Teams & Riders Alberto Contador Discussion Thread

[Carols]

Re: Re:

Fuente De was great, but I prefer the stage to Alpe d'Huez in 2011. That was exactly what I hoped for and needed to see after the Galibier stage. Shame that Rolland got the win, but still, awesome stage.

The alpe d huez in 2011 was the best stage i ever saw. That moment i decided that Contader was a Champ. Never my favorite rider, but rated him highly tho

The Heart of a Champion on full view!

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

Dream Team

so far 8 riders confirmed for their Conti development team

From current Polartec-Fundacion Contador U23 team:
Diego Pablo Sevilla (ESP) - 3rd in Spanish U23 RR
Miguel Ángel Ballesteros (ESP)
Juan Camacho (ESP)
Isaac Cantón (ESP) - Spanish U23 champion

Others:
Matteo Mochetti (ITA) - Italian U23 champion
Michele Gazzoli (ITA) - European champion in junior category
Patrick Gamper (AUT) - whom I just saw in U23 worlds ITT
Michel Laurent Ries (LUX)

Jesusito will be Sports director

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

He posted this on his Instagram story, will most probably just have to do with his ambassador rol but still...un año mas

Yes he was invited to the presentation together with Ivan Basso

 

[TheYouyou7]

God. Already a PHAT ASS

 

[portugal11]

Fu## you lance was the best moment for me

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

God. Already a PHAT ***

How much weight can you realistically gain in a week? 1 kg, 2kg tops?

 

[Electress]

All the above, but I'm rather partial to the Tirreno-Adriatico Stage too. Possibly coz I didn't have to endure shitty commentary, so could really enjoy the spectacle.

 

[Electress]

Re: Re:

God. Already a PHAT ***

How much weight can you realistically gain in a week? 1 kg, 2kg tops?

He could do with gaining a few kilos anyway. I think he's a long way to go before being a lard-arse.

 

[rick james]

Re:

whats that blue and white jersey?

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

whats that blue and white jersey?

It's the Israeli flag but I'm sure you knew that
I believe one of those men is the Jerusalem mayor and the other is the Jewish businessman that got the start to Jerusalem but I'm not sure who is who.

 

[perico]

Favorite stage? With the passage of years, many have become images in my mind. I'll always remember the first stage in the mountains during the 2007 Tour. Rasmussen was way up the road en route to take the jersey that day. Contador followed the attacks from the favorites and was in the first group with Mayo, Valverde, Cuddles, and Christophe Moreau. The camera switched back to the Leipheimer group and suddenly a blue streak of a rider absolutely blew by the group at a speed that made me spit my drink out on an ascent. Apparently Contador had flatted and considering the class of riders in the first and second group, I was completely floored that he rode back up to the first group. I had known he was a future TdF winner since 2005, but I didn't know he was that much stronger at that age.

Another day from that Tour was the final TT. Many commentators were dubious about whether he could "hang on" to the jersey. They hadn't been watching him that closely obviously, because he was always more than capable of putting in a great TT ride.

My favorite post 2009 may actually be stages 16 and 20 of the 2014 Vuelta- listening to the commentators come to realize that post ban Contador could withstand some of Froome's crazy attacks and even drop him in the final K.

 

[rick james]

Re: Re:

whats that blue and white jersey?

It's the Israeli flag but I'm sure you knew that
I believe one of those men is the Jerusalem mayor and the other is the Jewish businessman that got the start to Jerusalem but I'm not sure who is who.

that flag gets to you

 

[Puccini]

Re: Re:

Standing!

"With the withdrawal of Contador goes the guardian of the show, the only single cyclist that exists"

En pie
Con la retirada de Contador se va el guardián del espectáculo, el único ciclista único que existe

https://elpais.com/deportes/2017/09/10/actualidad/1505074683_139442.html

Awesome article, she says without objectivity . Bittersweet that we will never hear the words 'Contador Attacks' again, but happy that I was alive to see it happen again and again!

