Teams & Riders Alberto Contador Discussion Thread

[ILovecycling]

How would that make him better than Merckx or Hinaut?

I wrote...he Could,not he Should be named.
It would make him better in winning 3Gt in one year.Its exceptional,nobody didnt achieve this.No Hinaualt,Indurain, not even Mercx

 

[Don't be late Pedro]

I wrote...he Could,not he Should be named.
It would make him better in winning 3Gt in one year.Its exceptional,nobody didnt achieve this.No Hinaualt,Indurain, not even Mercx

First when you said winning the triple that could easily be read as the triple crown which is often considered winning 2 tours and the worlds (Which Merckx did do) as well as 3 GTs. Both Hinaut and Merckx have Tour/Giro doubles and I think Hinaut did a Tour/Vuelta double.

However, Contador has nothing in the monuments stakes. Eddie won them all and many of them multiple times. Hinaut won most of them multiple times. Both won the worlds.

I would still put Contador behind both of them if he won all 3 GTs in a year even though it would be an amazing feat.

 

[Netserk]

First when you said winning the triple that could easily be read as the triple crown which is often considered winning 2 tours and the worlds (Which Merckx did do) as well as 3 GTs. Both Hinaut and Merckx have Tour/Giro doubles and I think Hinaut did a Tour/Vuelta double.

However, Contador has nothing in the monuments stakes. Eddie won them all and many of them multiple times. Hinaut won most of them multiple times. Both won the worlds.

I would still put Contador behind both of them if he won all 3 GTs in a year even though it would be an amazing feat.

Alberto will never become the best cyclist of all time. That is Merckx.

He can though become the greatest stage racer of all time if he wins more GTs than Eddie (he only needs 5 more) together with some Tour + another GT doubles, and perhaps to win those big one week stage races he hasn't already won.

 

[Don't be late Pedro]

Alberto will never become the best cyclist of all time. That is Merckx.

He can though become the greatest stage racer of all time if he wins more GTs than Eddie (he only needs 5 more) together with some Tour + another GT doubles, and perhaps to win those big one week stage races he hasn't already won.

I say 7 more wins but there you go...

 

[Miburo]

Like somebody said,Alberto is already a legend.He displays this period of our sport.
But...I wish he won Triple and then,he could be named best cyclist all time.

How much I love Contador. There's no way he'll top Merckx.

 

[The Hitch]

I say 7 more wins but there you go...

Lets split the difference and say 6, since didn't eddy also.lose 1?

 

[personal]

The rest of the world sees things differently than we do,

They don't understand This Thing of Ours.

they have very basic and incredibly innacurate ideas of what cycling is, how it works, what is important, who watches it, even who participates.
And e they are spectacularly uninformed when it comes to doping.

They of course only care about 1 race.

But they are the ones who control the press, the media and hence the perception of the masses.

For me Contador always was the weapon with which we fight that other world view. The ambassador of our sport. The one who can achieve things by winning multiple Tours.

Thats why I call him "The Great One". Its a special relationship

The Tour de France its itself a underwhelming race that only takes up 3 weeks of the season, but we need someone to carry the flag, get their name out there and represent our sport. And contador, polite, talented, from a big cycling country that isnt France, is good representative.

The Tour is business. Its for that other world.

The rest of the year is for us We few, we happy few, we cycling fans.

Wow! Well said!

 

[The Hitch]

Didn't the Vuelta used to be much closer to the Giro to the point where you could not compete in both (At least to win?). If so, could Eddie have realistically won the 3 GTs in one year?

Yeah. They even.overlapped. I would have thought you would have be one.of the fans who grew up watching springtime vueltas as that was when delgado won it.

 

[Don't be late Pedro]

Lets split the difference and say 6, since didn't eddy also.lose 1?

He got kicked out of the Giro but never actually won it (I think). Or are you talking about the punch on the Tour? Then again he won a Tour when Ocana had to pull out

Who knows.

 

[The Hitch]

He got kicked out of the Giro but never actually won it (I think). Or are you talking about the punch on the Tour? Then again he won a Tour when Ocana had to pull out

Who knows.

I don't know. El.pistolero talks a lot about how if we count contador as
7 time.winner then eddy should also have one more so.i thought he had, but that's all i got.

 

[Don't be late Pedro]

Yeah. They even.overlapped. I would have thought you would have be one.of the fans who grew up watching springtime vueltas as that was when delgado won it.

Sadly, I only ever had the chance to see the Tour growing up and none off the other GTs since that was all the was shown on British Tv. I heard about them but that was about it.

I only knew Delgado from the Tour. Some great battles with Robert Millar in the mountains and, of course, when he showed up late in 89. That made him the complete underdog whom I would then cheer on for that very reason.

 

[Angliru]

Alberto can become a legend imo if he does the triple or if he wins 7-8 tours, both seem pretty impossible and of course he has to become world champion preferably on the road which is also almost impossible. TT world champion is possible but it's not as great as world champ on the road

According to Wiggins and Brailsford the thing that would make Wiggins a legend would be to go on and add the Vuelta and Giro to his palmares. Using their reasoning that makes Contador a legend already.

 

[Don't be late Pedro]

According to Wiggins and Brailsford the thing that would make Wiggins a legend would be to go on and add the Vuelta and Giro to his palmares. Using their reasoning that makes Contador a legend already.

