Teams & Riders Alberto Contador Discussion Thread

[Red Rick]

I always thought it was just a little extra competitiveness among compatriots. Pretty admirable if he's willing to admit this.

 

[Koronin]

Re:

An interesting snippet from an interview with Valverde in El País

VALVERDE. Con Alberto sí que me he obsesionado un poco. Con Contador. Hemos tenido los dos mucha rivalidad deportiva, pero en lo personal, ningún problema. Y mira, lo que yo quería en el Tour, él sí lo pudo hacer. Creo que nunca lo ganaré.

https://elpais.com/elpais/2018/03/05/eps/1520270766_926702.amp.html?__twitter_impression=true

"I was a little obsessed with Alberto. Look, what I wanted in the Tour, he was able to achieve."

Many of us speculated about his obsession with Berto but Valverde fans often called this ridiculous

Interesting. I always thought it was more just a rivalry between two great Spaniards who wanted to beat each other more because they are both Spaniards than Bala being obsessed with Alberto.

Very interesting conversations. I find this to be a very interesting comment by Bala:

" Antes realmente bajaba el rendimiento mucho con la edad, pero hoy día no baja tanto. El ciclismo de ahora no es el de antes, es totalmente diferente, no tiene nada que ver, el cuerpo aguanta mucho más. No se va a la velocidad de antes. Se corre diferente. Todo es mucho más medido. Los entrenamientos, todo. Todos estamos muy igualados. ¿Haces pesas?"

This is google translates translation: "Before, performance really dropped a lot with age, but today it does not go down that much. Cycling is not the same as before, it is totally different, it has nothing to do, the body holds much more. It does not go at the speed of before. It runs differently. Everything is much more measured. The trainings, everything. We are all very equal. Do you do weights?"

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

I always thought it was just a little extra competitiveness among compatriots. Pretty admirable if he's willing to admit this.

Agreed

 

[Carols]

Re:

An interesting snippet from an interview with Valverde in El País

VALVERDE. Con Alberto sí que me he obsesionado un poco. Con Contador. Hemos tenido los dos mucha rivalidad deportiva, pero en lo personal, ningún problema. Y mira, lo que yo quería en el Tour, él sí lo pudo hacer. Creo que nunca lo ganaré.

https://elpais.com/elpais/2018/03/05/eps/1520270766_926702.amp.html?__twitter_impression=true

"I was a little obsessed with Alberto. Look, what I wanted in the Tour, he was able to achieve."

Many of us speculated about his obsession with Berto but Valverde fans often called this ridiculous

The young Bala Wanted to win GTs badly and he only managed one. Alberto stole his thunder there Big Time. But by playing to his strengths Bala became a superstar in his own right.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Saw an interesting post on twitter, apparently Berto is scheduled to provide commentary during RVV not sure who thought that a good idea, but it should be fun tv oh together with Flecha and another commentator

 

[Bardamu]

Haha really? Would love to see a stream of that.

 

[Red Rick]

Re:

Saw an interesting post on twitter, apparently Berto is scheduled to provide commentary during RVV not sure who thought that a good idea, but it should be fun tv oh together with Flecha and another commentator

"Muur van Gerardsbergen, perfect place to attack"

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

Saw an interesting post on twitter, apparently Berto is scheduled to provide commentary during RVV not sure who thought that a good idea, but it should be fun tv oh together with Flecha and another commentator

"Muur van Gerardsbergen, perfect place to attack"

He has 4 whole days of cobbles experience

 

[Red Rick]

Re: Re:

Saw an interesting post on twitter, apparently Berto is scheduled to provide commentary during RVV not sure who thought that a good idea, but it should be fun tv oh together with Flecha and another commentator

"Muur van Gerardsbergen, perfect place to attack"

He has 4 whole days of cobbles experience

I wonder how much guys like that watch races they never do themselves.

In any case, one of the few cases where you might actually pick Flecha over Contador

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

Saw an interesting post on twitter, apparently Berto is scheduled to provide commentary during RVV not sure who thought that a good idea, but it should be fun tv oh together with Flecha and another commentator

"Muur van Gerardsbergen, perfect place to attack"

He has 4 whole days of cobbles experience

I wonder how much guys like that watch races they never do themselves.

In any case, one of the few cases where you might actually pick Flecha over Contador

I think Berto has tweeted a couple times about watching RVV. But pretty sure he doesn't stay home for "minor" classics.

