Teams & Riders Alberto Contador Discussion Thread

[xrayvision]

Missed the stage today, how did Saxo do?

 

[ILovecycling]

Missed the stage today, how did Saxo do?

Nicki was pulling on the flat for a while,CAS whole penultimate climb(reduced a peloton a lot).Noval dropped after couple of punchers and sprinters were already dropped,Jesus had mechanical.Mick was protecting Alberto all day long.

 

[Nilsson]

chewing tobacco? nope, a bee stung my face in the middle of todays @critdauphine stage.

Lool poor guy.

Looks painful. He's not exactly the most lucky guy in the pack, is he?

 

[Miburo]

Probably the same commentator who stated how Wiggins form prior to Il Giro was a "tad too developed"..

On Topic- Contador is just "checking" everything-Teamwork, rivals, own form, etc. not worries at all You will see him having a go in only one mountain stage and that's it.

i think he'll attack tomorrow

 

[xrayvision]

Nicki was pulling on the flat for a while,CAS whole penultimate climb(reduced a peloton a lot).Noval dropped after couple of punchers and sprinters were already dropped,Jesus had mechanical.Mick was protecting Alberto all day long.

Thanks mate, sounds they did an okay job. Hope to catch the stage tomorrow.

 

[xrayvision]

Looks painful. He's not exactly the most lucky guy in the pack, is he?

No , my thought exactly, but I like his commitment.

 

[xrayvision]

AAAAAAAAAnd the game is on!!

In the wake of Bradley Wiggins' cancellation on Friday says Team Sky coach Shane Sutton, Chris Froome is huge favorite. In fact sees Sutton not Contador as a real threat.

- Froome aim for the tour as a huge favorite and the only one who could have beaten him, is Bradley says Sutton in an interview with BBC Radio Five Live, where he also states that in every way it is an advantage for Froome, that Wiggins has canceled.

- Team Sky as such is weakened without Wiggins, but Froome will get much more air. It removes the pressure that your teammate can actually beat you, and Froome will really be focused on winning now, says Sutton.

It was probably the only thing he shouldn´t have said about Berto, but I´m glad he did

 

[Jelantik]

AAAAAAAAAnd the game is on!!

In the wake of Bradley Wiggins' cancellation on Friday says Team Sky coach Shane Sutton, Chris Froome is huge favorite. In fact sees Sutton not Contador as a real threat.

- Froome aim for the tour as a huge favorite and the only one who could have beaten him, is Bradley says Sutton in an interview with BBC Radio Five Live, where he also states that in every way it is an advantage for Froome, that Wiggins has canceled.

- Team Sky as such is weakened without Wiggins, but Froome will get much more air. It removes the pressure that your teammate can actually beat you, and Froome will really be focused on winning now, says Sutton.

It was probably the only thing he shouldn´t have said about Berto, but I´m glad he did

Sutton got to say that after he publicly supported Froome for TDF leader instead of his surrogate son. He needs to sugar coat back with that statement to avoid a more down spiral to Wiggins' fragile mental state. Wiggins said last year that he wasn't much on repeating or wining the same race. Well, I guess he got what he wished for. He won't be at TDF. Next time, don't say things like that, the universe usually complies with your request.

 

[gooner]

From Robert Millar's blog.

Now to add this scenario we have the return of Alberto Contador, the big danger but according to a team mate he isn't looking to be in the same all conquering form he once enjoyed. Tactics may well be deployed in the race for yellow. The thinking goes that Froome and Contador will be watching each other that closely that Richie Porte could sneak off up the road and gain enough advantage to withstand any attacks from either of the two named leaders.

So it's direct from a teammate.

I'm not one usually for speculating but as far as I know Smith and Millar are good friends with Stephen Roche. Wonder did it come out from Nicolas.

 

[Publicus]

From Robert Millar's blog.



So it's direct from a teammate.

I'm not one usually for speculating but as far as I know Smith and Millar are good friends with Stephen Roche. Wonder did it come out from Nicolas.

We'll see if there is any truth to this (we won't really know until late June) but it seems to me a case of sandbagging...

 

[Miburo]

We'll see if there is any truth to this (we won't really know until late June) but it seems to me a case of sandbagging...

The ITT of wednesday is gonna give us more intel. A TT never lies, in 2010 he had a bad ITT in the dauphine while in 2009 he had a pretty good one.

I'm still hoping for a good old rope a dope from Contador Making your teammates say that to other teams, not even LA did that

 

[gooner]

We'll see if there is any truth to this (we won't really know until late June) but it seems to me a case of sandbagging...

I don't see what sandbagging would achieve. Froome and Sky will still be preparing to face at Contador at his best and I don't think this would affect them one bit. I don't think this leak to Smith was intended to go public in the first place. Smith while knowledgeable is never normally so forward in displaying information out in the open and if this was to sandbag why then did he disclose everything on what he heard what was happening in the inner circle of Sky. The information that was leaked here wouldn't have wanted to be aired publicly by Sky one bit. That would want to be kept in-house. I see no reason it's not the same in the Contador claim now.

 

[Publicus]

The ITT of wednesday is gonna give us more intel. A TT never lies, in 2010 he had a bad ITT in the dauphine while in 2009 he had a pretty good one.

I'm still hoping for a good old rope a dope from Contador Making your teammates say that to other teams, not even LA did that

All true. I do wonder though if him not looking like a world beater at this point is more a factor of him following Riis' approach versus his own/usual program. Like I said, we'll have a better sense of that in June/July (though Wednesday will give an indication of where he is at the moment).

