Publicus said:Carols said:Publicus said:No_Balls said:Nah. Just mind games from Martinelli speaking the language of Contador. Any DS bossing the strongest team throwing in the towel before we´ve even reached any serious mountains yet should be fired on spot.
But i´ll give him that it will be very hard if they are massacred on Saturday.
I agree. Martinelli is just playing mind games here.
With who? Alberto already has the guys measure, he won't dismiss him though, he's to race savvy for that.
Perhaps he hopes that it will cause Contador to relax/stop viewing Aru as a threat to the maglia rosa.
Damn, if only Andy Schleck had thought of this in 2010. He could have said "I'm not a threat to Contador" and then Contador would have just stopped viewing him as a threat (cos that's how it works innit) and he would have won the Tour.
Ok, I'm taking the piss a little bit, but the point is there is no way in a million years Contador or any gc contender is going to stop taking an opponent seriously because of what they say.
In 2011 Contador was 5 minutes down and injured with 1 mountain stage to go and 2 seconds after he launched an attack every single yellow jersey contender was glued to his wheel.
There is absolutely no reason for any gc contender to stop taking another one seriously. It doesn't hurt them to be vigilant.
Besides Martineli and Contador worked together, won gts together and know eachother. Contador won't fall for any Martineli trick and Martineli will know Contador won't fall for some crap like this.
Imo martineli is being genuine. Last time Contador did the Giro Martineli announced that in his eyes Contador was already a more accomplished gt champion than Lance. He rates him very highly and he truly believes that Aru can't come close to him, so he says it.