Teams & Riders Alberto Contador Discussion Thread

[Blanco]

He looked good to me, didn't go with accelerations, he rode a smart race. I think he'll do a good Tour.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

Time to retire.

Better make it happen ASAP and not start the stage tomorrow.

Clearly some posters on here would love that

"IDGAF that he wants to continue! He can't win so should retire!"

Funnily enough these are probably the same people that slammed him for retiring from the race last year when he had no chance to win.

 

[jilbiker]

Re:

Time to retire.

Better make it happen ASAP and not start the stage tomorrow.

Yep...give Mollema or even Pantana a chance for stage wins. Won't be surprised if doubts in the team have started creeping in like TDF last year.

 

[Climber123]

It was a good performance in the end. It looks like he never intended to use this stage to go on the offensive anyway but to merely limit his losses. I liked how he rode up at his own pace and still finished close to Froome and Porte.

Bring on stage 9

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

Time to retire.

Better make it happen ASAP and not start the stage tomorrow.

Yep...give Mollema or even Pantana a chance for stage wins. Won't be surprised if doubts in the team have started creeping in like TDF last year.

there we go... he should abandon
and then when he does so haters and trolls will start whining he should have worked for his domestiques

 

[bajbar]

Re: Re:

Time to retire.

Better make it happen ASAP and not start the stage tomorrow.

Yep...give Mollema or even Pantana a chance for stage wins. Won't be surprised if doubts in the team have started creeping in like TDF last year.

Pantano and Mollema are in absolute sh*t form... Which is bad, because it makes a long range attack less likely

 

[BigMac]

Re:

He looked good to me, didn't go with accelerations, he rode a smart race. I think he'll do a good Tour.

Same here, which makes the ''he should retire'' crap even more baffling. He's looked worse before. People just want to come in here and say that stuff to get karma and be quoted.

The way he pulled back the Froome/Porte/Dan/Bardet group while everyone just latched to his wheel was nice. He just adapted: more pacey, less explosive.

 

[Rollthedice]

Podium is within reach or should I say richie. If he doesn't disintegrate along the way, I think he will battle with LRP for a podium spot, the other looks reserved for Aru. Froome still the favorite based solely on his ability to TT much better than all these three.

 

[lenric]

Re: Re:

You say if his goal is to win the 2018 Giro he should retire, he should only continue if he doesn't aim to win anymore.
And I say that's dumb not only because it's dumb but also because it doesn't show much knowledge: he does not want to retire and aiming for wins is what motivates him to train. So if his goal is to win, he'll continue, if his goal is to finish 5th, he retires.

I know that what motivates him is to win. I stated that in my previous post, I don't know if you read it. It doesn't seem so.

Anyway, one thing is wanting to win. Other is having the capacity to win. Between those two, excluding crashes and other unpredictable events, is overrated form. If that happens regularly (as it has been), then there's an overrated ability.

Like I have already stated, and you seem to ignore, the reality is oblivious to Contador's perception of it. No matter how much he wants to win and be on form, he's no longer a factor.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

Podium is within reach or should I say richie. If he doesn't disintegrate along the way, I think he will battle with LRP for a podium spot, the other looks reserved for Aru. Froome still the favorite based solely on his ability to TT much better than all these three.

Agree, although Bardet looks good for the podium as well

 

[BigMac]

Re: Re:

Time to retire.

Better make it happen ASAP and not start the stage tomorrow.

Yep...give Mollema or even Pantana a chance for stage wins. Won't be surprised if doubts in the team have started creeping in like TDF last year.

Mollema was dying before he had to do any ''work'' for Contador.

Contador can never rely on a loyal team. Every menaingless parakeet around him becomes a vulture at some point.

 

[Jspear]

Re:

Well, if anything, the way he closed the gap to the group ahead was impressive. He did lose a couple of seconds in the last ramp, which I expected. But the good thing is, that neither Froome nor Porte looked brilliant. I expected Porte to do what Aru did today. Porte seems to have kept the Dauphine shape. All the others have raised it... The Tour might be interesting after all!

Froome and Porte looked fine. Froome is in the yellow jersey for one thing. Plus Froome and Porte were close to being the best on this stage. They will only get better. Fingers crossed that the same applies to AC.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

You say if his goal is to win the 2018 Giro he should retire, he should only continue if he doesn't aim to win anymore.
And I say that's dumb not only because it's dumb but also because it doesn't show much knowledge: he does not want to retire and aiming for wins is what motivates him to train. So if his goal is to win, he'll continue, if his goal is to finish 5th, he retires.

I know that what motivates him is to win. I stated that in my previous post, I don't know if you read it. It doesn't seem so.

Anyway, one thing is wanting to win. Other is having the capacity to win. Between those two, excluding crashes and other unpredictable events, is overrated form. If that happens regularly (as it has been), then there's an overrated ability.

Like I have already stated, and you seem to ignore, the reality is oblivious to Contador's perception of it. No matter how much he wants to win and be on form, he's no longer a factor.

Yes he is overrating his ability but that does not matter as long as that motivates him to keep racing. Say, in what way does it harm anyone when he says he's going for 1st but instead finishes 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th? I'd say it doesn't harm anyone but himself and if he is happy with it, why does it bother you so much that you believe he should retire?

 

[DFA123]

Surely a podium place was always the aim here. So far he's had one stroke of luck in that respect with Valverde crashing out, and a stroke of bad luck in the fact that Aru looks amazing. So I guess the chances are about the same as they were before the race. Still will be very tough to finish ahead of four of Froome, Porte, Bardet, Aru, Martin and Quintana though.

