Teams & Riders Alberto Contador Discussion Thread

[Carols]

I disagree, the Giro 2011 came after a strong calendar because CAS audience was in June and he rode from Algarve in February till the end of May without a break, later he went to the Tour but was of course out of his range and still he did magnificent performance. Add the stress and the mental fatigue because clembuterol case.

I expect from him a giro 2011 performance but I think he have something better under his sleeve with a perfect season plan. And 2013 should be the answer. Probably raw material to the Clinic

I Hope you are Correct!!!! That would be a thing of beauty to behold

 

[LaFlorecita]

Actually I'm hoping he isn't over training.....plus he will need some race miles in his legs. Even if he is below par he should still win the Vuelta...but you probably won't see the 2011 Giro AC until 2013.

I am very worried he is overtraining.. he doesn't seem to spare himself one bit. I hope he knows his body well enough to know when to stop.

I think Giro 2011 form is enough to win the Tour by 2-3 minutes, he can probably win la Vuelta by about that much time, as there won't be really strong opposition.

 

[Fidolix]

I agree. But I don't think he could've ridden away.

Flo you are losing faith again, what is wrong with you girl?
I missed him so much today, its getting boring watching the UK postal tju tju train, this is turning out to be a boring tour once again.

AC would have crashed them today on this climb.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Flo you are losing faith again, what is wrong with you girl?
I missed him so much today, its getting boring watching the UK postal tju tju train, this is turning out to be a boring tour once again.

AC would have crashed them today on this climb.

Look I prefer to stay realistic, if I expect him to be that good I can only end up disappointed. Besides he is only human, you can't expect superhuman performances.

 

[LaFlorecita]

I disagree, the Giro 2011 came after a strong calendar because CAS audience was in June and he rode from Algarve in February till the end of May without a break, later he went to the Tour but was of course out of his range and still he did magnificent performance. Add the stress and the mental fatigue because clembuterol case.

I expect from him a giro 2011 performance but I think he have something better under his sleeve with a perfect season plan. And 2013 should be the answer. Probably raw material to the Clinic

That would be very nice, I'd love that.

 

[Contadoraus Schlecks]

"The second half of the event starts with the only individual time trial of the 67th Vuelta. The starting ramp will be set up in the town of Cambados, the home of Albariño wine, which will thus take its place in the history of this cycling competition.
The forty-kilometre time trial includes a third-category climb at Alto Monte Castrove, before finishing in Pontevedra. The three best times in the climb will count towards the mountain classification. It is a very technical stage, especially in the descent, which is fast with a lot of bends."

Description of the itt in the vuelta. Florecita - does this alleviate your concerns about Andy beating Alberto? If it rains then the gap will be even greater

 

[Carols]

"The second half of the event starts with the only individual time trial of the 67th Vuelta. The starting ramp will be set up in the town of Cambados, the home of Albariño wine, which will thus take its place in the history of this cycling competition.
The forty-kilometre time trial includes a third-category climb at Alto Monte Castrove, before finishing in Pontevedra. The three best times in the climb will count towards the mountain classification. It is a very technical stage, especially in the descent, which is fast with a lot of bends."

Description of the itt in the vuelta. Florecita - does this alleviate your concerns about Andy beating Alberto? If it rains then the gap will be even greater

Andy won't even finish never mind win LOL!

 

[LaFlorecita]

"The second half of the event starts with the only individual time trial of the 67th Vuelta. The starting ramp will be set up in the town of Cambados, the home of Albariño wine, which will thus take its place in the history of this cycling competition.
The forty-kilometre time trial includes a third-category climb at Alto Monte Castrove, before finishing in Pontevedra. The three best times in the climb will count towards the mountain classification. It is a very technical stage, especially in the descent, which is fast with a lot of bends."

Description of the itt in the vuelta. Florecita - does this alleviate your concerns about Andy beating Alberto? If it rains then the gap will be even greater

Poor Andy.

 

[Publicus]

Actually I'm hoping he isn't over training.....plus he will need some race miles in his legs. Even if he is below par he should still win the Vuelta...but you probably won't see the 2011 Giro AC until 2013.

If I remember correctly he's been training as if he wasn't banned--forcing himself time off to recover after hitting his peak. I would have preferred a different race than the Eneco Tour, but I think it is actually perfect--no climbing (so he won't be tempted to go deep or won't have the pressure), has a TTT (team can work out tactics) and an ITT (he can get some quality TT kms in prior to Vuelta), and he'll end up with a 1,000KM in his legs prior to the Vuelta with a little rest between the end of Eneco and the start of the Vuelta (5 days).

