Teams & Riders Alberto Contador Discussion Thread

[boringboy]

Re: Re:

It's march, freaking march. Besides contador and sagan I btw don't any star rider.

Majka never been the guy to perform really well in races besides GT's.

I don't understand how some of you can come to these ridiculous conclusions.

I agree he has two stars a few decent doms and one up and coming gt contender, but also a lot of deadweight, especially compared to some other teams..

I dare you, to do a comparison with other teams. the only "dead weight" I see... Jesus, Paulinho and Juraj Sagan, and Paulinho is still somewhat decent.

We might not agree but I feel following is deadweight, you might take a few out as you do need to fill the team.

Pires - imho he has very few good days
CAS - he was good in 2013 though, but last year he was not
Bennati - don't feel he has contributed much since he joined
Beltran - still young so he can improve, but expected more from him
Jesper Hansen - same as Beltran
Jesus
Juray
Boara - seems he stopped his development
Paulinho - same as Pires, some good days.
McCarthy - again seems he is not really getting anywhere.

I am not sure about Petrov, Bodnar and Rovny, but guess they do a fair job.

I might be a bit harsh on some of them, but if you look at how, e.g. Sky is doing and the talent they have, I feel Tinkof is missing a few riders, especially considering they are supposed to be "the best team in the world"

 

[LaFlorecita]

Bennati together with Tosatto does a terrific job keeping Alberto safe on the flat. And how can we forget the way he split the peloton in the crosswinds at the 2013 TDF many riders you mentioned are still young and have shown talent. Boaro I agree seemed to have stopped improving but he looked very powerful in a long solo at RVV last year won a stage in the Tour of Denmark and finished 3rd. This year, again, he's done some strong solo/breakaway efforts and also finished 8th in GP Lugano and 9th in Dubai Tour.

 

[Red Rick]

I'm really wondering how someone supposedly smart enough to become a self-made billionaire can be so ***. I know I've said some positive things about him in the past, I take that all back now.

The guy is a total *** idiot

 

[Carols]

Re:

I'm really wondering how someone supposedly smart enough to become a self-made billionaire can be so ***. I know I've said some positive things about him in the past, I take that all back now.

The guy is a total *** idiot

Sums it up for me.

Bjarne and Oleg fighting, now Bjarne is gone and we expect the team to just carry on like nothing happened? They are humans, not machines......

 

[rhubroma]

Re: Re:

I take it Tinkov was eager upon the good Vuelta as he tweeted all preseason that we should get ready for fireworks...

Indeed we have fireworks but not in part of performance..

I could easily imagine that he stomped his authority and made the ds' make harder training programs.
Riis then backed somewhat off as per the CN article and when the results didn't came Tinkov thought he could order Riis
to do his will and be succesful even though Riis probably have disagreed..

From all the images I've seen of the riders since the suspension they riders look tired and somewhat dellusionised..

I really can't see this ending well for anyone.. It's a goddamn shame!!

It's march, freaking march. Besides contador and sagan I btw don't any star rider.

Majka never been the guy to perform really well in races besides GT's.

I don't understand how some of you can come to these ridiculous conclusions.

They are not ridiculous. The team isn't performing well, while it did last year.

Look Contador lines up at these races to win them, he thus needs a team that can assist him with this goal. Basso and another supporter getting dropped early on, Majka after last season not showing his worth, is just not acceptable for a team that wants to support arguably the best rider in the world.

Te be fair Contador's real goals are next, but he certainly after a "poor" TA wanted to put this race in his palmares, but his teammates are too tired. That is f-ing BS. Someone got things wrong, and now the team is in chaos. How was this possible with AC going for the damn double? It just reeks of incompetence.

 

[Carols]

43km when Berto gets isolated ....this team sucks....Oleg sucks....

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

43km when Berto gets isolated ....this team sucks....Oleg sucks....

What did you expect, they brought 7 climbers (including Mick) + Valgren. Mick abandoned and Valgren can't be expected to do everything on his own.

 

[Jspear]

Re: Re:

43km when Berto gets isolated ....this team sucks....Oleg sucks....

What did you expect, they brought 7 climbers (including Mick) + Valgren. Mick abandoned and Valgren can't be expected to do everything on his own.

Sky also brought a strong climbing team.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

43km when Berto gets isolated ....this team sucks....Oleg sucks....

What did you expect, they brought 7 climbers (including Mick) + Valgren. Mick abandoned and Valgren can't be expected to do everything on his own.

Sky also brought a strong climbing team.