 

[lenric]

Re: Re:

Well, if anything, the way he closed the gap to the group ahead was impressive. He did lose a couple of seconds in the last ramp, which I expected. But the good thing is, that neither Froome nor Porte looked brilliant. I expected Porte to do what Aru did today. Porte seems to have kept the Dauphine shape. All the others have raised it... The Tour might be interesting after all!

Froome and Porte looked fine. Froome is in the yellow jersey for one thing. Plus Froome and Porte were close to being the best on this stage. They will only get better. Fingers crossed that the same applies to AC.

Maybe, but Contador is an example of a rider who has a very stable form between the first and the last stage of a GT.
Anyway, being almost a minute down, he has to do something next sunday, because there's still an ITT ahead where he'll surely lose at least 1 minute to Froome.

 

[Angliru]

Re:

If his goal in 2018 is to win the Giro, then he should retire, because that won't obviously happen. Or, at least, as easily as in 2015.
Otherwise, keep riding however he wants, as long as he's not stating he's coming here and there to win when he simply doesn't have it in him anymore.

If Cadel Evans had followed your retirement strategy, he very well may not have ever won the Tour and the Aussie fans in the forum would been left with the frustrating career of Richie Porte to be tortured over year after year.

Edit: Cleaned up some typo's.

 

[Pennino]

Very interesting conclusions after barely one week and one short explosive MTF. To me he is right up there and if I were his competitors or their DS's I would be scared to the bone. This man is able to make hell break loose.
*Not that that necessarily will happen, obviously. But it's a scenario I wouldn't want to rule out if I were in a fight with him.

 

[Blanco]

Re: Re:

Well, if anything, the way he closed the gap to the group ahead was impressive. He did lose a couple of seconds in the last ramp, which I expected. But the good thing is, that neither Froome nor Porte looked brilliant. I expected Porte to do what Aru did today. Porte seems to have kept the Dauphine shape. All the others have raised it... The Tour might be interesting after all!

Froome and Porte looked fine. Froome is in the yellow jersey for one thing. Plus Froome and Porte were close to being the best on this stage. They will only get better. Fingers crossed that the same applies to AC.

I think Contador will improve more than these two, especially Porte.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Re: Re:

Damn I was woefully wrong. Looks like Contador doesn't have anything anymore. But retirement

For goodness' sake he's still better than 95% of the peloton.

IF you've won 3 tours (i still count the discounted one) a couple of giros and a vuelta, that's not good enough

 

[contador_attacks]

Re:

He looked good to me, didn't go with accelerations, he rode a smart race. I think he'll do a good Tour.

Agree. He isn't in his 20s anymore.

 

[Electress]

Re: Re:

You say if his goal is to win the 2018 Giro he should retire, he should only continue if he doesn't aim to win anymore.
And I say that's dumb not only because it's dumb but also because it doesn't show much knowledge: he does not want to retire and aiming for wins is what motivates him to train. So if his goal is to win, he'll continue, if his goal is to finish 5th, he retires.

I know that what motivates him is to win. I stated that in my previous post, I don't know if you read it. It doesn't seem so.

Anyway, one thing is wanting to win. Other is having the capacity to win. Between those two, excluding crashes and other unpredictable events, is overrated form. If that happens regularly (as it has been), then there's an overrated ability.

Like I have already stated, and you seem to ignore, the reality is oblivious to Contador's perception of it. No matter how much he wants to win and be on form, he's no longer a factor.

So, according to you he's no longer a factor - the assumption being that your perception of what 'reality' is is somehow better and more accurate than Contador's perception of reality, i guess?

That interpretation of reality seems just a mite on the 'arrogant' side of things, tbf.

I'll happily watch Contador race for as long as he's willing to put himself through it all. Because every race he's in has potential for upset and entertainment. Which is not something you can attribute to most of his main rivals, who seem to have neutralised a lot of the entertainment factor from the sport IMO.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

Damn I was woefully wrong. Looks like Contador doesn't have anything anymore. But retirement

For goodness' sake he's still better than 95% of the peloton.

IF you've won 3 tours (i still count the discounted one) a couple of giros and a vuelta, that's not good enough

well, for him it is, else he would have retired after 2013's arsekicking.

 

[wheresmybrakes]

Saying this was the first time they've gone uphill properly the whole race, apart from Aru and Martin, nobody really impressed. This just seemed like a lung buster in preparation for the mountains to come. Contador did ok saying he ain't raced properly for a while (Dauphin chilled out) so I think he will slowly build himself up into this race but he doesn't want to lose any more time, otherwise he will likely finish outside the top 5, whereas podium is easily within reach. Think Froome will improve and win so its a battle for the other 2 places.

 

[Blanco]

Re:

Podium is within reach or should I say richie. If he doesn't disintegrate along the way, I think he will battle with LRP for a podium spot, the other looks reserved for Aru. Froome still the favorite based solely on his ability to TT much better than all these three.

About that last TT, I actually think Contador will do really good there...

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

Podium is within reach or should I say richie. If he doesn't disintegrate along the way, I think he will battle with LRP for a podium spot, the other looks reserved for Aru. Froome still the favorite based solely on his ability to TT much better than all these three.

About that last TT, I actually think Contador will do really good there...

As do I, IF he has reasonably good form. Still not sure about that.