Teams & Riders Alberto Contador Discussion Thread

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

Even though I know it doesn't really matter, these minute here, twenty second here losses are brutal to watch as a fan. Rationally, I know he's out of it, but there's the fanboy in me that still hopes for a miracle. I might be crazy, but I think he'd be within a minute or two if he'd never crashed.

That seems pretty reasonable to me

 

[bob.a.feet]

A lot of people whining about Contador attacking while Kwiatkowski received a musette, even though it wasn't in a feed zone.

 

[Carols]

Re:

A lot of people whining about Contador attacking while Kwiatkowski received a musette, even though it wasn't in a feed zone.

Some people will whine about anything! If it was a feed zone they might have a bit of a complaint. Why chase him anyway? It must be force of habit!

EDIT: changed word as people were using it for clinic innuendos.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Michael Rasmussen dubbed that the most stupid 'attack' in this Tour. Safe to say he wasn't impressed by that one.

 

[hazaran]

Contador driving hard in his "dropped from the group of dropped riders" group :lol:

Must get that top 10, top 10 or nothing, it's all in for this guy.

 

[cellardoor]

Re:

Don't forget that he's a crappy descender, so attacking at Croix de Fer, with a long descent ahead, would be a gamble, since he'd likely be caught... moreover if it will likely be raining all day.
Telegraphe seems a better option, as I have already mentioned a couple of days ago: not a too long ascent, nor a too long descent ahead and then the last mountain of the day. It will be a stage almost twice longer than the last one where he attacked, so his endurance will be tested... which is where most of the doubts lay.

If it's dry he's an ok descender. Wasn't the Formigal attack launched on a descent? He also won the Tour de Sud on a descent. I doubt that the likes of Froome will be minded to go hard on a descent to catch Contador anyway.

 

[lenric]

Re: Re:

Don't forget that he's a crappy descender, so attacking at Croix de Fer, with a long descent ahead, would be a gamble, since he'd likely be caught... moreover if it will likely be raining all day.
Telegraphe seems a better option, as I have already mentioned a couple of days ago: not a too long ascent, nor a too long descent ahead and then the last mountain of the day. It will be a stage almost twice longer than the last one where he attacked, so his endurance will be tested... which is where most of the doubts lay.

If it's dry he's an ok descender. Wasn't the Formigal attack launched on a descent? He also won the Tour de Sud on a descent. I doubt that the likes of Froome will be minded to go hard on a descent to catch Contador anyway.

My post was written assuming it will be raining.
Froome won't be pushed to pursue Contador, but Bardet will attack and can catch Contador, so Froome will respond anyway.
If his goal is to win the stage, then imo he'll haver a better chance if he attacks at Telegraphe, since he'll lose time at the descents anyway,

 

[cellardoor]

Re: Re:

Don't forget that he's a crappy descender, so attacking at Croix de Fer, with a long descent ahead, would be a gamble, since he'd likely be caught... moreover if it will likely be raining all day.
Telegraphe seems a better option, as I have already mentioned a couple of days ago: not a too long ascent, nor a too long descent ahead and then the last mountain of the day. It will be a stage almost twice longer than the last one where he attacked, so his endurance will be tested... which is where most of the doubts lay.

If it's dry he's an ok descender. Wasn't the Formigal attack launched on a descent? He also won the Tour de Sud on a descent. I doubt that the likes of Froome will be minded to go hard on a descent to catch Contador anyway.

My post was written assuming it will be raining.
Froome won't be pushed to pursue Contador, but Bardet will attack and can catch Contador, so Froome will respond anyway.
If his goal is to win the stage, then imo he'll haver a better chance if he attacks at Telegraphe, since he'll lose time at the descents anyway,

I rather doubt Bardet will attack that early, but to be honest, Contador and Bardet linking up with presumably a couple of AG2R and Trek domestiques sounds like a perfect scenario to me.

 

[movingtarget]

Re: Re:

A lot of people whining about Contador attacking while Kwiatkowski received a musette, even though it wasn't in a feed zone.

Some people will whine about anything! If it was a feed zone they might have a bit of a beef. Why chase him anyway? It must be force of habit!

If it was a feed zone they might have a bit of beef ?

 

[cellardoor]

Re: Re:

A lot of people whining about Contador attacking while Kwiatkowski received a musette, even though it wasn't in a feed zone.

Some people will whine about anything! If it was a feed zone they might have a bit of a beef. Why chase him anyway? It must be force of habit!

If it was a feed zone they might have a bit of beef ?

I'd steak my house on them having a bit of a beef.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Re:

Even though I know it doesn't really matter, these minute here, twenty second here losses are brutal to watch as a fan. Rationally, I know he's out of it, but there's the fanboy in me that still hopes for a miracle. I might be crazy, but I think he'd be within a minute or two if he'd never crashed.