Those words gave me a Jolt every time I heard them! Riders like Alberto just don't come along very often.

"So the one who here exposes his opinion, disinterested but not at all dispassionate, allows himself to sentence that the guardian of the spectacle, the boy who only plays the highest card, who dreams of the impossible, the lone wolf, the one who sees mountains where there are only giants, the man who insists, not always successfully, to give heroics, the only single cyclist that exists, says goodbye. Stand, therefore, those who are not objective, those who are passionate, those who value vertigo, those who know how to distinguish between sport and a military parade. Get up, yes, to say goodbye to Alberto Contador."

I Stand Clapping for Alberto Contador!!!

:razz: its ok!

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

that flag gets to you

In what way

 

[Carols]

Re:

All the above, but I'm rather partial to the Tirreno-Adriatico Stage too. Possibly coz I didn't have to endure ****** commentary, so could really enjoy the spectacle.

That would be 2014, Stage 5 when he went with 36km to go, hunted down the break almost single handedly and went blasting by on that Steep wall that they zigzagged up, to take the win and the race lead. I never tire of re-watching that one .

 

[Carols]

Re:

Fu## you lance was the best moment for me

That Was a Good One

 

[Carols]

Favorite stage? With the passage of years, many have become images in my mind. I'll always remember the first stage in the mountains during the 2007 Tour. Rasmussen was way up the road en route to take the jersey that day. Contador followed the attacks from the favorites and was in the first group with Mayo, Valverde, Cuddles, and Christophe Moreau. The camera switched back to the Leipheimer group and suddenly a blue streak of a rider absolutely blew by the group at a speed that made me spit my drink out on an ascent. Apparently Contador had flatted and considering the class of riders in the first and second group, I was completely floored that he rode back up to the first group. I had known he was a future TdF winner since 2005, but I didn't know he was that much stronger at that age.

Another day from that Tour was the final TT. Many commentators were dubious about whether he could "hang on" to the jersey. They hadn't been watching him that closely obviously, because he was always more than capable of putting in a great TT ride.

My favorite post 2009 may actually be stages 16 and 20 of the 2014 Vuelta- listening to the commentators come to realize that post ban Contador could withstand some of Froome's crazy attacks and even drop him in the final K.

We are blessed to have so many great performances to choose from .

 

[Angliru]

Re: Re:

Fu## you lance was the best moment for me

That Was a Good One

Poetic justice at its best. One of many exhilratingly happy moments supplied by Alberto. Armstrong knew it was coming and stated so much after the stage. Wasn't a damn thing he could do about it either other than his between the stages shenanigans.

 

[Red Rick]

I always feel this moment is very underrated. Contador attacks somewhat unexpectedly, but it is vicious and the look on Purito's face says it all.

 

[LaFlorecita]

My favorite stage, well, the Fuente Dé stage has been mentioned plenty of times but to illustrate my emotions during that stage: I believe I stood instead of sat in front of the telly during the entire live broadcast

2009 Verbier is an obvious pick, but the Annecy TT was perhaps even more impressive. And that nail-biting finish, winning margin was just 3s, wow.

Lanciano-Muro di Guardiagrele stage in 2014 was amazing as well, I remember my thought process quite well: before the stage, we discussed the final muro at length on here, Contador looked the strongest on the previous stage but would he be able to take enough time on Kwiatkowski on such a steep finish, and how would Quintana do? Then during the stage, when he attacked, I thought: there is no way he is actually going to pull this off. Then maybe 15 minutes later: no way. He's actually going to pull it off. It was so impressive. He pulled the breakaway group through the valley and the GC group behind just kept losing ground. I read Adam Hansen's view on this stage a short while ago, he was in the breakaway at the time.

