Teams & Riders Alberto Contador Discussion Thread

[Afrank]

I missed the stage, anyone want to give me some insight into the details of Contador's attack? I.E. where it was, how long it lasted, how the others reacted, etc. Thanks.

 

[Publicus]

Todays showed Porte & Nieve both look to be in great shape and to be frank I don't think he needs a decisive lead as he's a better time trialist and looks be gaining a second a kilometer on Contador.

Given that the ITT is the penultimate stage, I don't know if you can draw any conclusions yet. To me the final ITT is all about who is best able to recover and judging by last year, Froome seems to be strongest in the first two weeks. We'll see if he's dialed that in better this year.

 

[Poursuivant]

Missed the stage.

If Froome lost all his teammates (not impossible, remember the stage after AX 3 last year) while Contador was up the road, would he have brought it back? If not, how much time would he lose?

 

[sultanofhyd]

Missed the stage.

If Froome lost all his teammates (not impossible, remember the stage after AX 3 last year) while Contador was up the road, would he have brought it back? If not, how much time would he lose?

Imagine Fuente De, with Froome being a better version of Purito

 

[Vino attacks everyone]

Imagine Fuente De, with Froome being a better version of Purito

meh. Froome would be a stronger version of Valverde and catch AC within the last 1 km and take 10 seconds on him

 

[Publicus]

Missed the stage.

If Froome lost all his teammates (not impossible, remember the stage after AX 3 last year) while Contador was up the road, would he have brought it back? If not, how much time would he lose?

I don't think Contador ever had that large of a gap. I think the GPS was off when it showed him with almost a minute gap. That or Porte is a much better climber than Contador at the moment.

 

[Eclipse]

I missed the stage, anyone want to give me some insight into the details of Contador's attack? I.E. where it was, how long it lasted, how the others reacted, etc. Thanks.

This is from memory so apologies for inaccuracies.

He attacked on the descent of Col de la Morte, maybe around 35k to go or so, having sent riders up the road a little while earlier (only Paulinho confirmed visually though). Got caught after Cote de Laffrey along with some stragglers from the days break, probably with a bit less than 20k to go.

It's hard to know what gap he made exactly because the GPS seemed to be very misleading when it reported upwards of a minute. I would suspect that was confusion with the lead parts of the breakaway (that Spilak had recently attacked out of) and that Alberto never got more than 30 seconds.

Sky didn't chase him hard down the descent, but they broke out Porte on the climb and he pretty much drove the remnants of the bunch up on his own and closed down the lead. You could see it took quite a toll out of Sky though as many riders kept trying to attack away over the final 10-15k, and I would imagine Alberto is content to have had an opportunity to evaluate what kind of shape the Sky train is in.

 

[Afrank]

This is from memory so apologies for inaccuracies.

He attacked on the descent of Col de la Morte, maybe around 35k to go or so, having sent riders up the road a little while earlier (only Paulinho confirmed visually though). Got caught after Cote de Laffrey along with some stragglers from the days break, probably with a bit less than 20k to go.

It's hard to know what gap he made exactly because the GPS seemed to be very misleading when it reported upwards of a minute. I would suspect that was confusion with the lead parts of the breakaway (that Spilak had recently attacked out of) and that Alberto never got more than 30 seconds.

Sky didn't chase him hard down the descent, but they broke out Porte on the climb and he pretty much drove the remnants of the bunch up on his own and closed down the lead. You could see it took quite a toll out of Sky though as many riders kept trying to attack away over the final 10-15k.

Thanks.

A good sign by Contador, he may need to use such long range attacks in the Tour.

 

[Miburo]

Although Froome implied that Contador isn't that good with his comment after the stage, i strongle disagree.

Contador has used in the past strange stages to attack and not cause he felt insecure about his form.

Giro 2011, Paris-nice 2009 and tour 2009 (arcalis, not that strange but still). Arguably these were here his best performances so i take it as a good sign. This was btw in the dauphine, this is the first time Contador has done something like that in this race.

Contador's attack (if you can call it attacks) in last year tour were way different than his attack today. Today it was more ballzy, and that's how he used to ride, makes me happy.

I believe that he's back in his giro 2011 shape. But if that's enough to win the tour is very questionable.

 

[mr. tibbs]

Although Froome implied that Contador isn't that good with his comment after the stage, i strongle disagree.

[...]

I chuckled at Froome's comment. It's starting to seem like this guy loves going through the press to play mind games in order to cow his opponents. (Wiggins, for example.) Unfortunately for Froome, 2009 showed us how well that works against Contador.

 

[murali]

This is from memory so apologies for inaccuracies.

He attacked on the descent of Col de la Morte, maybe around 35k to go or so, having sent riders up the road a little while earlier (only Paulinho confirmed visually though). Got caught after Cote de Laffrey along with some stragglers from the days break, probably with a bit less than 20k to go.

It's hard to know what gap he made exactly because the GPS seemed to be very misleading when it reported upwards of a minute. I would suspect that was confusion with the lead parts of the breakaway (that Spilak had recently attacked out of) and that Alberto never got more than 30 seconds.

Sky didn't chase him hard down the descent, but they broke out Porte on the climb and he pretty much drove the remnants of the bunch up on his own and closed down the lead. You could see it took quite a toll out of Sky though as many riders kept trying to attack away over the final 10-15k, and I would imagine Alberto is content to have had an opportunity to evaluate what kind of shape the Sky train is in.

thanks.

waiting for stage highlights video

 

[Netserk]

thanks.

waiting for stage highlights video

Last 30km of today's stage

Last 7.2km of today's stage in better quality

 

[TANK91]

Did Contador look good today? Some say the time gaps could not have been right or something, and said he did not drop Vichot. Im shocked he would attack today? What would be sense init He is not far from 1st so surely save himself for weekend where it will favour him more.


