Teams & Riders Alberto Contador Discussion Thread

[Cimber]

That's at the end of 2012 and this year after his come back. In 2011 he was just as strong TT'ing as 2009 - he podiumed on a flat TT at the giro. We haven't seen an on form contador since his come-back, so naturally his TT'ing isn't as good either. His TT'ng hasn't declined, his whole form isn't anywhere near his best (he claims he was under 80% the whole year) as of this stage in time. If it has permanently declined or if this year was just an outlier, we won't know until after the tour or even until next year.

Yes TT-performance is often a good indicator of form. And we know what he is capable of on a TT when in top shape. So the "bad" or inconsistent TT results could very well be interpreted as lack of form, which actually fits nicely with his argument that he was only at 75% in Dauphiné.

The big question is not wether or not he is able to perform slendid when in top shape. The question is wether or not he will fint that shape in time.

 

[nick101]

Yes TT-performance is often a good indicator of form. And we know what he is capable of on a TT when in top shape. So the "bad" or inconsistent TT results could very well be interpreted as lack of form, which actually fits nicely with his argument that he was only at 75% in Dauphiné.

The big question is not wether or not he is able to perform slendid when in top shape. The question is wether or not he will fint that shape in time.

Yes i question whether he will find the form in time or even at all. He's leaving things too late as he should've been ~90% and not 75% (according to what he says anyway) at the Dauphine. I have no question mark over whether he has the ability to beat Froome - he proved that to me through his 2009 Tour and 2011 Giro wins. For me it's whether he can reach that form for the Tour (or even ever again) that determines if he can beat Froome in any future races from this point onwards.

 

[Cimber]

Yes i question whether he will find the form in time or even at all. He's leaving things too late as he should've been ~90% and not 75% (according to what he says anyway) at the Dauphine. I have no question mark over whether he has the ability to beat Froome - he proved that to me through his 2009 Tour and 2011 Giro wins. For me it's whether he can reach that form for the Tour (or even ever again) that determines if he can beat Froome in any future races.

Agree. The potential is there but only time will tell if he can ever get back to that level again.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Alberto Contador ‏@albertocontador 10h
Organizando todo para el Tour,mirar a mi ayudante...Organizing everything for the Tour,have a look to my assistant...

 

[nick101]

Alberto Contador ‏@albertocontador 10h
Organizando todo para el Tour,mirar a mi ayudante...Organizing everything for the Tour,have a look to my assistant...

Wow that's a lot of team kit . Must be less than 1 every 2 stages

 

[Parrulo]

Well Contador will be one of the most, if not the most, focused rider during the tour, so his kit has to be flawless everyday for his sponsors.

Also that pile has all type of gear for all type of weather, from rain and cold to extremely hot so its a pretty normal pile of gear imo.

Oh and isn't Tour playing with some sort of teddy bear?

 

[Cimber]

Well Contador will be one of the most, if not the most, focused rider during the tour, so his kit has to be flawless everyday for his sponsors.

Also that pile has all type of gear for all type of weather, from rain and cold to extremely hot so its a pretty normal pile of gear imo.

Oh and isn't Tour playing with some sort of teddy bear?

Maybe it will play with a bunch of yellow lion teddies in a few weeks

 

[LaFlorecita]

Well Contador will be one of the most, if not the most, focused rider during the tour, so his kit has to be flawless everyday for his sponsors.

Also that pile has all type of gear for all type of weather, from rain and cold to extremely hot so its a pretty normal pile of gear imo.

Oh and isn't Tour playing with some sort of teddy bear?

I agree it's not like it's all jerseys and yes that is a teddy bear

 

[LaFlorecita]

Maybe it will play with a bunch of yellow lion teddies in a few weeks

Haha let's hope so

 

[Carols]

There is also a very interesting Contador interview with him in The Independent from yesterday:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/p...l-chris-froome-on-tour-de-france-8673812.html

Some quotes from it:

"Cycling is not all about mathematics," he says. "You have to see what your rivals are doing. Fortunately, we're not machines and circumstances inside a race can change so fast. This sport isn't one that you can control as easily as others. This Tour, in particular, could continue to be wide-open right up until the final mountain top finish at Annecy on the second last day."[/I]

Very interesting article and yes the man will never lay down arms and cycling isn't all about numbers in the end, it's about desire and passion and guts

I found this especially interesting:

The Saxo-Tinkoff leader says he's not too worried. "I would split my season into two parts," Contador says, "in the first part, aiming for my first peak of form, things didn't really work out as I wanted, although it's also true that I planned things out differently to other years, and with a much stronger team I was no longer under such pressure to win.

