Teams & Riders Alberto Contador Discussion Thread

[Red Rick]

It's gonna be 4way battle, and Sky will bring the A team, they know only one tactic, which is to drill it until the end of days. Contador won't need a team except for the ttt and flat, medium stages unless he takes the jersey early, and even in that case, he'll probably have 8 black teammates and a black dawg working for him

 

[No_Balls]

Re:

Some nice words from Aru here about the champ:

“I don’t want to seem big headed but I’m happy that Contador is at the Giro. He’s a ‘mostro sacro’ –a legend, of cycling. I learnt a lot by racing against him, Froome and Valverde at last year’s Vuelta and I’ve learnt more this year at the Giro,” he said.

Aru appears to know he has time on his side. He started road racing relatively late for an Italian after focusing on cyclo-cross until he was 19. He admitted that there is only a slim chance he will ride the Tour de France after the Giro d’Italia. Instead he is expected to continue his Grand Tour development by again riding the Vuelta a Espana for a second year.

Aru again played down any rivalry with teammate Mikel Landa or question about his loyalty after Contador was seen giving him a congratulatory hug after his win in Madonna di Campiglio.

“I don’t see anything behind it all, just a sincere congratulation form Alberto. He’s like that, he’s a gentleman. He often congratulates me and calls me campeon,” Aru revealed.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/aru-ive-not-lost-hope-at-the-giro-ditalia

 

[SeriousSam]

Will that be enough to regain the favour of Contador fans though after that incredibly savage and mean spirited sprint a few stages back?

 

[Jspear]

Re:

Will that be enough to regain the favour of Contador fans though after that incredibly savage and mean spirited sprint a few stages back?

Doesn't have to regain favor with me. I've always liked him.

 

[Carols]

Re: Re:

Will that be enough to regain the favour of Contador fans though after that incredibly savage and mean spirited sprint a few stages back?

Doesn't have to regain favor with me. I've always liked him.

I never had any problem either. That is cycling!!

 

[Jelantik]

Re:

Will that be enough to regain the favour of Contador fans though after that incredibly savage and mean spirited sprint a few stages back?

he is just a kid. maybe when he is matured he learns his manner . B/c, Contador has put him in his place by crushing him in ITT. What's the 1 seconds compare to 2 minutes+?

 

[rm7]

What I find really encouraging is that I haven't seen Contador going into red or full gas once in this Giro yet, apart from the ITT of course. People that are saying he attacked yesterday really needs to compare it with other attacks. He didn't attack, he just upped the pace once to see if Landa could follow. But he quickly saw that he had to go all out just to try distance Landa, and it wouldn't even be sure that he could drop him. It was simply not worth the effort.

Obviously he isn't in peak form, but he is in a very good shape indeed. His climbing right now is maybe a level lower than last year, but I think he'll improve this to the Tour.

He really just needs to ride this way on the last 3-4 mountain stages, then he'll a lot left in the tank for the Tour.

In 2011 he was in peak form for the Giro and went full gas on several occasions, and didn't prepare for the Tour at all.

My personal estimate is that Contador is actually going to better at the Tour than he is here in the Giro. Astana seems to be happy with stage wins and 2nd and 3rd places which will be absolutely perfect for Contador. I don't think he could have had it any better way yesterday. He only had to respond to attacks in the last 3 km's.

 

[SeriousSam]

My personal estimate is that Contador is actually going to better at the Tour than he is here in the Giro.

He better. Fabio and Mikel are no better than the fully fit Richie level, which is about one minute slower than the FQN level on any serious summit finish. Given that he knew the level of competition he'd be facing at the Giro and at the Tour, it only makes sense to be stronger for the Tour.

We need to give credit to AC.. He played it perfectly so far. Going all out in the TT as opposed to any climb was smart, because in the TT everyone is alone and every second of effort directly translates into a gap. This isn't the case for MTFs, especially not the Giro ones where you really need to attack on the second to last climb.

 

[ILovecycling]

What I find really encouraging is that I haven't seen Contador going into red or full gas once in this Giro yet, apart from the ITT of course. People that are saying he attacked yesterday really needs to compare it with other attacks. He didn't attack, he just upped the pace once to see if Landa could follow. But he quickly saw that he had to go all out just to try distance Landa, and it wouldn't even be sure that he could drop him. It was simply not worth the effort.

Obviously he isn't in peak form, but he is in a very good shape indeed. His climbing right now is maybe a level lower than last year, but I think he'll improve this to the Tour.

He really just needs to ride this way on the last 3-4 mountain stages, then he'll a lot left in the tank for the Tour.

In 2011 he was in peak form for the Giro and went full gas on several occasions, and didn't prepare for the Tour at all.

My personal estimate is that Contador is actually going to better at the Tour than he is here in the Giro. Astana seems to be happy with stage wins and 2nd and 3rd places which will be absolutely perfect for Contador. I don't think he could have had it any better way yesterday. He only had to respond to attacks in the last 3 km's.

Man, I dont know.This is so hard to predict, he could be bit tired from the Giro.IMO he will be few percent worse than at the Giro.But I hope Im wrong!

 

[Carols]

Simply the Best there is!!!! F**king amazing ride....still 35km to go!

 

[indianfanboy]

Contador clearly the strongest what a ride up the Mortirolo truly legendary...now we will see a showdown between the two strongest climbers (Contador and Landa) in the remaining mountains..Contador will clearly be determined to beat Landa and take a stage win

 

[SeriousSam]

He should forget about winning stages. He should not even try to follow Landa all the way who is clearly climbing at a very high level. He should just control he losses to Landa to win the Giro. He has 4 minutes. He can afford to let Landa get some time back.

