Teams & Riders Alberto Contador Discussion Thread

[maxmartin]

Holding back the form to peak for the Giro and possibly Tour. He is not young anymore, he can't peak for every race. RECOVER Y is especially important for his age. BIOLOGY dictated every athlete's career path is on a trajectory curve, obviously AC is on a downward path. On the other hand, NQ is obviously on an upward trend.

 

[LaFlorecita]

IMO the team needs to sit down and think of a different schedule. Everyone on the team including their dog has been hyping Alberto up all winter and he's in very bad shape.

 

[roundabout]

Nah, he was better in Andalucia than this week. Seems something happened in the buildup.

 

[Miburo]

He should retire.

 

[Jelantik]

Re:

I notice some belly showing off. perhaps saving energy for the double? I tend to believe he should start to get sharper, as the Giro gets closer, but I imagine Riis knows best how to bring him in proper shape then...

i thought he was lighter than andalucia? I read somewhere. and no I can't remember where I read it. I thought the same too. But his last race is catalunya then straight to the Giro. Maybe he just hang his form to 70% and the last 40 days he will up it?? Uran looks sharp. Tomorrow is a flat pancake, don't know if contador is interested in overhauling Pinout since he is only like 5/6 seconds behind?

If Froome was here, I can see he'll be motorbike to the top of the climb with body flying all over the place . Now we see contador's form. It's confirmation of his bad ITT. He can't shave anyone from his wheel today. Well, at least Quintana makes it interesting today..

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

Nah, he was better in Andalucia than this week. Seems something happened in the buildup.

Or he's doing a 2013. He also got worse and worse that year (or at least he improved less than other riders improved).

I wish we'd get a genuine reason for once but obviously we'll get a BS excuse again

 

[Miburo]

Catalunya will be bad too, start panicking more.

 

[SeriousSam]

Re:

What are people talking about, Contador in 2013 shape?

Suppose he had managed to stay on Froome's wheel, won the Ruta, did better in prologue and went with Quintana today.

Would you have felt more confident about his chances to win G and T or less? The results right now are not definitive, but they are indicative.

They carry some information about how well he's going to do in the rest of the season. Contador's level will be either higher, lower or the same as last year. What do you think is the most likely outcome, and do you not think early form carries some predictive value about that?

 

[roundabout]

Let's see what happens in Catalunya then even if it's probably going to be a shitty route which would make it difficult to draw conclusions

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

Catalunya will be bad too, start panicking more.

No one is panicking.

 

[sir fly]

Well, I doubt anyone will qualify today's ride as a good one.
Whether it is an indicator of declining form or not, we'll have to wait and see.

 

[rm7]

I'm really trying to understand how his form seems to have regressed since Andalucia.. but i'm not worried yet. Maybe his shape was too good in Andalucia and they decided to relax a little bit.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

What are people talking about, Contador in 2013 shape?

Suppose he had managed to stay on Froome's wheel, won the Ruta, did better in prologue and went with Quintana today.

Would you have felt more confident about his chances to win G and T or less? The results right now are not definitive, but they are indicative.

They carry some information about how well he's going to do in the rest of the season. Contador's level will be either higher, lower or the same as last year. What do you think is the most likely outcome, and do you not think early form carries some predictive value about that?

Finally a reasonable post by you.

 

[Miburo]

Today was bad yea, the whole race was bad from him. But in andalucia he was really good. Nothing to do with age, or him being 2013 again. Something happened or this was prepared by the team. 2months until giro, no big deal. 2013 won't happen again, i'm sure of that.

 

[jens_attacks]

if i would go for the double ,i would not spend any amount of energy in these races. but that's just me
he should suck even more, imo
he only needs to improve in the second week of il giro. until then all good

 

[rm7]

Re: Re:

What are people talking about, Contador in 2013 shape?

Suppose he had managed to stay on Froome's wheel, won the Ruta, did better in prologue and went with Quintana today.

Would you have felt more confident about his chances to win G and T or less? The results right now are not definitive, but they are indicative.

They carry some information about how well he's going to do in the rest of the season. Contador's level will be either higher, lower or the same as last year. What do you think is the most likely outcome, and do you not think early form carries some predictive value about that?

Of course as fan we get our hopes up when Contador performs well. But we also have to put things into perspective.

Let me explain.

NORMALLY we'll see Contador peak from Feb-April - then he'll take a break in May, go to Dauphine in June, and peak for the Tour. That's the Contador schedule we know. Thats the Schedule riders like Froome and Quintana are doing this year. They're around 90-95 % right now.