I think if he had been banned for more than 6 months, there would be a greater risk of overtraining, but I think this may work out for him (assuming no crashes or injuries at a Eneco).

 

[LaFlorecita]

If I remember correctly he's been training as if he wasn't banned--forcing himself time off to recover after hitting his peak. I would have preferred a different race than the Eneco Tour, but I think it is actually perfect--no climbing (so he won't be tempted to go deep or won't have the pressure), has a TTT (team can work out tactics) and an ITT (he can get some quality TT kms in prior to Vuelta), and he'll end up with a 1,000KM in his legs prior to the Vuelta with a little rest between the end of Eneco and the start of the Vuelta (5 days).

I think if he had been banned for more than 6 months, there would be a greater risk of overtraining, but I think this may work out for him (assuming no crashes or injuries at a Eneco).

IIRC he also wants to ride San Sebastian.

 

[Normandy]

IIRC he also wants to ride San Sebastian.

Never ever thought I would say this, but the Tdf is missing Contador.......... and Andy! I even miss them staring into each others eyes and chaingate brings back good memories.

Their individual efforts in the mountains from last year is what this tour needs. This tour is just a war of attritition by two teams of heavies for GC. Only Sagan has brought any individual flair to the proceeedings.

 

[marioni]

I am very worried he is overtraining.. he doesn't seem to spare himself one bit. I hope he knows his body well enough to know when to stop.

I think Giro 2011 form is enough to win the Tour by 2-3 minutes, he can probably win la Vuelta by about that much time, as there won't be really strong opposition.

I think there will be strong opposition, it's just that Contador is better and he makes it look easy. Oh this Tour climb yesterday reminded me, again, of how badly we need Alberto back.

 

[auscyclefan94]

Never ever thought I would say this, but the Tdf is missing Contador.......... and Andy! I even miss them staring into each others eyes and chaingate brings back good memories.

Their individual efforts in the mountains from last year is what this tour needs. This tour is just a war of attritition by two teams of heavies for GC. Only Sagan has brought any individual flair to the proceeedings.

So does the Tour want a closed in event where the winner is decided by the 1st week or the winner to be decided over 3 weeks of racing? This tour has been entertaining and there are lots of entertaining stages to come.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Never ever thought I would say this, but the Tdf is missing Contador.......... and Andy! I even miss them staring into each others eyes and chaingate brings back good memories.

Their individual efforts in the mountains from last year is what this tour needs. This tour is just a war of attritition by two teams of heavies for GC. Only Sagan has brought any individual flair to the proceeedings.

I COMPLETELY agree.

 

[LaFlorecita]

I think there will be strong opposition, it's just that Contador is better and he makes it look easy. Oh this Tour climb yesterday reminded me, again, of how badly we need Alberto back.

Meh his opponents will certainly be less strong than in le Tour.

It isn't even certain that he would've ridden away but him trying would have been exciting to watch at the very least.

 

[King Of The Wolds]

Never ever thought I would say this, but the Tdf is missing Contador.......... and Andy! I even miss them staring into each others eyes and chaingate brings back good memories.

Their individual efforts in the mountains from last year is what this tour needs. This tour is just a war of attritition by two teams of heavies for GC. Only Sagan has brought any individual flair to the proceeedings.

It took 18 stages for Andy to do anything other than follow wheels last year and 16 for Bertie, desperate by that stage, to do likewise. Of course, with your rose tinted specs, they'd have livened up the 6 flat stages so far and left UK Postal for dead half way up La Planche des Belles Filles.

 

[LaFlorecita]

So does the Tour want a closed in event where the winner is decided by the 1st week or the winner to be decided over 3 weeks of racing? This tour has been entertaining and there are lots of entertaining stages to come.

Haha of course the Tour wants the latter, but the Tour has got nothing to say about it. And you saying the Tour has been entertaining = hilarious! Yeah I guess it's been entertaining for you because your boy hasn't been caught behind a crash and hasn't lost a bucket load of time already. For me the only entertaining thing has been Sagan, god I love that kid.

And besides, who says that with Alberto the Tour would've been decided by the first week? It wasn't the case in 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2011! And Alberto would've been involved in one crash or another anyhow, so he would've lost time too. Plus there is only one slightly decent mtf in the first week so how Alberto should've decided it there, especially with the minutes he would've lost because of a crash... It's a mystery to me.

But you just hate Alberto and you try to redeem it with arguments that don't even make sense.

And to your original question, yes the Tour wants the latter, but seriously if the first is the price of entertaining, exciting, attractive racing then YES PLEASE!