So he tried a different way to achieve his first peak; it didn't work. We can only hope the second peak attempt works well. If so this could be a grand, well fought nail biting battle

 

[Cimber]

Navarro: Contador has become weaker but will still put up a great fight. (Navarro himself aims for a top 10 in the Tour)

http://sporten.tv2.dk/tour/2013-06-26-den-utro-væbner-contador-er-blevet-svagere

 

[Zam_Olyas]

hows it going in saxo forum? i used to visit there in the years of the great basso

 

[LaFlorecita]

Navarro: Contador has become weaker but will still put up a great fight. (Navarro himself aims for a top 10 in the Tour)

http://sporten.tv2.dk/tour/2013-06-26-den-utro-væbner-contador-er-blevet-svagere

how does he know

 

[gooner]

how does he know

He was very impressive at the Dauphine even attacking Contador when he was working for Rogers at the front. He could do with him here. I was surprised by his form.

 

[LaFlorecita]

He was very impressive at the Dauphine even attacking Contador when he was working for Rogers at the front. He could do with him here. I was surprised by his form.

No I mean how does he know Alberto is weaker.

 

[movingtarget]

Alberto Contador ‏@albertocontador 10h
Organizando todo para el Tour,mirar a mi ayudante...Organizing everything for the Tour,have a look to my assistant...

That might be the Froome dawg in disguise. Saxo needs to beef up it's security.

 

[movingtarget]

No I mean how does he know Alberto is weaker.

By riding against him of course.

 

[nick101]

No I mean how does he know Alberto is weaker.

He doesn't, he thinks he does because they were on the same team for a few season, but that doesn't count for much. Only Alberto's form is weaker (i.e. he was only ~75% according to himself), not his possible abilities i.e. producing another verbier or etna

 

[Cimber]

Just found this among the CN 100th Tour gallery. Gotta love Armstrongs face and look on that picture

 

[LaFlorecita]

He doesn't, he thinks he does because they were on the same team for a few season, but that doesn't count for much. Only Alberto's form is weaker (i.e. he was only ~75% according to himself), not his possible abilities i.e. producing another verbier or etna

yes that's my point

 

[gooner]

No I mean how does he know Alberto is weaker.

Oh I know. Just saying his form was impressive at the Dauphine where I didn't expect him to be anywhere near as good as he was.

Reading today Hernandez said here he was been looking good in training. I go more on what he says than anything Navarro said.

 

[xrayvision]

Interview with Kreuziger today, I must say. they sounds very determined and well prepared for this. The more I hear, the more I think AC been sand bagging and playing the underdog. The last 2 days he sounded nothing like it.

Team Saxo-Tinkoff's 27 year-old Roman Kreuziger made an early statement that he was a rider for the future when he won the junior World Championships in 2004. Since then, the Czech all-rounder has won Tour de Suisse in 2008 and Tour de Romandie in 2009. Two times, he has been in the Tour de France top-10 and in 2011, he finished fifth in the Giro d'Italia. Wearing the Team Saxo-Tinkoff jersey, he launched away in the finale of this year's Amstel Gold Race and soloed his way to a perfect win in the Dutch one-day classic. Confirming his form finishing third overall in this year's Tour de Suisse, Roman is looking sharp and ready for this year's Tour de France, which will be his 5th:

“ Every Tour de France is different and every time, I'm really excited to take part in the race. However, this year is a little bit different for me. In my opinion, we have the best Grand Tour rider in the world and I'm so ready to support Alberto. My most important support will be executed in the mountains but I assume I can do some good in the team time trial as well,” says Roman and continues:

“We have a very strong team but we're up against a longer list of rivals.
Everyone's talking about Froome, Valverde and Rodriguez. But if you look the start list there are many other very strong competitors such as Jakob Fuglsang, Cadel Evans, Tejay van Garderen and Richie Porte.”

Being a strong enough rider to aim for a good position in the GC himself, Roman is unselfishly looking forward to filling out the role as a supportive climber to support Alberto Contador in the high mountains:

“The objective is perfectly clear. We want win the Tour with Alberto. That´s the goal for our team. We have three long and very hard weeks ahead of us. My own personal ambition is no other than the team's ambition. Every one of us in the team are motived and focused to give our very best in the 100th Tour de France.”

 

[Carstenbf]

Well, we can all take comfort in the knowledge that the time for speculation is about to pass.

3 more days!!

 

[Cimber]

Well, we can all take comfort in the knowledge that the time for speculation is about to pass.

3 more days!!

Oh dont fool yourself. The speculations will keep on growing until the first MTF

 

[nick101]

Oh dont fool yourself. The speculations will keep on growing until the first MTF

I think they will continue possibly until the final week at ventoux/alpe d'huez. I can't see Ax-3 as being difficult enough to create massive time gaps and i'm not sure about the stage into Bagnerres de Bigorre being extremely decisive either with sky's tactics likely to cause a monotonous tempo.