat stage if a chase situation truly demanded it. Degenkolb buried himself for Dumoulin late on at the 2015 Vuelta, so he's definitely willing to work for a leader with a genuine chance of winning.

Completely agree. With that team they certainly can't defend on the flat for more than one or two stages. I guess they will try to make their move late. Perhaps as well they are being a bit pragmatic, and think that Contador is probably more likely to be defending a 3rd place for example, than the maillot jaune. In which case support in the mountains is way more important than on the flat, where the leaders team would be taking on the work of controlling the race.

Contador is never going to "defend" 3rd place. If he's sitting in 3rd, he will be attacking to try for 1st, even if it means trying to break away solo on the cat3 ramp 45km from the finish of stage 19 (seriously, what's up with that stage?). That's part of the reason why he's never finished on the podium of a GT. He slipped from 2nd to 4th on the last mountain of the 2013 Tour because he preferred to attack Froome and Quintana rather than defend against Purito.

I'm not sure you actually watched that stage. Purito and Quintana attacked and Contador simply dropped...

 

[LaFlorecita]

Looks like the team I posted earlier was fake news. Team so far is:
Gogl
Mollema
Irizar
Felline
Degenkolb
Contador

3 tba

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re: Re:

All I see i is heavily laboured climbing, at a pretty high level nevertheless. Still, its pretty much do or die and I very much doubt it.

Nope. As of last week, he now pedal's like Froome. He is ready for July.

I hope it will look a little less laboured, its not pretty to watch, especially not compared to his smooth and easy pedalling in the past. You were sometimes wondering if you watched bike racing or found yourself in the royal theatre, watching some kind of dancing, you know.

I find Bjarne Riis to be full of *** most of the time and I really don't like the guy, but he said recently that Contador's biggest strength had become a weakness. He said that in the past, he could stay in the leaders group seated, lets say on a climb with a really high tempo, and then accelerate and put even more wattage out but now by standing up. Says he can't do that anymore as he needs to be standing to keep up the tempo and can't raise it. I don't know if its true at all tho