I don't see what sandbagging would achieve. Froome and Sky will still be preparing to face at Contador at his best and I don't think this would affect them one bit. I don't think this leak to Smith was intended to go public in the first place. Smith while knowledgeable is never normally so forward in displaying information out in the open and if this was to sandbag why then did he disclose everything on what he heard what was happening in the inner circle of Sky. The information that was leaked here wouldn't have wanted to be aired publicly by Sky one bit. That would want to be kept in-house. I see no reason it's not the same in the Contador claim now.

Create a false sense of security with Sky (that AC isn't someone to worry about), which is a stretch but it is the only thing that seems plausible at the moment. I cannot see why someone from the team would go public with something like this, especially if it is Roche for the reasons you speculated earlier, since it will obviously be traced back to him. He could find himself at home during June/July since his loyalties obviously lie elsewhere. That's why I don't see the incentive to go public with something like this. Obviously I can't know why a person does or says something, but I don't see any upside for the person sharing their opinion on something like this under these circumstances....

 

[LaFlorecita]

yea I agree I don't believe this was intended. I guess Alberto really is not in good form but that isn't a surpise.

 

[Miburo]

yea I agree I don't believe this was intended. I guess Alberto really is not in good form but that isn't a surpise since i voted for him.

Fixed that.

Even if the statement is true we don't know when that teammate said that.

Was it 2 months ago or 2 weeks ago that he said that?

2 months ago that statement isn't really special.

Besides only a race will show how strong someone is.

And even so there are still 4 weeks to le tour. No worries. This is the guy who won the giro with almost zero preparation.

 

[gooner]

Fixed that.

Even if the statement is true we don't know when that teammate said that.

Was it 2 months ago or 2 weeks ago that he said that?

2 months ago that statement isn't really special.

Besides only a race will show how strong someone is.

And even so there are still 4 weeks to le tour. No worries. This is the guy who won the giro with almost zero preparation.

It's more of a recent thing. Smith said yesterday in the commentary that he heard he was off form in training. He said he was "told" this when suggests it can't be in reference to his racing. Two months ago was Pais Vasco and we know his form was poor there and so Smith wouldn't be referring to this or even his later performances in F-W and LBL.

 

[Pulpstar]

Class is permanent, form temporary...

 

[Jelantik]

Create a false sense of security with Sky (that AC isn't someone to worry about), which is a stretch but it is the only thing that seems plausible at the moment. I cannot see why someone from the team would go public with something like this, especially if it is Roche for the reasons you speculated earlier, since it will obviously be traced back to him. He could find himself at home during June/July since his loyalties obviously lie elsewhere. That's why I don't see the incentive to go public with something like this. Obviously I can't know why a person does or says something, but I don't see any upside for the person sharing their opinion on something like this under these circumstances....

I agree. I think if AC is now not on his level yet in Dauphine (well judging from his interview alone), he did seem to follow what he has been in the past (as far as Dauphine's win). His interview about not looking for overall but merely finding out where his form is and insisting he is looking at the bigger picture, tour overall, it sounded more like he should be somewhere in his progress and we should expect a raise up. As far as where the info came from, hmm.. it can't be from one of his team mate. Like you said, that's not a place for a team mate to dish information about their leader. If it comes from their PR man, then it must got something to do with either telling the truth (which less likely) or to stir up psychological warfare. And I guess the ITT, we shall see where AC stacks with Froome.

I just hope he won't be like wiggins. Said that he was in good form, everything was on the right track (btw, that's what he usually said about his form in previous years, this year .. different tune), the number was good, but all year long he couldn't even muster a single win, and came giro he was off. I would rather AC were OK all year long, aren't there yet now, but comes july, he is flying

 

[xrayvision]

Truth is nobody knows anything other than the persons involved.
Some people here talk about his age, that things get much harder, and of course they do, but he´s not that old, and far from over the hill.

Both AC and Bjarne knows very well how to prepare up to a grand tour, AC lost quite some weight, no doubt about it, and the tour is still more than 3 weeks away, to make any assumptions about his form at this point, bad or good, will just be speculations. There are some tell signs, and if you ask me, he looks to be on the right track. As he said, the main goal is later, don´t expect an Berto lighting all the fireworks until then.

 

[Pippo_San]

And even so there are still 4 weeks to le tour. No worries. This is the guy who won the giro with almost zero preparation.

Trying to beat the Sky armada and the supersonic-Dawg without preparation is like taking a nice trip on the Titanic.

Can't do it on class alone, he needs to pump the wattage. Lol wattage

 

[xrayvision]

A nice little video from Berto
Aqui los dejo un pequeño video resumen de la @MarchaContador .Here i give to you a little video about @marchacontador.http://youtu.be/VGUXvWTWfYs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=VGUXvWTWfYs#!

 

[Miburo]

Trying to beat the Sky armada and the supersonic-Dawg without preparation is like taking a nice trip on the Titanic.

Can't do it on class alone, he needs to pump the wattage. Lol wattage

He did it against Ricco

 

[Zam_Olyas]

He did it against cera ricco

You really want to go down that route i.e. beating cera ricco? and Mods, this is a bait and i am reporting it.

 

[LaFlorecita]

You really want to go down that route i.e. beating cera ricco? and Mods, this is a bait and i am reporting it.

Zam you should not complain about baits

 

[Vino attacks everyone]

He did it against Ricco

Yea, but Froome got an insane team + a really strong tt. Ricco had to do everything in the mountains alone (Piepoli was kinda allright I guess)