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Teams & Riders Alberto Contador Discussion Thread

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Angliru

Angliru

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Jspear said:
That sounds like an interesting book. What is the name of it?
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I found it!! It's "The Official Tour de France Centennial 1903-2003", published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson.

It is a real treasure and worth it if you can find it. Lance Armstrong wrote the forward but Amazon has it incorrectly advertised as him being the author which he is not. The stories of each year's Tour are finely written by writers from that period detailing the more pivotal moments. Excellent photography throughout also.
 
Jspear

Jspear

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Angliru said:
I found it!! It's "The Official Tour de France Centennial 1903-2003", published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson.

It is a real treasure and worth it if you can find it. Lance Armstrong wrote the forward but Amazon has it incorrectly advertised as him being the author which he is not. The stories of each year's Tour are finely written by writers from that period detailing the more pivotal moments. Excellent photography throughout also.
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Cool. Thanks! Will look into it.
 
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greenedge

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TANK91 said:
Who knows mate he from Poland he may peak earlier. Majka would lead for around 3 WT teams. Remember he was not happy about doing the TDF in first place. You honestly think he would like to dom the TDF? Im sure he would rather lead for someone like Lotto and get his choice. It is same with Porte he will probably be gone if he has a bounce back year.
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I doubt he would get the necessary support at Lotto, far better to at least lead one GT with a stronger team than a preffered GT without a team.
 
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Dr. Juice

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Netserk said:
Opening TTT in 2006. Lost it the next day.

Doubt it has happened to anyone else who have won 2 or more GTs.
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Pantani hasn't lost it, neither in the 1998 Giro nor in the Tour. And in 1999 he hasn't lost it on the road. But like with others...it's easier to lose it when you have ridden at least 10 GT's and led more than 5. Impressive statistic by Alberto. Shows he is a man on a mission. If he has it, you'll never get it back (the jersey).
Maybe a breakaway will break :)D) that statistic.
 
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phanatic

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Miburo said:
Btw one of Contador's most impressive records is that whenever he had the leader's jersey in a GT he never lost it. Which great rider can say that?
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He never won a prologue...

never took the lead after an early TTT or ITT, never won an early stage. Maybe he peaks late for the GT, maybe he is calculating and cautious about it. I don't think that this is more impressive than loaning it out, like Lance did. In any case, Nibali losing the Vuelta lead in 2013 was far more impressive (and exciting) than Contador never having the Tour lead that year.
 
LaFlorecita

LaFlorecita

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phanatic said:
He never won a prologue...

never took the lead after an early TTT or ITT, never won an early stage. Maybe he peaks late for the GT, maybe he is calculating and cautious about it. I don't think that this is more impressive than loaning it out, like Lance did. In any case, Nibali losing the Vuelta lead in 2013 was far more impressive (and exciting) than Contador never having the Tour lead that year.
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Wut :confused:
 
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phanatic said:
He never won a prologue...

never took the lead after an early TTT or ITT, never won an early stage. Maybe he peaks late for the GT, maybe he is calculating and cautious about it. I don't think that this is more impressive than loaning it out, like Lance did. In any case, Nibali losing the Vuelta lead in 2013 was far more impressive (and exciting) than Contador never having the Tour lead that year.
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A confusing view. The Vuelta 2013 was more exciting than the Tour, ok of course when there is a real battle.
How on earth should Contador have taken the jersey in 2013 with the poor form he had? And despite the bad form...he took the only opportunity of echelons during stage 13 but that was after Ax3.
How can one be "impressive" on a mountain stage when he has a terrible form is beyond me. There was one realistic tactical opportunity ..and he took it quite impressively.
 
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Electress

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phanatic said:
He never won a prologue...

never took the lead after an early TTT or ITT, never won an early stage. Maybe he peaks late for the GT, maybe he is calculating and cautious about it. I don't think that this is more impressive than loaning it out, like Lance did. In any case, Nibali losing the Vuelta lead in 2013 was far more impressive (and exciting) than Contador never having the Tour lead that year.
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Come on, it's hard to get around the fact that someone who has won 8 GTs on the road has never lost the jersey once he's got it. Okay, he had a pretty bad year in 2013, but he wasn't failing to get the jersey so as he wouldn't sully his record, he just wasn't up there then?I don't really get what your trying to say about Nibali and AC then with respect to this record other than AC wasn't great..No news there.

I don't think he'll continue to hold this record, but even so, it's pretty amazing. Shows just how good he is tactically. If he keeps his powder dry until the right time in the race so it works to his advantage - isn't that an attribute? Not exactly a criticism to demonstrate an excellent strategic sense of the whole race surely?
 
Angliru

Angliru

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phanatic said:
He never won a prologue...

never took the lead after an early TTT or ITT, never won an early stage. Maybe he peaks late for the GT, maybe he is calculating and cautious about it. I don't think that this is more impressive than loaning it out, like Lance did. In any case, Nibali losing the Vuelta lead in 2013 was far more impressive (and exciting) than Contador never having the Tour lead that year.
Click to expand...

