Teams & Riders Alberto Contador Discussion Thread

[arvc40]

Contador say he feel strong and good but paid for early effort. Wanted to win for the Team. He say he just ran out of legs.

 

[DFA123]

Re:

Contador added nothing to his palmares today, yet he did add to his legend.

How did he? Any half decent GC rider who is not an overall threat could attack on an early climb in the race, bridge to a breakaway and then fade massively and end up nowhere near winning the stage, and losing time on some of the top 10. They just choose not to, because it's a terrible tactic.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

Screw it, if he hadn't done what he did it would have been a dreadful stage. That's exactly the kind of thing he should be doing if you ask me.

Absolutely. Animated the stage and rode with all he had. What more can you ask as a fan?

Uhm, after 8 years, one last stage win?

 

[Red Rick]

Re: Re:

Contador added nothing to his palmares today, yet he did add to his legend.

How did he? Any half decent GC rider who is not an overall threat could attack on an early climb in the race, bridge to a breakaway and then fade massively and end up nowhere near winning the stage, and losing time on some of the top 10. They just choose not to, because it's a terrible tactic.

They tank and join the break from the start. Contador put 3 minutes into everyone on the Croix de Fer. Went down fighting his heart out.

 

[arvc40]

Re:

Contador added nothing to his palmares today, yet he did add to his legend.

Yeagh he added a bit. I'd rather he be in the race than not. We need the best at the Tour !!

 

[Valv.Piti]

The last climb to Galibier showed me what was up. If he was Tour winning material, he would have won or at the very least stayed with Roglic. Lets put that to rest now.

 

[DFA123]

Re: Re:

Contador added nothing to his palmares today, yet he did add to his legend.

How did he? Any half decent GC rider who is not an overall threat could attack on an early climb in the race, bridge to a breakaway and then fade massively and end up nowhere near winning the stage, and losing time on some of the top 10. They just choose not to, because it's a terrible tactic.

They tank and join the break from the start. Contador put 3 minutes into everyone on the Croix de Fer. Went down fighting his heart out.

Sure, but a lot of riders could also try to stay high in the GC and then do what Contador did today. They just don't because it doesn't work.

The stage to Foix added to his legend for sure; that was an aggressive, ballsy and great move with a genuine chance of winning a stage and doing things in the GC. It was a fine piece of racing and excellent tactics. Today, on the other hand, there was almost no chance of it working; it was stupidity not courageous.

 

[arvc40]

Re: Re:

Contador added nothing to his palmares today, yet he did add to his legend.

How did he? Any half decent GC rider who is not an overall threat could attack on an early climb in the race, bridge to a breakaway and then fade massively and end up nowhere near winning the stage, and losing time on some of the top 10. They just choose not to, because it's a terrible tactic.

Mmmm...No the others don't ! Your right. But you know what the GC battle is a *** predictable bore fest and this race needs Contadors shitty tactics to brighten it up. All riders have a part to play.

 

[Finn84]

Contador has a good chance to be on the podium in Paris I think. And that's because he may well win super combativity award.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Here we go again.... FFS

 

[Red Rick]

There are many good indications Contador wouldn't be a Tour winner this year. This is hardly one.

 

[Valv.Piti]

That said, I don't get the people that said this was the wrong tactic. This definitely was the right thing to do in order to win the stage, Contador was just a bit spent in the end, he needed that gap to the peloton and it was worth it. Absolutely no way he rides away from Kwito, Nieve and Landa on Telegraphe and Galibier, just not way.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

Contador has a good chance to be on the podium in Paris I think. And that's because he may well win super combativity award.

nah, Barguil will take it surely. And he would deserve it, as would De Gendt.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re:

There are many good indications Contador wouldn't be a Tour winner this year. This is hardly one.

Don't you think? I had expected him to go a bit better I must admit.

 

[DFA123]

Re: Re:

Contador added nothing to his palmares today, yet he did add to his legend.

How did he? Any half decent GC rider who is not an overall threat could attack on an early climb in the race, bridge to a breakaway and then fade massively and end up nowhere near winning the stage, and losing time on some of the top 10. They just choose not to, because it's a terrible tactic.

Mmmm...No the others don't ! Your right. But you know what the GC battle is a **** predictable bore fest and this race needs Contadors ****** tactics to brighten it up. All riders have a part to play.

Personally, I didn't really feel that it brightened the race up today, because it was also so predictable in how it played out. Sky immediately controlled the gap with ease so nothing was going to happen GC wise and, after the big effort on the CdF, he was never going to outclimb everyone in the break.