Alberto Contador is a fighter and an impressive rider. I remember a Tirreno-Adriatico stage in 2014 when I was dropped by the breakaway. Contador attacked on the penultimate climb and came past me about 4km from the top. I sat on his wheel for the last 4km up the mountain. I was sitting there thinking: “OK, this is how fast he goes on the climbs - wow!”

I stayed with him until the top, we did the descent, and he was going crazy down that mountain. Then I felt a bit guilty because I’d sat on his wheel on the climb. So I did a few turns and we were catching the other guys dropped from the break. Contador kept going, catching everyone, and eventually won the stage by six seconds ahead of Simon Geschke. That impressed me heaps.

We’ve also had some Tour and Vuelta stages where if it’s short, he just attacks. If it’s 120km or 140km, he can do damage, he really can, and he’s very impressive in that sense. When he’s at his best he’s a great rider to watch.

Unfortunately, I never got to appreciate the Mortirolo stage as much as others. I wasn't able to watch it live so I didn't get the full experience. From what I read on twitter at the time, I realized he was in a bit of trouble, but I was just relieved to read he made it back. Then someone who is quite impartial usually told me - you really have to watch it later, it was by far the most impressive performance by Contador I've ever witnessed. So, my expectations were high, and when I watched it just didn't seem that impressive I guess it was the sort of stage you have to see live, with all the added suspense and emotions, to truly appreciate it.

Loved Monte Etna stage in 2011. I missed pretty much all of the last week unfortunately, so this is the best memory I have. Actually, I don't remember much else besides this stage and the Tropea stage. Sad. Anyway, we all had some doubts after the previous stages and he just blew everyone away. It was truly glorious, one of the strongest attacks I ever saw. That first acceleration was something else. Michele Scarponi (may he RIP) later said he didn't even attempt to follow Berto, his attack was so fast.

Some Pais Vasco stages were great as well. The 1st stage in 2014 and in particular, the final ITT in 2016 stand out to me. Remember, in 2016 he hadn't won a GC yet at that point, and we were all pretty desperate. There was hardly any footage of Berto, and split times were very slow to arrive as well. I remember that at some point during the climb, I saw Berto's time was 1.5 minute!! faster than Pinot at that point, Pinot was considered as one of the pre-TT favorites to take the overall as well. But yeah, we didn't see much, and when we finally got him on screen, they showed him 23s faster than Quintana. But what about Henao, who was leading the race? Oh, apparently Henao had passed the intermediate as well and was hidden somewhere further down the rankings, over 40s down that was a great moment.

I would also like to focus on 2 sadder stages, firstly, stage 8 of the 2014 Dauphiné. Berto was the underdog compared to Froome, but we were all hugely impressed and also kinda relieved when he could follow Froome on the first uphill finish. Then, a huge shock for all of us, Berto dropped him on stage 7 and took the lead! At that point, the overall win looked all but certain. Damn, he was stronger than Froome and actually had the lead, what could go wrong? Well, we know what happened. It was pure torture to follow that stage, it wasn't live on TV I think, at least not for me, so I was following it on the live ticker and on twitter. Berto was just too focused on Froome. He should have left him behind way earlier, should have gone with Nibali who got to within 1 minute of Talansky, but anyway, when he took off, it looked like he could do it. I remember Mick Rogers live tweeting his thoughts, Berto needed 6s per km, and for a while he was really closing that gap. I guess the bit of hope that gave us made it all the more heartbreaking when he came up short in the end. He was so extremely strong, that solo was of epic proportions, but the lack of a proper team had allowed the gap to get too large, and Sky's bluffing fooled Berto into thinking they had it under control. Damn it. I still get sad when I think about it.