And also a strong rouleur team

 

[BlurryVII]

I'll go prophetic mode again and say Alberto will win catalunya on the last stage and the double and get back all what he supposedly "lost" in 11' .
I take no responsability if I'm wrong

 

[Angliru]

Re: Re:

I take it Tinkov was eager upon the good Vuelta as he tweeted all preseason that we should get ready for fireworks...

Indeed we have fireworks but not in part of performance..

I could easily imagine that he stomped his authority and made the ds' make harder training programs.
Riis then backed somewhat off as per the CN article and when the results didn't came Tinkov thought he could order Riis
to do his will and be succesful even though Riis probably have disagreed..

From all the images I've seen of the riders since the suspension they riders look tired and somewhat dellusionised..

I really can't see this ending well for anyone.. It's a goddamn shame!!

It's march, freaking march. Besides contador and sagan I btw don't any star rider.

Majka never been the guy to perform really well in races besides GT's.

I don't understand how some of you can come to these ridiculous conclusions.

He does have podiums in GdL and Milano-Torino

 

[Jelantik]

Who's idea was it to change the plan? Tinkov? Why? Is it a belief that to do so, is to one-up Sky? If this is so, then he/they obviously don't have any confidence in last year's results and what they had done to achieve them. Look, I'm not saying that some expirementing, trying to improve, etc., is bad, but you know: if it aint broke, don't fix it. And you certainly don't break what was working!

If the riders are tired, does this inclued Contador too? He is the only one performing well at the momment, so it would not seems so. Are the others too tired because they have been made to train harder than their leader?

Tinkov...!?! Knock, knock, anybody home...?!?
A little help with a situation regarding " expirementing "

" Tinkoff-Saxo team manager Bjarne Riis convinced Contador to improve the quality of his training and the Spaniard reached out to De Jongh last November.
...
De Jongh knows the secrets of how Team Sky trains its athletes but Contador played down suggestions that he was interested in copying the British team. "

So, obviously your heart is full of hatred against the crazy Russian(s) BUT something is rotten at the Tinkoff-Saxo team from Denmark and guess what it's not everything his fault...

" One individual with intimate knowledge of the team’s inner workings argues that, in a sense, Tinkov only has himself to blame: “When Oleg took over the team, he allowed Bjarne to keep too much influence, too much power. Bjarne kept this emperor complex. He still behaves like the owner, not the manager. The problem is that, when you spend the whole day telling someone they can walk on water, they go out in the evening, try to walk on water….and they sink. "

Apart from Oleg being the typical arrogant oligarch - and there is nothing worse than a "self-made" man who came from oblivion, also culturally, who lets money and power inflate his head - the concommitant poor performance of the team and Riis being removed from the picture, reasonably indicates that the Tinkov owner has stepped into where he doesn't belong.

well, now we see Sagan ran out gas at E3. He was upfront with Thomas and Stybar, but all the time I saw that he looked like he was on his limit. His form wasn't as good as last year. Maybe this rumour on new training regime makes the riders are too tired. Remind me of Yates comment on sky team. They're bloody too tired. And so far we haven't seen any results remotely close to the success of last year. Not sure what happens here. *scratch my head*.

on bright side, contador moves to 3rd place 7 seconds off Porte. Last year with only 2 seconds, it's tough to overhaul Purito. Hopefully he is going postal on the last stage or something. But his team is decimated with illness and abandonment (rogers). So dunno if they are up to the task. *i hope they are*

 

[BlurryVII]

I don't know what the hell is wrong with Contador, but he is looking bigger and bigger and chubbier. From the pics I seen of today, it's blatant. He was leaner in Tirreno and even in andalucia, I hope nothing is going wrong.

 

[rhubroma]

I don't know what the hell is wrong with Contador, but he is looking bigger and bigger and chubbier. From the pics I seen of today, it's blatant. He was leaner in Tirreno and even in andalucia, I hope nothing is going wrong.

In fact the guy needs to find last year's everything. Put a tap in the mouth!

 

[BlurryVII]

I don't know what the hell is wrong with Contador, but he is looking bigger and bigger and chubbier. From the pics I seen of today, it's blatant. He was leaner in Tirreno and even in andalucia, I hope nothing is going wrong.

In fact the guy needs to find last year's everything. Put a tap in the mouth!