 

[LaFlorecita]

http://cqranking.com/men/asp/gen/race.asp?raceid=22739

#NeverForget

 

[Koronin]

I'd think he's watched Flanders and Paris-Roubiax before. At some point or other, Valverde made a comment about having some of the riders on his Junior team at his house to watch Flanders and Paris-Roubiax as he thought they could be good teaching races for the kids to learn tactics and how to read races by asking them why someone would attack at a certain point or why they should or shouldn't follow in a particular spot. For a rider like Contador it would make sense that he's watched them and would understand them and the tactics.

 

[Bardamu]

Re:

I'd think he's watched Flanders and Paris-Roubiax before. At some point or other, Valverde made a comment about having some of the riders on his Junior team at his house to watch Flanders and Paris-Roubiax as he thought they could be good teaching races for the kids to learn tactics and how to read races by asking them why someone would attack at a certain point or why they should or shouldn't follow in a particular spot. For a rider like Contador it would make sense that he's watched them and would understand them and the tactics.

Must say this sounds heartwarming.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Contador did race Eneco and ended up 4th if I remember correctly. He did fairly well there, that was his first race after ban.
As for both of them in terms of stage racing, I think they're both Hors Category. They both won much, and they both won big. Contador has the edge in races with more TT-ing, while Bala has the advantage in races with bonus seconds.

Aye, a handful of seconds from the podium. On the Queen stage over the Muur he finished 8th, last of the front group. I actually looked up those results a couple days ago and it's funny to see his name between all those classics specialists.

Coolest thing was Belgian commentators Van Avermeat was leading with Nuyens after the first climb of the Muur and then going 'wait, damn that's Contador'

If anything that was a pretty interesting stage, cause I really got the idea that flying up the Muur once was pretty doable for a climber like Contador but doing it multiple times is a lot harder cause he doesn't have the raw strength.

In any case, it's a total waste they don't use the Flemish hills (or the Ardennes for that matter) when they go through Belgium in the Tour.

Continuing the discussion from the Valverde thread

I found coverage of the final 30km on youtube
https://youtu.be/a3cvQycslEs

I didn't manage to watch that stage live and had never found more than highlights, pretty cool to see

 

[Red Rick]

Contador did race Eneco and ended up 4th if I remember correctly. He did fairly well there, that was his first race after ban.
As for both of them in terms of stage racing, I think they're both Hors Category. They both won much, and they both won big. Contador has the edge in races with more TT-ing, while Bala has the advantage in races with bonus seconds.

Aye, a handful of seconds from the podium. On the Queen stage over the Muur he finished 8th, last of the front group. I actually looked up those results a couple days ago and it's funny to see his name between all those classics specialists.

Coolest thing was Belgian commentators Van Avermeat was leading with Nuyens after the first climb of the Muur and then going 'wait, damn that's Contador'

If anything that was a pretty interesting stage, cause I really got the idea that flying up the Muur once was pretty doable for a climber like Contador but doing it multiple times is a lot harder cause he doesn't have the raw strength.

In any case, it's a total waste they don't use the Flemish hills (or the Ardennes for that matter) when they go through Belgium in the Tour.

Continuing the discussion from the Valverde thread

I found coverage of the final 30km on youtube
https://youtu.be/a3cvQycslEs

I didn't manage to watch that stage live and had never found more than highlights, pretty cool to see

That was vintage Contador. By which I mean vintage Contador placement before the final climb of the Muur. Also burnt himself a lot more on the first ascent, GVA was not there at the end either.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Seems the commentary for Paris-Roubaix will be provided by Berto, just like for RVV, together with JAF. Somehow this is even more hilarious to me

 

[Red Rick]

Re:

Seems the commentary for Paris-Roubaix will be provided by Berto, just like for RVV, together with JAF. Somehow this is even more hilarious to me

I wonder how that went during RVV.

*Sees Nibali getting dropped uphill by Terpstra*

"And that's why I never did that ***"

Anyway, is he doing Itzulia?

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

Seems the commentary for Paris-Roubaix will be provided by Berto, just like for RVV, together with JAF. Somehow this is even more hilarious to me

I wonder how that went during RVV.

*Sees Nibali getting dropped uphill by Terpstra*

"And that's why I never did that ****"

Anyway, is he doing Itzulia?

No, not doing Itzulia which I think is kinda odd, the duo that is doing Itzulia has a lot of experience commentating on cobbled classics from what I've gathered, while Berto is obviously a Pais Vasco expert.

 

[Red Rick]

Re: Re:

Seems the commentary for Paris-Roubaix will be provided by Berto, just like for RVV, together with JAF. Somehow this is even more hilarious to me

I wonder how that went during RVV.

*Sees Nibali getting dropped uphill by Terpstra*

"And that's why I never did that ****"

Anyway, is he doing Itzulia?

No, not doing Itzulia which I think is kinda odd, the duo that is doing Itzulia has a lot of experience commentating on cobbled classics from what I've gathered, while Berto is obviously a Pais Vasco expert.