Once Alberto wins multiple Olympics golds on the track and in the TT, then yes, using that reasoning.

 

[The Hitch]

Once Alberto wins multiple Olympics golds on the track and in the TT, then yes, using that reasoning.

They said a road legend. Obviously they already see him as a track legend.

 

[Don't be late Pedro]

They said a road legend. Obviously they already see him as a track legend.

I stand corrected then.

 

[Angliru]

Once Alberto wins multiple Olympics golds on the track and in the TT, then yes, using that reasoning.

I wasn't being completely serious. IMO greatness is something that is awarded often by nature of the panache and passion a rider displays in victory and in even at failed attempts at victory, not necessarily by the quantity of their successes. And just as equal in importance is the passion that the rider's exploits creates in the true fans of the sport. It's why Pantani is held is such high esteem and why, for me, Contador is one of the greats. The joy you get in watching them compete, the emotions that are uncontrollably enhanced in witnessing them do what they do best.

 

[LaFlorecita]

For me, in my completely biased opinion Alberto is the best rider ever

 

[airstream]

I wasn't being completely serious. IMO greatness is something that is awarded often by nature of the panache and passion a rider displays in victory and in even at failed attempts at victory, not necessarily by the quantity of their successes. And just as equal in importance is the passion that the rider's exploits creates in the true fans of the sport. It's why Pantani is held is such high esteem and why, for me, Contador is one of the greats. The joy you get in watching them compete, the emotions that are uncontrollably enhanced in witnessing them do what they do best.

The man changes his organics and nature to become a GT rider. Does it require less 'panache and passion'. Just say you don't like Wiggins because he doesn't give any climbing show. This would be quite honest.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Now the UCI and Alberto have reached an "undisclosed financial agreement" after the governing body tried to impose a $US3.1 million ($A2.95 million) fine. It gets better and better

 

[Angliru]

The rest of the world sees things differently than we do,

They don't understand This Thing of Ours.

they have very basic and incredibly innacurate ideas of what cycling is, how it works, what is important, who watches it, even who participates.
And e they are spectacularly uninformed when it comes to doping.

They of course only care about 1 race.

But they are the ones who control the press, the media and hence the perception of the masses.

For me Contador always was the weapon with which we fight that other world view. The ambassador of our sport. The one who can achieve things by winning multiple Tours.

Thats why I call him "The Great One". Its a special relationship

The Tour de France its itself a underwhelming race that only takes up 3 weeks of the season, but we need someone to carry the flag, get their name out there and represent our sport. And contador, polite, talented, from a big cycling country that isnt France, is good representative.

The Tour is business. Its for that other world.

The rest of the year is for us We few, we happy few, we cycling fans.

Hitch, my eyes got a little misty reading that. Quite nice!

 

[LaFlorecita]

http://c-cycling.blogspot.cz/2012/12/let-race-begin.html

 

[Angliru]

The man changes his organics and nature to become a GT rider. Does it require less 'panache and passion'. Just say you don't like Wiggins because he doesn't give any climbing show. This would be quite honest.

Wiggins doesn't instill any excitement in me when I watch him race. You ignored the part of my post that said greatness isn't measured solely on quantity of victories/successes. Technically Wiggins could be considered one of the greats solely on the unprecedented season he had in 2012. Roche's overall palmares aren't overwhelming but the fact that he won the Tour, Giro and world road race championship in one season makes him one of the greats, when looking at that one season. Part of greatness is the accomplishments/events that stick in your mind such that it plays back like a movie that has been permanently downloaded to your memory, leaving one with the ability to play back the details with remarkable clarity.

 

[movingtarget]

He can surpass the cannibal in one aspect quite easily: winning the 3 gt more than once. I believe only Hinault has done that so far. Yet, Contador, like a few greats of the past, will have less wins that he could have acheived if he had a chance to compete. Barred from one tour because of his team (astana) and penalized for two other GT he still is among the top cyclists ever.

Eddy also won a fistful of classics and even Six Day races on the track. He was successful in everything he attempted. That is why Contador can't be rated higher than Eddy or Hinault who also won world titles and classics although he could end up with a better Tour record and will still be considered one of the great grand tour riders. Coppi would also rate highly.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Eddy also won a fistful of classics and even Six Day races on the track. He was successful in everything he attempted. That is why Contador can't be rated higher than Eddy or Hinault who also won world titles and classics although he could end up with a better Tour record and will still be considered one of the great grand tour riders. Coppi would also rate highly.

No one is arguing Alberto will ever be rated higher than Merckx or Hinault. It's obvious to everyone they are much, much better.

 

[Don't be late Pedro]

He can surpass the cannibal in one aspect quite easily: winning the 3 gt more than once. I believe only Hinault has done that so far. Yet, Contador, like a few greats of the past, will have less wins that he could have acheived if he had a chance to compete. Barred from one tour because of his team (astana) and penalized for two other GT he still is among the top cyclists ever.

But again, that is possibly unfair to Merckx as the Vuelta overlapped with the Giro. And, from what I understand, in the 70s the Giro was bigger than the Tour.

He may have been 'penalised' but then again Coppi and Bartali lost some of their best years because of WW2.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fausto_Coppi#Prisoner_of_war

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gino_Bartali#Bartali_in_wartime