DFA123 said:
portugal11 said:
DFA123 said:
Red Rick said:
Fed winning slams this year would've been a bigger turnaround.
It happened.
Well yeah, that turn around in form happened. Federer moved up a level while his rivals moved down several levels - one of the biggest turn around in form in tennis in recent years. Just as it would be if Contador won the Tour.
Anyway, not sure how one unlikely event happening makes another - completely independent event - more or less likely to happen. Of course it's not impossible that Contador wins the race, it would just take a huge reversal in form, for a guy who hasn't won any WT stage race in over a year (or even a stage), and hasn't finished on the podium of the Tour in 7 years. And who has looked at least a level below most of the other main contenders all year.
Your post is full of crap... where was porte against contador in paris nice? Nowhere to be seen bar his stage win. He was dropped like a stone in col d'eze.
Aru? Only showed signs of life in this dauphine after a horrible 2016 season. Froome? He didn't win anything this season. Only valverde is beating contador constantly this season and valverde doesn't have a stellar palmares in tour de france. So what are you talking about?
OK, believe what you want. Contador is favourite and has been at the same level as Porte this season.
We'll ignore the fact that Valverde, Porte, Fuglsang and Quintana all have WT stage race wins this season, all of them winning stages in the process. We'll ignore the fact that Froome has been the GT rider to beat for the last five years. And we'll ignore the fact that Aru and Bardet look to be hitting form at just the right time. All form guides point to Contador, right? His 11th place at the Dauphine and 6 years of failure in the Tour make him red hot favourite, right?
Nothing of the kind. AC was competitive in the early season, but logically off his best. In the Dauphine he took a conservative approach, knowing it was about building form, but still finished faster than Froome in the TT and ahead on one of the summit finishes. Then people were pondering over the state of his form, was he over the hill, or was he calculating a super peak in July?
AC had to be ordered by his team to not engage in the fight to not go into the red, to back off and never has he done that in his career. We will see if in the end the calculations were right. If so it won't be a turn around in form, but masterful excecution of a planned progression.
In the meantime the horrible evironment at Oleg Ltd. is over, which really was inimical to finding that serenity and purpose that are necessary components of maximum preparation and performance. At any rate it will be interesting to see if the plan comes together, because if it does AC is going to be in a position to win this thing. And that has not been the case since 2014.