Sadly, I think he'll do a mano a mano with Landa and thereby ruin his Tour chances.

 

[Squirbos_19]

Amazing ride up the Mortirolo. Although he lost time to Landa today, this will actually make the rest if the Giro easier, he only has to watch Landa now, let's hope he can hold the lead he's still got over 4mins on Landa.

 

[indianfanboy]

Re:

He should forget about winning stages. He should not even try to follow Landa all the way who is clearly climbing at a very high level. He should just control he losses to Landa to win the Giro. He has 4 minutes. He can afford to let Landa get some time back.

Sadly, I think he'll do a mano a mano with Landa and thereby ruin his Tour chances.

Landa is probably at the same level as Contador but Contador is clearly not at his peak,,,hopefully he peaks for the Tour

 

[indianfanboy]

Now we will see Landa given a bit of his own medicine when Contador sits on him

 

[Merckx index]

I don't think AC was clearly the strongest today, Landa was soft-pedalling for Aru. Then he put almost 40 seconds into AC in a handful of km at the end.

Sure, Contador had to ride hard to catch Astana, but he caught up to them long before the top, then had the descent to recover. I could see Landa outsprinting him at the end, but 40 seconds?

Glad Landa is the leader now, at last we get a chance to see what he can do when he's released.

Glad to see Julich remarked on Landa's victory salute. He lost a few seconds there. Kind of stupid, IMO. Sure, he's unlikely to catch Contador, but anything can happen, and in this Giro, just about anything has happened. Why throw away a few seconds needlessly?

 

[Squirbos_19]

Re: Re:

He should forget about winning stages. He should not even try to follow Landa all the way who is clearly climbing at a very high level. He should just control he losses to Landa to win the Giro. He has 4 minutes. He can afford to let Landa get some time back.

Sadly, I think he'll do a mano a mano with Landa and thereby ruin his Tour chances.

Landa is probably at the same level as Contador but Contador is clearly not at his peak,,,hopefully he peaks for the Tour

If a Contador is at this level in the Tour, there's a very very low chance he will win.

 

[Miburo]

Re:

I don't think AC was clearly the strongest today, Landa was soft-pedalling for Aru. Then he put almost 40 seconds into AC in a handful of km at the end.

Sure, Contador had to ride hard to catch Astana, but he caught up to them long before the top, then had the descent to recover. I could see Landa outsprinting him at the end, but 40 seconds?

Glad Landa is the leader now, at last we get a chance to see what he can do when he's released.

Must have missed contador taking pulls on aprica and leading the entire descent.

 

[Arredondo]

Re:

I don't think AC was clearly the strongest today, Landa was soft-pedalling for Aru. Then he put almost 40 seconds into AC in a handful of km at the end.

Sure, Contador had to ride hard to catch Astana, but he caught up to them long before the top, then had the descent to recover. I could see Landa outsprinting him at the end, but 40 seconds?

Glad Landa is the leader now, at last we get a chance to see what he can do when he's released.

This. People forget Landa had to wait for quite a long time on the Mortirolo.

I think they were on par today.

 

[SeriousSam]

Re: Re:

I don't think AC was clearly the strongest today, Landa was soft-pedalling for Aru. Then he put almost 40 seconds into AC in a handful of km at the end.

Sure, Contador had to ride hard to catch Astana, but he caught up to them long before the top, then had the descent to recover. I could see Landa outsprinting him at the end, but 40 seconds?

Glad Landa is the leader now, at last we get a chance to see what he can do when he's released.

Must have missed contador taking pulls on aprica and leading the entire descent.

Yeah nothing exhausts quite like leading the descents.

Landa softpedalled to the line whilst Contador fought all the way and it was still 40 seconds.

 

[Miburo]

Re: Re:

I don't think AC was clearly the strongest today, Landa was soft-pedalling for Aru. Then he put almost 40 seconds into AC in a handful of km at the end.

Sure, Contador had to ride hard to catch Astana, but he caught up to them long before the top, then had the descent to recover. I could see Landa outsprinting him at the end, but 40 seconds?

Glad Landa is the leader now, at last we get a chance to see what he can do when he's released.

This. People forget Landa had to wait for quite a long time on the Mortirolo.

I think they were on par today.

He had to wait so he could rest. Contador never could. Also when his team was chasing he was in a very stressfull position , landa never was.

 

[Carols]

LEGEND!!!!! The legacy was added to today, what a bike racer

 

[Velolover2]

This could be a epic battle. Still 3 mountain stages to go.

The game is on. I don't even think Contador thinks about saving energy anymore. He wants one of these stages so bad. He wants to beat Landa.

 

[Jspear]

Re:

This could be a epic battle. Still 3 mountain stages to go.

The game is on. I don't even think Contador thinks about saving energy anymore. He wants one of these stages so bad. He wants to beat Landa.

At the end of the Giro, if he is in pink with no stage wins, than he has beaten Landa.

 

[Arredondo]

Re: Re:

I don't think AC was clearly the strongest today, Landa was soft-pedalling for Aru. Then he put almost 40 seconds into AC in a handful of km at the end.

Sure, Contador had to ride hard to catch Astana, but he caught up to them long before the top, then had the descent to recover. I could see Landa outsprinting him at the end, but 40 seconds?

Glad Landa is the leader now, at last we get a chance to see what he can do when he's released.

This. People forget Landa had to wait for quite a long time on the Mortirolo.

I think they were on par today.

He had to wait so he could rest. Contador never could. Also when his team was chasing he was in a very stressfull position , landa never was.

You can also say he didn't had the chance to attack on Mortirolo.

Both Alberto and Mikel were super strong today.