Would have been more interesting to see him do a sensible attack on the Telegraphe, with 2/3 teammates up the road to drop back and support, and actually have a chance of staying away.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

Would have been more interesting to see him do a sensible attack on the Telegraphe, with 2/3 teammates up the road to drop back and support, and actually have a chance of staying away.

and as many have pointed out he likely wouldn't have closed the gap to the break and definitely wouldn't have dropped Roglic after that. His only chance to win was going in the break from the start but that was logically not allowed.

 

[gregrowlerson]

Re: Re:

The best tactic would have been to lose half an hour yesterday, and then join the breakaway from the get-go today.

My name is Captain Hindsight, and you're welcome.

This

Yes, but no.

Because that wouldn't be Alberto Contador.

Love what he did today.

 

[DFA123]

Re:

That said, I don't get the people that said this was the wrong tactic. This definitely was the right thing to do in order to win the stage, Contador was just a bit spent in the end, he needed that gap to the peloton and it was worth it. Absolutely no way he rides away from Kwito, Nieve and Landa on Telegraphe and Galibier, just not way.

If there was no getting away on the Telegraphe (and the pace wasnt so high there so he might have been able to imo), then he should have just saved energy for tomorrow. The way it panned out it was such a waste of two strong guys who had made it into the break today - Trek DS really got it wrong.

 

[DFA123]

Re: Re:

Would have been more interesting to see him do a sensible attack on the Telegraphe, with 2/3 teammates up the road to drop back and support, and actually have a chance of staying away.

and as many have pointed out he likely wouldn't have closed the gap to the break and definitely wouldn't have dropped Roglic after that. His only chance to win was going in the break from the start but that was logically not allowed.

So just let Mollema or Pantano - who did make it into the break - go for the stage win then and save his effort for tomorrow. Don't do a showy attack that's never going to work.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

Would have been more interesting to see him do a sensible attack on the Telegraphe, with 2/3 teammates up the road to drop back and support, and actually have a chance of staying away.

and as many have pointed out he likely wouldn't have closed the gap to the break and definitely wouldn't have dropped Roglic after that. His only chance to win was going in the break from the start but that was logically not allowed.

So just let Mollema or Pantano - who did make it into the break - go for the stage win then and save his effort for tomorrow. Don't do a showy attack that's never going to work.

Eh?? "Never going to work" that's a bold statement. Guess you're Captain Hindsight as well!
This was most likely his last real chance to win a Tour stage - you can't fault him for trying. (Well, I guess YOU can, but not the general "you")

 

[Matteo.]

Today it went as I expected.
The long stakes are no longer for him, anyway I think that another year going for giro-vuelta and greetings fans...yes, he can safely do it. Indeed alberto must

 

[Red Rick]

Re: Re:

There are many good indications Contador wouldn't be a Tour winner this year. This is hardly one.

Don't you think? I had expected him to go a bit better I must admit.

I think that this was incredibly incomparable to other efforts, and usually, and one result doesn't really make the difference between being past it or not. Biggest thing is the huge trend toward short stages and loss of accelerations, as wel as bonking in longer, harder stages. Today he did a huge hour long effort on the CdF, it's hard to recover from that when you still gotta go up the Galibier.

 

[DFA123]

Re: Re:

Would have been more interesting to see him do a sensible attack on the Telegraphe, with 2/3 teammates up the road to drop back and support, and actually have a chance of staying away.

and as many have pointed out he likely wouldn't have closed the gap to the break and definitely wouldn't have dropped Roglic after that. His only chance to win was going in the break from the start but that was logically not allowed.

So just let Mollema or Pantano - who did make it into the break - go for the stage win then and save his effort for tomorrow. Don't do a showy attack that's never going to work.

Eh?? "Never going to work" that's a bold statement. Guess you're Captain Hindsight as well!
This was most likely his last real chance to win a Tour stage - you can't fault him for trying.

I think you said yourself yesterday that attacking on the CdF was never going to work. I can't fault him for effort and for trying, but I can certainly fault the tactics. He should have lost time yesterday once he was dropped.

Having not done so, then he had to be more patient today. If the pace was too high on the Telegraphe, then just accept it and let Mollema or Pantano battle for the win, and consolidate his own GC position. Then try for the stage win again tomorrow.

 

[Valv.Piti]

I think thats entirely too hard. I think they did the right thing considering he is their star rider and had confidence in Alberto on Gailbier, but as it turns out he never really recovered from the hard effort previously. You can argue Mollema should have went for it himself, but its a bit easy in hindsight really. They animated the stage the stage and thats also worth quite a bit in Tour de France. Still a better result than Quintana.... altho doesnt say much.

 

[LaFlorecita]

https://twitter.com/EquipeFDJ/status/887702392061530112 Rudy <3