Ideal thanks Netserk ill watch that now.

 

[Publicus]

Did Contador look good today? Some say the time gaps could not have been right or something, and said he did not drop Vichot. Im shocked he would attack today? What would be sense init He is not far from 1st so surely save himself for weekend where it will favour him more.


Ideal thanks Netserk ill watch that now.

He looked great actually. I got the sense the time gaps were way off because at one point that had him with the chasing group being Spilak(sp), but looking at the results of the final categorized climb, he wasn't in the top 6. I think he may have had 30"-40" on the descent at most.

As far as the overall is concerned, he reiterated that he's not here competing for the win, but for training. He said he had a teammate up front and things were going slow, so he had a go. That's it.

“We are here to train so we can try to put the other teams under pressure, especially Sky, and change the script a bit," Contador said. "In this race I can afford it as I don't have the pressure to win.

"Itwas not planned at all. I saw we were going very slowly and had a teammate in front. I quickly saw that I opened a gap and decided to go forward.

"[I knew] it was very difficult. There were 20 flat kilometres and I would only have had a chance if I had reached the front of the race. I could see that the escapees were far away and didn't catch them so it was impossible to make it to the finish.

“I had fun, the stage has been interesting and that is good for everyone. We started the descent in front, we have seen that many precautions were taken and we were not going fast. That's why I told Sergio Paulinho to go forward and I also decided to go.

"I did not see [any kind of weakness from Sky or Froome]. I only saw that it was a tough day for everyone, also for Sky who controlled the race so I decided to give it ago. When there are attacks, it is also more interesting.

"Now it is important to recover for the weekend. I have said that I take it day by day. My goal is 22 days away. Here I will do what I can but I recognize that Froome was the strongest in the two important stages, the time trial and the summit finish, so a lot has to change for the weekend."

 

[SeriousSam]

the dawg must be going berserk right now at the impunity of contador's attack. on saturday he'll take two deeps puffs from his inhalator and produce a monster effort to drop everyone with a 40s seated 1000 RPM sprint at the maximum gradient

 

[christopherrowe]

Did Contador look good today? Some say the time gaps could not have been right or something, and said he did not drop Vichot. Im shocked he would attack today? What would be sense init He is not far from 1st so surely save himself for weekend where it will favour him more.

Well, who knows how to interpret what Contador says to the media, but it almost sounds like he just got bored with the relatively slow pace in the peloton. He says it definitely wasn't a planned move, and even that it was fun. Most telling is this: "In this race I can afford it as I don't have the pressure to win."

I source those quotes from this article.

Edit: Ah, Publicus beat me to it while I was tabbing back and forth and doing my grammar and spelling check.

 

[TANK91]

Im watching it now, he basically attacked on instinct then which is good for him. I am just shocked he did attacked, it seemed doomed to fail. But you don't win without trying. Is their any hilly/medium Mountain stages in last week(in the TDF)?.

If their is it want suprise me if that would be Froome undet threat i feel that is where Froome could lose the TDF. i also hope he goes awol in first week as Froome's revovery is weak imo?. Purito backed up better and he is older, Froome struggles in 3rd week of a GT imo.

 

[TANK91]

I guess Contador likes looking down on his computer lol. Im 11 minutes into what Netserk uploaded and he is doing a Froome.

 

[jens_attacks]

vaya bestia _O_

strongest alberto ever....july 2014.

 

[LaFlorecita]

I guess Contador likes looking down on his computer lol. Im 11 minutes into what Netserk uploaded and he is doing a Froome.

Contador's SRM doesn't show his watts. So perhaps he's looking at his speed or heart rate.

 

[LaFlorecita]

vaya bestia _O_

strongest alberto ever....july 2014.

Jens what is your prediction for the time up Hautacam? Will Bjarne's record be shattered?

 

[thehook]

Well if Alberto is using this race for training/form building. Which I believe he is. Due to his almost 2 months without racing. He might just have attacked on instinct. And to put a hard workout in. He also gets a little kicker messing with SKY by doing it.

I will watch the stage replay later here in the USA. I have to admit I'm a big fan. Dude looks like a Beast on the bike this season!

Really looking forward to Saturdays stage. Think it is a great "Tour" type stage.

 

[jens_attacks]

Jens what is your prediction for the time up Hautacam? Will Bjarne's record be shattered?

not even close. not even if they do the tourmalet at cyclotourist speed.
best is to compare times with lance armstrong 2000 and piepoli-juanjo cobo 2008.'94 and '96 were flat stages with mtf.

alberto today didn't go full gas and still he almost destroyed on his own the whole sky team and then he smiled for the camera. he knows that he has what it takes to win the tour in front of froomey.

 

[SeriousSam]

not even close. not even if they do the tourmalet at cyclotourist speed.

why? was mr 60% that ****ing quick?

ah, ok, stage not flat enough

 

[Jelantik]

Dang. I missed today's stage. I thought it was another snoozerville fest so I opted to catch up later.

Just read Froome's comment about whether or not contador isn't confident then, read contador's comment that sounded like he was bored with slow pace and decided to have fun.. LOL I don't know which one is playing mind games? But nonetheless, it definitely makes weekend exciting. Whose comment rings true? We shall see...

Haven't watched the replay yet, there's only 7km highlight, i thought Contador attacked was a bit far. So still waiting for the on-demand full race highlights.

Btw, how come no one claimed the green jersey from Contador?? I wanted to see him on his yellow TS jersey on the weekend. I kept confuse him with Cannondale guys.