Think it's more of a time committment thing, and I don't know what TV ratings usually are for those races, but it might be that Itzulia has more stable ratings whereas they think Contador makes a bigger difference in races like RVV and PR

 

[Le O]

...Contador is painful to listen to as a commentator right now. I think there are two problems: firstly, his voice is pretty grating to listen to for hours on end. It's really scratchy and a bit whiny, he could certainly do with some coaching to improve this - vary his tone and intonation a bit more as well. ...

There's a reason for this. Sometime around '08-'10 a node developed on one of his vocal cords. Before that his voice was much more pleasant, if I recall; in any event that's when the scratchiness started. He was going to get it removed in an operation during the off season, but changed his mind (no reason given, but I can well imagine he had had enough of hospitals and surgeons by that time!) and after that said nothing more about it that I know of.

I can't be more exact about the year, nor can I give a reference. (Somebody who likes listening to old interviews should be able to find the year the node developed.) He had blogged about it on his original official web site, but we lost that record of interesting and insightful comment when it was taken down as a direct result of all the hate posted to it when he got popped. Alberto's official website re-appeared in a different format but the blog was gone and version 2 never excited me much. I think it got taken down too at some point or maybe I just stopped going to it. :surprised:

As some others have posted on the voice subject, yes indeed a voice can be trained to a different sound, though it's hard to break the habits of a lifetime. However, in Alberto's case only removal of the node can make a substantial difference to the sound quality.


As for me, although this looks like my first post, it isn't! but I lost my password in a simultaneous computer and isp change long ago, and not having much to say anyways just settled for lurking for several years. But I couldn't let this go by without setting the record straight. So congrats to DFA for luring my out of hiding.

 

[Irondan]

...Contador is painful to listen to as a commentator right now. I think there are two problems: firstly, his voice is pretty grating to listen to for hours on end. It's really scratchy and a bit whiny, he could certainly do with some coaching to improve this - vary his tone and intonation a bit more as well. ...

There's a reason for this. Sometime around '08-'10 a node developed on one of his vocal cords. Before that his voice was much more pleasant, if I recall; in any event that's when the scratchiness started. He was going to get it removed in an operation during the off season, but changed his mind (no reason given, but I can well imagine he had had enough of hospitals and surgeons by that time!) and after that said nothing more about it that I know of.

I can't be more exact about the year, nor can I give a reference. (Somebody who likes listening to old interviews should be able to find the year the node developed.) He had blogged about it on his original official web site, but we lost that record of interesting and insightful comment when it was taken down as a direct result of all the hate posted to it when he got popped. Alberto's official website re-appeared in a different format but the blog was gone and version 2 never excited me much. I think it got taken down too at some point or maybe I just stopped going to it. :surprised:

As some others have posted on the voice subject, yes indeed a voice can be trained to a different sound, though it's hard to break the habits of a lifetime. However, in Alberto's case only removal of the node can make a substantial difference to the sound quality.


As for me, although this looks like my first post, it isn't! but I lost my password in a simultaneous computer and isp change long ago, and not having much to say anyways just settled for lurking for several years. But I couldn't let this go by without setting the record straight. So congrats to DFA for luring my out of hiding.

Le O

What was the screen name of the original account? I will reset the password and send it to you in a PM.

Cheers

 

[LaFlorecita]

What Le O (I wonder what their original account was) said is true. He was going to get that removed around the same time he got an operation on his nose, end of 2008 I believe (why do I know this stuff )
I looked up a video of a press conference from 2007 and it's kinda strange how different his voice is
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3A39zkCGYk&feature=youtu.be

 

[Red Rick]

Re:

What Le O (I wonder what their original account was) said is true. He was going to get that removed around the same time he got an operation on his nose, end of 2008 I believe (why do I know this stuff )
I looked up a video of a press conference from 2007 and it's kinda strange how different his voice is
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3A39zkCGYk&feature=youtu.be

So he didn't always sound like a 12 year old with a very nasty cold

 

[Valv.Piti]

He is a lot more pleasent to listen to at least. However, the subject and the time of the interview makes me kinda depressed.

 

[DFA123]

I have to say, I quite enjoyed listening to Contador in the last coupled of cobbled races. Apart from his voice obviously, that was still grating, but thanks to Le O for explaining more about it.

Anyway, he seemed to be a lot better paired with Flecha. I think it's because Flecha has completely cornered the market in stating the obvious, so Contador was forced to say something else. And he generally came out with some nice evaluation of the tactics and race situation. And, perhaps less surprisingly, he was extremely good at analysing why riders were crashing in particular situations.