I don't even need to post pics, check out the final kilometers, he just looks massive it's worrying

Form wise he is okay thanks to a solid winter base, but he looks too big right now regardless of the double

 

[Vino attacks everyone]

He is doing the double. I would be suprised if he could be at 100% race weight for more than a month or two. I would guess he'll go into the giro with 1/2 kilos more than he would normaly do, simply to be better prepared for the tour.

 

[Escarabajo]

He needs that extra weight to do the double. Me thinks!

 

[LaFlorecita]

I don't know what the hell is wrong with Contador, but he is looking bigger and bigger and chubbier. From the pics I seen of today, it's blatant. He was leaner in Tirreno and even in andalucia, I hope nothing is going wrong.

In fact the guy needs to find last year's everything. Put a tap in the mouth!

I don't even need to post pics, check out the final kilometers, he just looks massive it's worrying
Form wise he is okay thanks to a solid winter base work, but he looks too big right now double or not

I mentioned this earlier, several times even, he looks much bulkier nowadays (I think it's muscle more than anything else - he's too top-heavy - thanks to Bjarne's obsession with core stability), from the front he looks like a classics rider almost . But I don't agree it's a thing of the last few weeks.

You can find pics of him looking quite heavy and pics of him looking slim. It all depends on the angle and if he's inhaling or exhaling. Example:

as you can see these pics were taken within a couple secs of each other.

Edit: sheesh my English is abysmal these days. Were taken not were taking!

 

[BlurryVII]

I don't know what the hell is wrong with Contador, but he is looking bigger and bigger and chubbier. From the pics I seen of today, it's blatant. He was leaner in Tirreno and even in andalucia, I hope nothing is going wrong.

In fact the guy needs to find last year's everything. Put a tap in the mouth!

I don't even need to post pics, check out the final kilometers, he just looks massive it's worrying
Form wise he is okay thanks to a solid winter base work, but he looks too big right now double or not

You can find pics of him looking quite heavy and pics of him looking slim. It all depends on the angle and if he's inhaling or exhaling. Example:

He looks big on both pics lol

 

[LaFlorecita]

I don't know what the hell is wrong with Contador, but he is looking bigger and bigger and chubbier. From the pics I seen of today, it's blatant. He was leaner in Tirreno and even in andalucia, I hope nothing is going wrong.

In fact the guy needs to find last year's everything. Put a tap in the mouth!

I don't even need to post pics, check out the final kilometers, he just looks massive it's worrying
Form wise he is okay thanks to a solid winter base work, but he looks too big right now double or not

You can find pics of him looking quite heavy and pics of him looking slim. It all depends on the angle and if he's inhaling or exhaling. Example:

He looks big on both pics lol

Well I wish I was that "big" jesus christ there are things called a "rib cage" and "muscles" in the human body plus because of this thing called "gravity" the abdominal organs are pulled down

OMG so big

 

[BlurryVII]

Well I wish I was that "big" jesus christ there are things called a "rib cage" and "muscles" in the human body plus because of this thing called "gravity" the abdominal organs are pulled down

OMG so big

anyway, you know what I mean lol

such difference with last year though..

 

[LaFlorecita]

what a fatty. I feel disgusted look at those chubby arms and legs and that fat tummy

 

[LaFlorecita]

Anyway.

He is obviously not yet at his ideal race weight. He's got over 1 month to go though, he could easily lose 2kgs.

His upper body is much bigger than before he joined Saxo, even the difference with 2011 is obvious. It makes him top-heavy, it's useless muscle, but as I said Bjarne's obsession with core stability is to blame for that and age may also play a role.

 

[Futuroscope]

I don't really see what all the fuss is about. If he really is going for the double then most likely he is just being more conservative with his form at this point of the season (compared to previous years). I think Contador will be in excellent shape at the Giro.

 

[Jelantik]

Looks like stomach flue is getting the better of TS. What's eerie is that what happened to Sky last year is now happening with TS.

Further down the road, Tinkoff-Saxo was struggling as several riders suffered from a stomach flu, which already before the stage forced Rafal Majka to abandon the Volta a Catalunya. Tinkoff-Saxo DS Steven de Jongh explains:

“It was a hard day for many of the guys. Rafal was sick and didn’t start and Basso was throwing up during the stage, as were a number of guys in the bunch today. Despite that I’m satisfied with the fact that Alberto gained two positions and he’s now 3rd, which is very good. With the crosswinds, splits and the attacks on the final climb and down to the finishing straight, today evolved into a hard stage”, explains Steven de Jongh, who hopes that his riders can recover for tomorrow’s penultimate day.

http://www.tinkoffsaxo.com/news/contado ... verde-win/