Another sad moment was this year's Paris-Nice. He'd lost Ruta del Sol by 1s earlier, and while that was annoying, it was also kinda funny. We had all given up pretty much all hope after stage 1, when he lost so much time in the crosswinds. But he slowly clawed it back, and then on the final stage, when it seemed impossible to take back 32s, it looked like he was actually going to do it. Of course, the near-miss was made all the more frustrating by the fact it was oh so similar to the year before, and by the nonsensical work Ion Izagirre did for Sonny Colbrelli (Ion probably cost Berto two wins this year, Ruta del Sol and Paris-Nice). But it wasn't really like last year, while last year he needed less time, Sky seemed to have it under control. Of course we had hope, but Berto's buffer was never much more than maybe 10 seconds. But now, he managed to make his attack on Peille stick all the way to the bottom of Eze, and he had more than double the time he needed at some point. But then, we watched the gap slowly decrease on the descent, it was agonizing, and watching the seconds tick by after he had finished, Matthews and Colbrelli sprinting with the GC group which probably gained them a few seconds, it was oh so frustrating. I remember the Sporza commentators frantically calculating the differences and then when they concluded Berto was a couple of seconds short, they even outright stated they hoped there was a gap in the chasing group that would give the advantage to Alberto. Oh man.

2015 Giro ITT. By far Berto's most impressive performance that year. Kruijswijk was the closest GC contender, he was over 1 minute behind I believe, that's how strong Berto was. Remember that before the stage, there were talks of Berto being 2s slower per km due to a different TT position, because of his shoulder injury. I guess that wasn't true :lol: That moment when he overtook Landa, his 3-minute man, after perhaps 25km. It was glorious. And this was the point we could officially cross off Uran and Porte as potential threats. They were supposed to gain time on Berto in the TT, but Berto had butchered them already by the first time check. Beautiful.

2014 Vuelta. There were many great stages, looking back it was truly a great GT, also from a neutral perspective. On some finish Froome would gain time, on others Berto. A few stages stand out. I don't remember what stage it was, but it was early on, a punchy finish, Valverde won and Berto was just behind together with Froome. That was the moment we knew he could have a chance to win. Then the first real mountain finish, crappy weather as I recall and he dropped everyone. Quintana only made it back on the line because Purito did a Purito in the final km and Quintana latched on. And of course stage 16 and 20. Just the sight of Berto managing to counter all of Froome's attacks and then sprint away in the final km. Stage 20, I felt he would maybe gift the stage to Froome. But no gifts. It was pretty much a carbon copy of stage 16. Loved it.

And then Angliru. I didn't believe he could do it, but I hoped, oh I hoped, he had a good gap but I thought he would collapse, but I hoped, then in the final 5km I could hardly watch, I was so nervous. I pretty much started celebrating when he got past the hardest section with a huge advantage, but then Froome and Poels took off. They were going so fast, too fast, I could cry at that point as I was watching the GPS gap decrease, and then when he got onto the downhill section and started zipping up his jersey, oh wow, screams, tears and snotters, it wasn't pretty :lol:


Oops, that turned out to be a pretty long post

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

I always feel this moment is very underrated. Contador attacks somewhat unexpectedly, but it is vicious and the look on Purito's face says it all.

That's the stage I refer to in my post, with Quintana jumping with Purito. I love that photo. I think Purito posted that photo on his twitter with a funny caption and Berto replied, I don't remember what exactly.

 

[Forever The Best]

He should have won this years Paris-Nice

 

[Squire]

I can never forget Contador and Rasmussen taking turns sprinting up the Aubisque. The Angliru win the year after was quite special, too. And when he helped the Don win the Dauphiné in 2009.

 

[ice&fire]

Re: Re:

I always feel this moment is very underrated. Contador attacks somewhat unexpectedly, but it is vicious and the look on Purito's face says it all.

That's the stage I refer to in my post, with Quintana jumping with Purito. I love that photo. I think Purito posted that photo on his twitter with a funny caption and Berto replied, I don't remember what exactly.

That was probably when Purito commented with irony the impact of Alberto's crash at the Tour and how he had been downplaying his chances to contest the Vuelta.

 

[lenric]

Finally a good theme to talk about.

Lots of good moments, but none as iconic as the "*** you Lance", as was already stated.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9uXglMzMU0