Teams & Riders Alberto Contador Discussion Thread

[calinmarian]

Imo Tosatto should be in the team

Noval out?

 

[LaFlorecita]

Yea but it won't happen

 

[Cimber]

Imo Tosatto should be in the team

Wouldnt be surprised if hé was set to guide young Majka through the Giro

 

[Parrulo]

maybe they will send all 3? noval, morkov and tosatto i mean. would be a good decision as contador will be under a lot of pressure at next years tour and saxo can't afford to have crashed and misplacement affect his performance like it happened in 2011.

roche, CAS, Paulinho, Rogers and hernandes would still be more then enough as mountain doms imo no need to overkill it and ruin the tour with crashes.

 

[Parrulo]

Wouldnt be surprised if hé was set to guide young Majka through the Giro

i was expecting to see nicki sorensen and bennati doing that job to be honest.

 

[Cimber]

i was expecting to see nicki sorensen and bennati doing that job to be honest.

Ye you are likely right, though Nicki will also ride his own chance to go for a stage to fill the GT barn. And Bennati might contest the sprints but ye those 2 should bring enough experience.

I also agree that Saxo must be strong on the flats to keep Contador on front and out of harm. That said I dó expect Kreuziger to be on the lineup. Riis got a positive problem this year

 

[LaFlorecita]

Ye you are likely right, though Nicki will also ride his own chance to go for a stage to fill the GT barn. And Bennati might contest the sprints but ye those 2 should bring enough experience.

I also agree that Saxo most be strong on the flats to keep Contador on front and out of harm

maybe Tosatto will ride il giro to lead out Bennati in the sprints

 

[trevim]

I would say there's nothing in the Tour for Breschel: there are worse riders with a stage win but Saxo won't be stage hunting anyway. Classics is where he's due.

 

[Forunculo]

 

[trevim]

Radamel and Velasco!

 

[Le Baroudeur]

I would say there's nothing in the Tour for Breschel: there are worse riders with a stage win but Saxo won't be stage hunting anyway. Classics is where he's due.

I'm sure Saxo-Bank would be very happy to see the teams key Danish riders at the tour though. Both Breschel and Mørkøv would be pretty handy for running interferance and forcing the sprinter teams to drive the peloton. Keeping some pressure on the weaker GT teams all helps in the end. Whether it's the best sporting descicion to bring them is debatable of course.

The only thing that is sure is that the team needs it's other riders to make up for Alberto's points not counting so we don't end up outside the top 15 again. As such, I won't be surprised to see some interesting team lineups and even the tradition of twin captains returning for the Giro and Vuelta.

Wouldn't it also be polite to let the all Italians fly the team colours at the Giro again?

Should be an exciting year...

 

[pdluz7]

 

[ILovecycling]

as if the guy that was the most important piece in his vuelta winning move and has ridden like 4 or 5 GT with contador wouldn't be selected. . .

Oh how can I forgot Paulinho,he will be in thats for sure..so maybe Roche is out.
Kreuziger is in Im 100% sure.He said its his main goal to win Tour with Alberto in interview

 

[ILovecycling]

Oh god Piti has almost +2 size bigger suit than he has normal
Purito not so happy

 

[pastronef]

Oh god Piti has almost +2 size bigger suit than he has normal
Purito not so happy

Purito has gained more weight than Wiggo

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Oh how can I forgot Paulinho,he will be in thats for sure..so maybe Roche is out.
Kreuziger is in Im 100% sure.He said its his main goal to win Tour with Alberto in interview

So did Roche. He was pretty clear that helping Contador would be his main role for the year, rather than riding for his own chances. It would be very odd if they ended up using him in some other capacity.

Saxo will have to balance sporting criteria with (a) keeping Contador happy by including his friends and perhaps (b) keeping the sponsors happy by including extra Danes. There's not much point in strengthening this much if they are still going to pack the squad with Danes and the Amigos of Alberto anyway though. That said, they won't have all of Kreuziger, Rogers and Roche around Contador from race to race all year long, in the Sky style, because they will need some or all of those guys to earn points elsewhere.

 

[El Pistolero]

Oh god Piti has almost +2 size bigger suit than he has normal
Purito not so happy

Uhm, Valverde is probably the skinniest looking guy in that picture. Also looks kinda old-ish.

 

[Netserk]

So did Roche. He was pretty clear that helping Contador would be his main role for the year, rather than riding for his own chances. It would be very odd if they ended up using him in some other capacity.

Saxo will have to balance sporting criteria with (a) keeping Contador happy by including his friends and perhaps (b) keeping the sponsors happy by including extra Danes. There's not much point in strengthening this much if they are still going to pack the squad with Danes and the Amigos of Alberto anyway though. That said, they won't have all of Kreuziger, Rogers and Roche around Contador from race to race all year long, in the Sky style, because they will need some or all of those guys to earn points elsewhere.

Riis Cycling have in the past entered the Tour without ANY Danes or only a single one.

My guess would be:

Contador
Kreuziger
Roche
Rogers
Chris Anker Sørensen
Jesus
Paulinho
Mørkøv
Noval

And for the Giro:

Majka
Bennati
Tosatto
Boaro
+ others

 

[Dutchsmurf]

So did Roche. He was pretty clear that helping Contador would be his main role for the year, rather than riding for his own chances. It would be very odd if they ended up using him in some other capacity.

Saxo will have to balance sporting criteria with (a) keeping Contador happy by including his friends and perhaps (b) keeping the sponsors happy by including extra Danes. There's not much point in strengthening this much if they are still going to pack the squad with Danes and the Amigos of Alberto anyway though. That said, they won't have all of Kreuziger, Rogers and Roche around Contador from race to race all year long, in the Sky style, because they will need some or all of those guys to earn points elsewhere.

Last I checked at least half of those sponsors is now some crazy guy who only cares about winning. I don't see why selecting a Dane, let alone more, will be needed.

 

[El Pistolero]

Last I checked at least half of those sponsors is now some crazy guy who only cares about winning. I don't see why selecting a Dane, let alone more, will be needed.

Why is he crazy? Because he doesn't know who rides for Argos?

 

[theyoungest]

His PR manager will probably explain to you why he's crazy

His comments, just days before the decision on the WT license, were really stupid. You want to create goodwill, not sound like a deluded moron.

 

[El Pistolero]

His PR manager will probably explain to you why he's crazy

His comments, just days before the decision on the WT license, were really stupid. You want to create goodwill, not sound like a deluded moron.

Being a jerk is not the same as being crazy.

Goodwill? Tinkov knew he had the license before today. UCI is probably not too different from Russian politics.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Last I checked at least half of those sponsors is now some crazy guy who only cares about winning. I don't see why selecting a Dane, let alone more, will be needed.

In the end sponsors cares about exposure. When a team wins the sponsor gets maximum return. If there are no potential winners on the team, nationalistic stuff often get prioritized.

 

[theyoungest]

Clearly Tinkov didn't know, otherwise why start an Argos smear campaign.

 

[El Pistolero]

Clearly Tinkov didn't know, otherwise why start an Argos smear campaign.

Because Argos attacked them first?

He made tweets that said "We already have a license idiot".