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Teams & Riders Alberto Contador Discussion Thread

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maxmartin

maxmartin

May 19, 2011
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Publicus said:
I dont think the have to quite frankly. The upcoming mountain stages will be about attrition--the slopes themselves will sort lots of players out (tomorrow and Monday's stages look brutal). One thing im curious about is Nibali's ability to recover. He and Astana have worked really hard the last week(especially on stage 5)--that has to have cost them a great deal of energy. And reports are thst Fuglsang was suffering from a bug. I hope for their sake it is an isolated bug or it could get ugly for them.
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Horner said in the first mountain stage, everyone climbs well, it the next few days count. He also said he was pushing 400w to win the vuelta, but today he was pushing 400w to get dropped. lol

http://www.nbcsports.com/cycling/tour-de-france/rain-makes-things-tougher-tour
 
mrhender

mrhender

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maxmartin said:
that is a good point, I think Lemond is more worried Saxo can't keep riding this, but who knows? maybe a new sky train is born.
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They will not keep riding like this..
As "funny" as it may seem todays effort was of defensive nature..

They are cleaning out the the GC msking sure of no unpleasant surprises..
Furthermore they where siganling that they will be there when the going gets tough..
No way they can/will keep dooing this..
It's about eliminating potentially ugly surprises and putting the hammer down to scare the others from beeing overambitious...
 
Jelantik

Jelantik

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maxmartin said:
In the race, AC did ask VN to get to front to put more time into RP.
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true true. So I'm not going to say other wise. But, I'm still sceptical that Nibali can follow contador when the the proper mountain comes. So I will hold my comment over Nibali for now :)

On the other hand, Contador didn't go full gas today. Some poster here asking about why he won't make more than 3. He said, the mountain today didn't suit his style and maybe he kept his powder for monday to get a bigger gap.
 
maxmartin

maxmartin

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Jelantik said:
true true. So I'm not going to say other wise. But, I'm still sceptical that Nibali can follow contador when the the proper mountain comes. So I will hold my comment over Nibali for now :)

On the other hand, Contador didn't go full gas today. Some poster here asking about why he won't make more than 3. He said, the mountain today didn't suit his style and maybe he kept his powder for monday to get a bigger gap.
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some one think different

Vinokourov - The Tour could be over after Planche des Belles Filles

“After this first week, I think that many riders have heavy legs, but Vincenzo is ready. He looks comfortable. He follows the favourites easily. The team is ready and motivated for the mountain,” he said.

http://www.letour.com/le-tour/2014/...-be-over-after-planche-des-belles-filles.html
 
LaFlorecita

LaFlorecita

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Jelantik

Jelantik

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I think TS has to ride like this. They can't wait until the proper mountains. 2:37 is a lot to claw back. The way they ride is basically getting ride of the over ambitous rider out of the way and put them in the place where they belong :D Now it's easier to see who's the real contender that contador must leapfrog for real. Considering Contador is going upward trajectory while some GC contender going downward, I guess it's considered a good day. I don't mind Contador chipping it here and there. It's good to see where everyone is and where he is compare to everyone.

Who knows, maybe TS boys are all going to be disappeared comes monday. But it's better making everyone tired before Monday, considering Contador greatest assest is his recovery.
 
Jelantik

Jelantik

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maxmartin said:
some one think different

Vinokourov - The Tour could be over after Planche des Belles Filles

“After this first week, I think that many riders have heavy legs, but Vincenzo is ready. He looks comfortable. He follows the favourites easily. The team is ready and motivated for the mountain,” he said.

http://www.letour.com/le-tour/2014/...-be-over-after-planche-des-belles-filles.html
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LOL..:D of course vino will say that. I guess we are all just have to wait and see how the next two days will pan out. :)
 
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Justico

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It may seem as blasphemy but at this point i think Contador needs to drop Porte decisively ;) Some italian press was saying Nibali cracked today, at the finish. Riis doubt's Nibali's podium chances , etc

I think he will make up the time to Nibali. The only other contender seems Porte.

I think his fans have all the reasons to be optimistic.
 