He's also only had a supremely strong team in 2009 and of course even then he was compromised by conflict that existed with himself, Armstrong & Bruyneel. It was their (Johaan and Lance's) goal to put Lance in yellow early. Contador's other teams just weren't strong enough to protect the yellow jersey from early in the events, not that they purposely avoided getting it. It just wasn't advantageous to wear out the team early just for sake of having it when the strength was Contador's superiority over his rivals in the later mountainous stages. He wasn't going to beat the specialists in prologue nor in flat itt's.

I don't get what is impressive about losing a leader's jersey and never getting it back. Also team's often give up the leader's jersey early in grand tours to a non-threatening rider (I think it's referred to as being "on loan") so they don't have to waste resources defending it for such a long period.

What is really impressive about Contador's record is that he does not let it go once it is in his possession. Many of his rivals have held the leader's jersey during this generations battles in the grand tours bit only Contador has been invincible over and over again while wearing them.
 
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phanatic

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LaFlorecita said:
Wut :confused:
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I didn't mean to flame the thread. I don't think his never having lost the jersey once he held it adds anything to his record other than evidence that he doesn't choke. Once he strikes it's final. In this aspect, it's impressive.

But it's a record that cuts both ways. Part of the reason Contador never lost the jersey is because he never took it early in a race, and so never had it at a point that it was wise to let it go. At the same time he didn't win every GT he entered, which means he didn't lose it in those only because he was too far from contention to take it.

I think the record is remarkable, not so much in that it shows Bertie's superiority, but it shows what kind of competitor he is.

Edit: I didn't mean to single out LaFlorecita's reply, just wanted to clarify my thought if I could, and it seemed like a good reference point.
 
LaFlorecita

LaFlorecita

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phanatic said:
I didn't mean to flame the thread. I don't think his never having lost the jersey once he held it adds anything to his record other than evidence that he doesn't choke. Once he strikes it's final. In this aspect, it's impressive.

But it's a record that cuts both ways. Part of the reason Contador never lost the jersey is because he never took it early in a race, and so never had it at a point that it was wise to let it go. At the same time he didn't win every GT he entered, which means he didn't lose it in those only because he was too far from contention to take it.

I think the record is remarkable, not so much in that it shows Bertie's superiority, but it shows what kind of competitor he is.

Edit: I didn't mean to single out LaFlorecita's reply, just wanted to clarify my thought if I could, and it seemed like a good reference point.
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At the 2011 Giro and 2014 Vuelta he took the jersey rather early, and he had a weak team in both, so it might have been smarter to let it go to someone from a break.
 
Netserk

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I think it's impressive that no one has ever managed to take it away from him. Nibali had it in the Vuelta '13 and even though he fought he keep it, it was taken away from him. Contador has never let anyone take it away from him once he's got it.

And remember that he is the rider who has had a leader's jersey in a GT the 6th most of all time. He's had 63 days wearing said jersey, and never has anyone ever been able to take it away from him. Impressive.
 
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LaFlorecita said:
At the 2011 Giro and 2014 Vuelta he took the jersey rather early, and he had a weak team in both, so it might have been smarter to let it go to someone from a break.
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Yeah, don't think he really expected - and maybe wouldn't have wanted? - to have the red jersey in 2014 after the ITT. But Froome summed it up when he said that once AC has got time on you, it's really difficult to get it back.
 
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LaFlorecita said:
David Lopez: At Sky we don't believe Contador will ride il Giro:confused:

http://www.marca.com/2015/02/10/ciclismo/1423582303.html
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For Sky, not focusing on the Tour = Does not compute?

I actually find it quite odd that people doubt Contador about this. He's been pretty clear setting his stall out. What will he gain if he backs out now? Apart from dissembling about immediate tactics on the road - and who wouldn't in an interview so as not to alert your rivals? - he's always struck me as pretty honest / direct about his plans.

Seems to be a lot of over-analysis of this double stuff, as if he's some kind of **** Dastardly character with a 'cunning plan' to wrong-foot his rivals. Maybe I'm naive, but I just take it at face value - he wants a new challenge to rise to and, without underestimating how much he probably still enjoys winning them, and indeed, wants to win the Tour at least once more, 'yet another GT' just isn't enough at this point in his career.

Guess we'll see come May. :)
 
trevim

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LaFlorecita said:
David Lopez: At Sky we don't believe Contador will ride il Giro:confused:

http://www.marca.com/2015/02/10/ciclismo/1423582303.html
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"It wouldn't be the first time Contador says one thing and does another."
I think he's referring to the Vuelta when he said he wouldn't be able to ride it due to the knee injuries. Comes across as a sore loser though...

Another quote that got my attention: "We've analysed Nibali's Tour data and it would have been really difficult to win it."
It seems they keep crunching the numbers and make some sort of truth out of it. Yeah I don't really like Sky :p
 
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