 

[LaFlorecita]

It took 18 stages for Andy to do anything other than follow wheels last year and 16 for Bertie, desperate by that stage, to do likewise. Of course, with your rose tinted specs, they'd have livened up the 6 flat stages so far and left UK Postal for dead half way up La Planche des Belles Filles.

Yeah and of course Alberto wasn't struggling up Luz Ardiden and Plateau de Beilles. Stage 16 simpy was the first stage Alberto was able to do anything, but of course, as a hater, you don't know or refuse to acknowledge that.

 

[King Of The Wolds]

Yeah and of course Alberto wasn't struggling up Luz Ardiden and Plateau de Beilles. Stage 16 simpy was the first stage Alberto was able to do anything, but of course, as a hater, you don't know or refuse to acknowledge that.

As a hater of whom? I, like everybody else, have been in awe of the man on occasions. Just pointing out that we're just 1 mountain stage into the Tour and people have very short memories of how early TdF mountain stages are usually ridden by the GC men - with or without Bertie and Andy. Both would have followed Sky wheels yesterday and Bertie may have been good enough to take a couple of seconds at the top.

 

[LaFlorecita]

As a hater of whom? I, like everybody else, have been in awe of the man on occasions. Just pointing out that we're just 1 mountain stage into the Tour and people have very short memories of how early TdF mountain stages are usually ridden by the GC men - with or without Bertie and Andy. Both would have followed Sky wheels yesterday and Bertie may have been good enough to take a couple of seconds at the top.

Alberto would've ridden away or at least tried, without a single doubt.

 

[auscyclefan94]

Haha of course the Tour wants the latter, but the Tour has got nothing to say about it. And you saying the Tour has been entertaining = hilarious! Yeah I guess it's been entertaining for you because your boy hasn't been caught behind a crash and hasn't lost a bucket load of time already. For me the only entertaining thing has been Sagan, god I love that kid.

And besides, who says that with Alberto the Tour would've been decided by the first week? It wasn't the case in 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2011! And Alberto would've been involved in one crash or another anyhow, so he would've lost time too. Plus there is only one slightly decent mtf in the first week so how Alberto should've decided it there, especially with the minutes he would've lost because of a crash... It's a mystery to me.

But you just hate Alberto and you try to redeem it with arguments that don't even make sense.

And to your original question, yes the Tour wants the latter, but seriously if the first is the price of entertaining, exciting, attractive racing then YES PLEASE!

Alberto didn't win 2010 or 2011 and that was the case in 2009 Tour and 2011 Giro even though he didn't officially win that race. Also, please don't chuck in the 'you hate alberto' arguments. It is really quite childish. Everyone knows you are a blind fangirl.

The tour has had some entertaining stages, but with Alberto at the Tour, it would have been a lot less exciting/entertaining.

 

[Don't be late Pedro]

It isn't even certain that he would've ridden away but him trying would have been exciting to watch at the very least.

Alberto would've ridden away or at least tried, without a single doubt.

Am I missing something here..? Also, just because someone disagrees with you why do you brand them a hater?

 

[LaFlorecita]

Am I missing something here..? Also, just because someone disagrees with you why do you brand them a hater?

I don't know if you're missing something.

I seem to recall the guy is a hater. I could be wrong though.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Alberto didn't win 2010 or 2011 and that was the case in 2009 Tour and 2011 Giro even though he didn't officially win that race. Also, please don't chuck in the 'you hate alberto' arguments. It is really quite childish. Everyone knows you are a blind fangirl.

The tour has had some entertaining stages, but with Alberto at the Tour, it would have been a lot less exciting/entertaining.

Oh yeah how stupid of me he wasn't even there! Come on we all know he raced those races. In 2009 he lost what, 40 seconds because of a split in the peloton. Hence he didn't decide it in Arcalis. And as I said before Giro is different, the opposition is less strong. And why disregard the 2010 Tour and not the 2011 Giro. Oh I know, because the 2010 Tour makes your argument weak. He raced and won the 2010 Tour. He decided it in the last TT. Later the win was taken away.

To YOU it would've been less exciting. Seeing the replies in this thread, in other threads and on twitter, there are A LOT of people that miss Alberto. Do you want some quotes from all over the internet?

 

[Froome19]

Alberto makes the racing in the mountains more exicting certainly with his attacking style and his ability to put everyone on the brink instantly, but in terms of the dynamics of the Tour with the GC being over and lots more riders being capable of getting high places it is certainly more exciting without Alberto.