Teams & Riders Alberto Contador Discussion Thread

[Jalgratas95]

Re: Re:

I don't understand why the fuzz about this version of Contador.

Clearly he doesn't go thermonuclear as fast as he once did (hey, he's 32), clearly he hasn't the acceleration power he had in the past, but he's still one of the best.

It's obvious that he's spending more energy than he thought he'd do in this Giro, but he's also not at his peak.

He's not better than Landa today and he'd have a hard time if Landa was the chosen one for the GC by Astana, but he's leading and that's what matters, no matter if he's the strongest on the mountains, or whatever.

Clearly Contador played his cards right when preparing this Giro, because his known main rival is way weaker than him, thing is, nobody was expecting Landa to be so good, and that's exactly what will **** Contador's chances of winning le Tour.
But that's life. You can't control everything.

Landa chosen as leader at the start of the Giro wouldn't have changed anything, Contador would still be leading by at least 4.30 min. It could be even worse since Contador would actually focus on his a s s .

You're using a fallacious argument. I don't doubt that Contador would be superior to Landa in the ITT, however, I believe that Landa would be superior to him in the mountains. Contador would follow Landa's attacks, but wouldn't be able to always keep the pace.

well this argument is the same as woulda shoulda coulda.. don't you think? There's no proof that contador can't follow Landa's pace since these two haven't been mano a mano with both are starting on equal ground so far. At least that's what I saw on the race. (unless you were watching different race ). Maybe we got lucky tomorrow or saturday.

No, because Contador was never able to drop Landa whenever they faced each other. This is a fact. Alluding to the excuse of not being on equal ground isn't really good IMO, since Landa spent energy too by being a domestic until 4/5 days ago.


I support Contador, however, I don't quite understand why are people so excited about his climbing ability when his 5-minute advantage over the second place was obtained through ITT and today's quite strange stage.

To me, Contador is the best all-round rider in this year's Giro, I simply question if he's the best climber. No doubt, however, that he'd be, by far, the best one, would he be at his peak. This question will be, I hope, clarified in the next 2 days.

His winning, however, will make him be the first cyclist to win every GT 3 times (I guess). That's just **** astounding.

Contador will drop Landa in 19th or 20th stage. I'm sure about that.

I'm just amazed how quickly people have jumped on Landa bandwagon and I already feel like they're talking about how he is the all time greatest climber etc.

Well Landa never did push as a domestic to be fair. He just drove as fast as Aru could.

 

[ray j willings]

Astana have been bonkers strong. Bertie has pretty much taken them on alone. I had a look back this morning at the climbing highlights "steephill"
Looking at it again I think Bertie is holding back. His climb up the Mortirolo was sheer class, no panic and he rode well within his capabilities.

Bertie I think will be looking to attack early on the climbs at the tour. I think he has been testing himself for this scenario.
I think we will see aggression in the mountains at the tour. Teams and riders will not want to let Froome and Sky dictate the race.
I will be very interested to see how Nibs can cope if Astana ride like this in the tour.

 

[BlurryVII]

Re: Re:

I very much doubt that,maybe he would beat them Contador-ish style (unexpected attack etc) but I doubt he would drop them mano a mano.Hard to say, I hope you guys are right an he improves for Le Tour,but Im a realist.

You're not realistic, you're underestimating his form in this Giro. He is much better than Quintana last year in the Giro who only won by 2.58 on Uran and 4 min on Aru and it was thanks to that controversial stage. He was worse in the mountains.
Now maybe he was sick or whatever, but Contador crashed twice and dislocated his shoulder.

Yes, I'm 100% sure this form would be enough to beat Nibali and Quintana at the Tour. It's very unkilely he'll have the same form though, it will be better or worse but we'll see a different Contador that's all I know.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

I called it during the stage !!!! (Am having a great Giro prediction wise)

Conta just changing to the bike with the motor. No biggie.

You should have participated in the official prediction game. I am disappointed

 

[T-Nielsen]

Re: Re:

That's a huge tactical advantage for Contador, and one he didn't have yesterday.

For the amount of times over the years that Contador has been in a position of needing to make key tactical decisions on the road - much more often than other riders who aren't at the sharp end of the GC stick nearly as much - his strike rate in achieving a positive outcome is remarkably good. Yes, he's had a few blunders that are easy to pick apart with 20/20 hindsight, but on the road in the moment his instincts and effectiveness with tactics have done really well for him in his career. Recall the infamous dig from Armstrong in 2009 about Contador still having a lot to learn, but the tale of time has shown that both in the remainder of that 2009 TdF, and many other GTs and stage races, that Contador is a far superior tactician to Armstrong, whose hubris concerning his own tactical IQ was largely fueled by the physical superiority of his entire team, a benefit which Contador has often not had.

Armstrong was trying hard to manipulate Contador...the crosswinds jab,the attempt to use superior TT wheels which Contador requested also but was denied and in the end sent his brother out to get them in France and used the same ones as Armstrong in the TT. Its pretty admirable that Contador stood up to that whole scenario and attacked with fire on Verbier.