Cimber

Cimber

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Justico said:
It may seem as blasphemy but at this point i think Contador needs to drop Porte decisively ;) Some italian press was saying Nibali cracked today, at the finish. Riis doubt's Nibali's podium chances , etc

I think he will make up the time to Nibali. The only other contender seems Porte.

I think his fans have all the reasons to be optimistic.
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Porte might do podium, but he wont win. No way he will be able to hold on to Bertie's wheel and today was just a small appetizer. But yes AC needs a few minutes on Porte, but that should be doable. But I could very well see Porte finishing 3rd, unless he has that one day of total meltdown which he usually has in 3 week GT
 
N

No_Balls

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mrhender said:
They are cleaning out the the GC msking sure of no unpleasant surprises..
Furthermore they where siganling that they will be there when the going gets tough..
No way they can/will keep dooing this..
It's about eliminating potentially ugly surprises and putting the hammer down to scare the others from beeing overambitious...
Click to expand...

"Today could not have gone better. We wanted to set a hard pace to clean out the overall classification of people who could cause us problems in the future by getting into breaks," Contador explained.
Click to expand...

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/con...o-flex-their-collective-muscles-in-the-vosges
 
murali

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Porte is inconsistent. its just a waiting game with Porte. Despite having the strongest support-cast in this tour, he has not been able to capitalize in it. He also shud hav been behind nibali, instead of following valv.

The only thing going in favor of Porte is his supposed TT prowess.

Porte is still the product of marginal gain theory. He would only try to pace back to AC.


I want to see how monday pans out.
 
lenric

lenric

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Publicus said:
Actually there is a lot of truth to what he says. Whatever you think about Porte, hes a decent time trialist. Contador needs to leapfrog him and give himself some cushion to win the overall (assuming Ritche doesn't have a bad day). Valverde's non-performance today was pretty surprising. This was his kind of climb.
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If someone can be decent on high mountain, then obviously he'll be good too in medium mountain. Assuming that, Contador would always beat Porte, since he's weaker than Porte. Valverde is Valverde, no match for Contador and he knows it.
The only GC contender who would be able to be on par with Contador is Nibali, and Contador is well aware of that.

Assuming all of this, Contador would only be worried with Nibali, because he knows he can drop everyone and have enough time in the TT, the rest is just politics.
 
hfer07

hfer07

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Alberto looked good & determined to ride- which is good for the spectacle. BTW gotta acknowledge that massive pull done by Mic Rogers today- It was impeccable. I see TS as a team completely better suited to aid Contador than Astana's team to Nibali- and that might make the difference this year.
 
W

webbie146

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Publicus said:
I don't think there's a substantial likelihood of that happening. He looked like he didn't put in much of an effort today. Relatively speaking of course.
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I'm not just talking about today's particulair climb but in general the cadence he's been riding at while climbing. He used to keep spinning which helps recovery in a 3 week GT. I might be wrong though it does not necessary have to be a problem. We will see.
 
LaFlorecita

LaFlorecita

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webbie146 said:
I'm not just talking about today's particulair climb but in general the cadence he's been riding at while climbing. He used to keep spinning which helps recovery in a 3 week GT. I might be wrong though it does not necessary have to be a problem. We will see.
Click to expand...

Someone pointed out a while ago that Alberto used a bigger gear while climbing earlier in his career too.
 
fantomas

fantomas

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hfer07 said:
Alberto looked good & determined to ride- which is good for the spectacle. BTW gotta acknowledge that massive pull done by Mic Rogers today- It was impeccable. I see TS as a team completely better suited to aid Contador than Astana's team to Nibali- and that might make the difference this year.
Click to expand...

Indeed, Rogers should be hailed for his effort today. He looked almost like CAS as he was doing his final effort. :D
 
fantomas

fantomas

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"I wanted to see how Nibali felt. It was a surprise to me that he let go of my wheel on the final 50 meters. I wasn’t hundred percent sure if there was a rider ahead for the stage win. So I was looking at Nibali all the time, until I saw the finish line screen indicating two minutes and then I decided to try to gain some seconds."


http://www.tinkoffsaxo.com/news/contador-successful-day-nibali-still-favorite/

If this is true, he pretty much bossed Nibali.
 
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