Don't forget that many of the GC riders (most?) has crashed as well.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Michael Rasmussen dubbed that the most stupid 'attack' in this Tour. Safe to say he wasn't impressed by that one.

Well, it caused Kwiat to drop 3 feed bags
Personally, I'd rather no one ever quoted that bitter man again, but to each their own.

 

[Pennino]

Michael Rasmussen dubbed that the most stupid 'attack' in this Tour. Safe to say he wasn't impressed by that one.

Well, it caused Kwiat to drop 3 feed bags
Personally, I'd rather no one ever quoted that bitter man again, but to each their own.

Interesting reflex by human beings calling people who've been through something and despite that having still their opinions just "bitter".

Give me just one other person with that experience and knowledge who can speak out directly what's on their mind without having probable troubles with conflicting interests or something.

 

[gregrowlerson]

Michael Rasmussen dubbed that the most stupid 'attack' in this Tour. Safe to say he wasn't impressed by that one.

Well, it caused Kwiat to drop 3 feed bags
Personally, I'd rather no one ever quoted that bitter man again, but to each their own.

It's happening

And Sky to have hunger knocks on Galibier due to AC's apparently pointless attack yesterday

 

[Carols]

It's happening people! Can he go all the way??? Sky is chasing

 

[Gigs_98]

Re:

It's happening people! Can he go all the way??? Sky is chasing

Why oh why did Landa not follow his attack.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Michael Rasmussen dubbed that the most stupid 'attack' in this Tour. Safe to say he wasn't impressed by that one.

Well, it caused Kwiat to drop 3 feed bags
Personally, I'd rather no one ever quoted that bitter man again, but to each their own.

Ofc he is bitter about not winning that Tour, everyone would be, but that has nothing with the quote to do...

 

[Taxus4a]

Re: Re:

It's happening people! Can he go all the way??? Sky is chasing

Why oh why did Landa not follow his attack.

Becouse Alberto is not dangerous for GC. Yes , he has team mates on the front, but nothing to worry about for SKY.

 

[hrotha]

I didn't think the attack was stupid on paper. It was stupid because Trek only kept it up for like 100 meters, but that's because, well, Trek hardly had the right riders for that move.

 

[Gigs_98]

Re: Re:

It's happening people! Can he go all the way??? Sky is chasing

Why oh why did Landa not follow his attack.

Becouse Alberto is not dangerous for GC. Yes , he has team mates on the front, but nothing to worry about for SKY.

Yeah but if Landa had followed Contador Sky would be in a tactically great position. Landa would now probably be in virtual yellow while Bardet and Aru would have to burn all their teammates to control that break.

 

[Carols]

Sky is controlling the break just enough to make sure he isn't a threat. Unless Froome wants the stage it's possible they'll just leave it around 3 minutes. But if Berto keeps going strong, teams that will see their lower placings in jeopardy may start riding..

 

[cellardoor]

Re:

Sky is controlling the break just enough to make sure he isn't a threat. Unless Froome wants the stage it's possible they'll just leave it around 3 minutes. But if Berto keeps going strong, teams that will see their lower placings in jeopardy may start riding..

Unfortunatly I don't think the gap is big enough for him to go all the way. Hope I'm wrong. At least he's causing the Sky dom's to be burnt up which might help the likes of Bardet or Aru later.

 

[Jspear]

That's all I'm hoping for now....AC can make things easier for Aru in a bit. Doubt he'll last till the end.

 

[Jspear]

Mollema is proving his worth....he's a beast right now.

 

[Forever The Best]

Re: Re:

Dege should go to the Tour but he should only have 1 or 2 people assigned to him. And Contador has more chances of winning the Tour than Dege winning a stage. Mind you, chances of Contador winning the Tour are very low but chances of Dege winning a stage is even lower.
Also I'd prefer Brandle to Zubeldia or Cardoso because Contador needs some rouleurs to keep him safely on the flat stages.

You're right, he needs at least 2 of Irizar, Brändle, Rast plus Gogl and Felline. But with Pantano, Mollema, Degenkolb, De Kort, that leaves no room for a 3rd climber.
Of course, this could easily be solved by leaving Mollema at home, but...

Mollema should definitely be in. If Contador is fighting for GC victory Mollema rides as a super dom by setting a very hard tempo/launching Contador or works for Contador on a long-range attack when Conta bridges to him. If Contador is far from the win Mollema should be allowed to go for stage wins.

@sacrifice&hardwork Dege was bad all season as you said. And he was horrible in Suisse. There are many riders who have bigger chances of winning a stage than Dege.