My favorite part of that tour was when he dropped Kloeden. At the time it seemed like a mistake but knowing what we know now I am certain he meant to. Just to teach a lesson to someone not loyal to him.

 

[BlurryVII]

Re: Re:

My favorite part of that tour was when he dropped Kloeden. At the time it seemed like a mistake but knowing what we know now I am certain he meant to. Just to teach a lesson to someone not loyal to him.

I don't think so, he would never do that on purpose, Klöden was a good friend and sacrificed himself to help him win Giro and Vuelta 2008.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Japanese fans

 

[LaFlorecita]

Lame....... Berto

 

[SeriousSam]

Lame....... Berto

Why do you hate the Tour so much? It's the greatest race.

Great tactical ride from Contador. Hope he lets Aru or Landa win tomorrow as well, even giving up further time to conserve as much energy as possible.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Lame....... Berto

Why do you hate the Tour so much? It's the greatest race.

I'm not biting

 

[Arredondo]

He has to win tomorrow. That *** reason a longe attack will ruin his Tour chances.

VAMOS ALBERTO!

 

[Squirbos_19]

Yeah he wasn't pushed at all today, easily closed the small gaps that opened. Tomorrow he's good enough and should be pretty fresh so if he wants to win the stage, he will. If he rides easy, well it just makes the Tour a little bit easier.

 

[Metabolol]

Great ride by Alberto. I hope he does the same thing tomorrow, just follow Landa. Don't give him an inch.

 

[SuperBesse]

Alberto always seems very friendly and smiling alot in the interviews with rai .... thats all i can say because i cant understand anything lol

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

He has to win tomorrow. That *** reason a longe attack will ruin his Tour chances.

VAMOS ALBERTO!

Yeah he has to win... come on, don't let me down Alberto

 

[Miburo]

Ah Contador you're so bad!!!

How dare you to save energy for the tour???

The fans need a win!!!

2 months later "he lost the tour cause he went way too hard in the giro, stupid berto..."

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

Ah Contador you're so bad!!!

How dare you to save energy for the tour???

The fans need a win!!!

2 months later "he lost the tour cause he went way too hard in the giro, stupid berto..."

Come on... 1 attack won't cost him the win at the Tour ... it's just frustrating to see him follow wheels while he's obviously feeling really good.

 

[Jelantik]

Smart riding by AC. Looks like Landa isn't the only one who's doing a sunday ride, except he got something to show off... look mom, pink jersey!

Aru is saved from loosing his podium. Astana would get 2 and 3. And for consolation of not getting pink they will win tomorrow's stage with Landa. Overall, today's stage is snooze fest. But what do you expect? movistar is busy fighting for mountain jersey. Amador is never been a climber. Truvimof only looks good when other has puncture . Konig? never mind. he is consistent for sure, but consistently out of top 5. Ryder is the only one who shows strength, but he gave up too much time earlier. Otherwise he deserves to sit top 5 or fight for podium.

 

[Metabolol]

It's not necessarily about saving energy,he wanted to stick it to Landa. He will do exactly the same thing tomorrow. He will mark Landa.

Alberto clearly wants to win a stage but even more so he refuses to drag Landa once again. So he will let Aru/whoever go again tomorrow if Landa sits back.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Truvimof .

Really?

 

[Metabolol]

Re: Re:

Ah Contador you're so bad!!!

How dare you to save energy for the tour???

The fans need a win!!!

2 months later "he lost the tour cause he went way too hard in the giro, stupid berto..."

Come on... 1 attack won't cost him the win at the Tour ... it's just frustrating to see him follow wheels while he's obviously feeling really good.

Only reason is bad blood between him and Landa. I'm sure Contador really wanted to attack, he is obviously stronger than Aru and would have easily dropped him. But even more he doesn't want Landa to win another stage. He is not going to chase repeated Astana attacks so that Landa can counterattack him.

 

[Miburo]

Re: Re:

Ah Contador you're so bad!!!

How dare you to save energy for the tour???

The fans need a win!!!

2 months later "he lost the tour cause he went way too hard in the giro, stupid berto..."

Come on... 1 attack won't cost him the win at the Tour ... it's just frustrating to see him follow wheels while he's obviously feeling really good.

There's no way he could have won the stage without going full out.

Landa was never gonna let him go so he had to ride away from him and astana had 2 guys. And at the end it flattened.

Unless he was by far the strongest today, no way he could have won this.

 

[Carols]

Just play it cool again tomorrow Alberto and win the war. It's okay for minor skirmishes to go to others Le Tour beckons, no need to dig into reserves.

His wife attended and he threw the flowers to her .

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

Just play it cool again tomorrow Alberto and win the war. It's okay for minor skirmishes to go to others Le Tour beckons, no need to dig into reserves.

Nah, he needs to win a stage. And Chris Juul said he wants to win tomorrow.

His wife attended and he threw the flowers to her .

Like he did on the previous two stages

 

[Publicus]

Smart riding from Contador. He's got his eye on the prize (winning Giro) and thinking the long game (winning the Tour). If he accomplishes the double without a stage win in either race, I'm sure we all we severely discount his accomplishment accordingly