What we see this year is, that Contador comes into the season at maybe 75-80 %. He'll use Feb-March racing as training only, then he'll use the first week of Giro to ride himself into form (just like he did at the Vuelta 14).

It's really simple. Our minds expect Contador to win one week stage races, because thats whats he normally does. But when you're doing a double - you simply CAN'T!

And if he had followed that Quintana attack today, then i would be really confident. But i would also be a little worried for the 3rd week for the Tour, if his form was like Quintanas.

 

[BlurryVII]

It's fascinating how an insignificant 5 km prologue can be so indicative ....

Anyways, I knew that was going to happen, affected by both crashes, the one in training and yesterday in a less extent ---> back to 2013 shape. Now to build up again, he still has plenty of time before the Giro, and the winter base work is definitely there. I believe everything happens for a reason, being in poor form right now maybe will enable him to sustain incredible peak later for both GT's.

Also, you can forget about Catalunya, he is going to be dropped, if it's not Froome, it'll be someone else. Just focus on the double like Contador does.

 

[Netserk]

Of my three favourite riders, Contador is the best by far atm

Tommeke won't feature before Worlds, Nibali won't before the Tour (or Liege). Contador is at least up there. Someone warp me to May please.

 

[Red Rick]

In 2013 he didn't train enough and was trying to make that up all year long, he got sick in Tirreno, was too fat the whole season through, this is nothing like it. I think it's still true he had a great winter but he can't peak here, had 2 crashes so all he could do was give his all and see what that's worth. He probably was third best on the road today. For anyone bar the big 4 today would've been a good ride.

Just lol at getting dropped by TGBM, that's just painful, no matter the circumstances

He did drop Poels though

 

[Jelantik]

Re:

It's fascinating how an insignificant 5 km prologue can be so indicative ....

Also, you can forget about Catalunya, he is going to be dropped, if it's not Froome, it'll be someone else. Just focus on the double like Contador does.

Maybe they know his condition since TS didn't seem to bring any mountain goat either. If we are looking today, yeah, he probably will get drop by Froome and Quintana for sure or worst.. someone else. Yeah, we know that he is doing the double, but his form reminds us of 2013. Maybe he is what he needs to be right now. But in 2013 his closes place was second place all year long + he only targeted the tour and just to be dropped like a stone at the tour. So clearly something happen between Andalucia - TA. whether his crashing effect or maybe deJongh told him to ease up. And hopefully not the 2013 form reason. I guess this hype about early season of "Fab Four" battling each other is never going to materialize until the tour. Maybe Duran-duran and Lil' richie crashing the party. Tomorrow Duran-Duran might have a chance to win TA, if he did, then it's official Duran Duran and Lil Richie has crashed the "Fab 4" party.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

Also, you can forget about Catalunya, he is going to be dropped, if it's not Froome, it'll be someone else. Just focus on the double like Contador does.

I guess I'm now at the point where I just expect nothing and hope for the best

 

[Rollthedice]

The fact that he was surprisingly good in Andalucia plus hype made for a disappointment in TA. Nothing is indicative of how he will perform in Giro. He was lucky though that Froome was not here, would've been hard to swallow two in a row now that there's this rivalry going on.

 

[Jelantik]

Re:

He did drop Poels though

Poels. Lol.

Poels: “It’s not a big gap but I’m really looking forward to tomorrow, then we’ll see. I know people like Contador and Urán are in good shape but I’m in really good shape too and felt really good out there. The long climbs (like Terminillo) are not so bad for me, so I’m confident I can defend the jersey and keep it,” he said in the post-race press conference, going as far to suggest that he is the favourite to win this fiftieth edition of Tirreno-Adriatico. “Maybe after today yes I am,” he said.

then 24hrs later, he dropped like a stone. This is why I love cycling. Priceless.

 

[Electress]

I hate watching AC struggle and can't be quite sanguine that 'every thing's on track'. I don't feel things are going as they should be, frankly, much though I'd like to believe it was all about accidents etc etc.. But neither do I think it is 2013 again. Have to just trust in TS that they know what they are doing.

 

[Jelantik]

Re:

well if you read what Riis said... looks like they bank on contador's form is better?

Riis: “We were looking forward to [a re-match after Ruta del Sol], but that’s how it is,” said Bjarne Riis, Alberto Contador’s team manager at Tinkoff-Saxo.

“Contador’s most feared rival is Froome, no doubt about that. He knows how good Froome is. We still don’t know how good Nairo Quintana can be, or how well Vincenzo Nibali will go with these guys when they are at their best, but we know how good Froome is, and how good he can be.”

Looking at Alberto today, if Froome was there, there won't be anything remotely close to rematch whatsoever.