Teams & Riders Alberto Contador Discussion Thread

[Matteo.]

No consequences of crash , he said is ok.
So , next target : Mure de Bretagne . What will happen?

 

[BlurryVII]

Re:

I'm just saying he crashed enough in the tour, isn't that a fact? And can i not hope it won't happen again?

And sella was never gonna win that giro, stop it. At the mortirolo he couldn't ride away from them, they let the guy go cause he had the 12 min. Not my fault you're still salty about the rasmussen thing

And sorry that contador held back leipheimer his amazing attacks. We really missed out on that one

Yep, very true. Sella was never gonna win that Giro, he could go on breakaways because he had already lost the GC.
Looks like some people are struggling to understand basics of cycling here.

And Contador was the best climber in that Vuelta. The only time Leipheimer truly worked was on Angliru but then again it couldn't have hindered him due to the gradient. It's just as hard for everyone behind to keep wheels; And he would have never put 40 s and 1 min difference on Piti and Purito.

 

[sacrifice&hardwork]

He hopes to do well tomorrow considering he almost won back in 2011 but also says that it's more of a Sagan stage so hopes to be at the front and fight for some seconds.

 

[staubsauger]

Re:

I'm just saying he crashed enough in the tour, isn't that a fact? And can i not hope it won't happen again?

And sella was never gonna win that giro, stop it. At the mortirolo he couldn't ride away from them, they let the guy go cause he had the 12 min. Not my fault you're still salty about the rasmussen thing

And sorry that contador held back leipheimer his amazing attacks. We really missed out on that one

Pal, I never wanted to offend your statement in any way. I'm sorry it seemed so, due to a misguided smiley!

Sella's actually pressured Contador into his crisis that Giro! He won three mountain stages and left everyone in the dust. He was in a league of his own.

Actually LL did some attack to test out Astana's rivals that Vuelta. As I said, he probably was in a shape he never hit (again) before or afterwards.

Yeah, of course I'm still pretty mad about the Rasmussen-story. I'll always be!

Eventually I just wanted to conclude with some examples that sometimes you lose, sometimes you win!

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

He hopes to do well tomorrow considering he almost won back in 2011 but also says that it's more of a Sagan stage so hopes to be at the front and fight for some seconds.

that sounds promising

 

[BlurryVII]

Re: Re:

I'm just saying he crashed enough in the tour, isn't that a fact? And can i not hope it won't happen again?

And sella was never gonna win that giro, stop it. At the mortirolo he couldn't ride away from them, they let the guy go cause he had the 12 min. Not my fault you're still salty about the rasmussen thing

And sorry that contador held back leipheimer his amazing attacks. We really missed out on that one

Pal, I never wanted to offend your statement in any way. I'm sorry it seemed so, due to a misguided smiley!

Sella's actually pressured Contador into his crisis that Giro! He won three mountain stages and left everyone in the dust. He was in a league of his own.

Actually LL did some attack to test out Astana's rivals that Vuelta. As I said, he probably was in a shape he never hit (again) before or afterwards.

Yeah, of course I'm still pretty mad about the Rasmussen-story. I'll always be!

Eventually I just wanted to conclude with some examples that sometimes you lose, sometimes you win!

Contador wasn't even bothering with Sella.

Shame prime Sella couldn't beat an off shape AC who didn't know he would do the Giro a week before .

And Leipheimer made up all the time back in the ITTs . He was not gonna win that Vuelta, being in Astana or anywhere else, deal with it?

I would also be very mad if I was Rassmussen, a shame he couldn't finish it off after such an amazing breakaway he got because Discovery and the other teams didn't give a *** about him.

 

[Carols]

Re:

He hopes to do well tomorrow considering he almost won back in 2011 but also says that it's more of a Sagan stage so hopes to be at the front and fight for some seconds.

Vamos Alberto!

 

[Electress]

Was that Contador throwing a hissy fit at the end? Who was he aiming at?

What was this? Knew we couldn't even have a transition stage without something to be concerned about.

 

[Matteo.]

Re: Re:

He hopes to do well tomorrow considering he almost won back in 2011 but also says that it's more of a Sagan stage so hopes to be at the front and fight for some seconds.

that sounds promising

Unless Purito , i only hope he doesn't loose Froome 's wheel ...it would be a very good result

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

He hopes to do well tomorrow considering he almost won back in 2011 but also says that it's more of a Sagan stage so hopes to be at the front and fight for some seconds.

that sounds promising

Unless Purito , i only hope he doesn't loose Froome 's wheel ...it would be a very good result

Yep, I agree

 

[BlurryVII]

Oh I forget how AC attacked in the last K on Fuentes de Invierno to win the stage because he had the Vuelta almost in the bag, do you think if Leipheimer was real threat, he would have waited the last K to do it?

Probably would've accelerated from 5 or 6 k out to blow up Leipheimer but he just didn't care, he was cruising in on Mosquera's wheel without being worried about LL.

 

[Carols]

So what is the story with Mjaka? Injured? Bad form? Saving himself? He will be needed soon!

 

[Miburo]

Re:

So what is the story with Mjaka? Injured? Bad form? Saving himself? He will be needed soon!

Saving himself, he's fine.

 

[Matteo.]

Re: Re:

He hopes to do well tomorrow considering he almost won back in 2011 but also says that it's more of a Sagan stage so hopes to be at the front and fight for some seconds.

that sounds promising

Unless Purito , i only hope he doesn't loose Froome 's wheel ...it would be a very good result

Yep, I agree

I also think we will see if , in the past few days , he had problems of racing legs or poor shape.
Of course , Mur is not a proper climb , but we will know a bit more ' cause these kind of climbs usually suited him , at least for a top 5-10 whitout losing too seconds

 

[BlurryVII]

Re: Re:

I just would like to see him cover a few attacks and some smooth pedalling out of the saddle and such things because these last days he's all over the place looking very rigid too. Staying with the main guys would be good basically.

And if he's dropped tomorrow, he'll be dropped on Tuesday as well.

 

[staubsauger]

Re:

Oh I forget how AC attacked in the last K on Fuentes de Invierno to win the stage because he had the Vuelta almost in the bag, do you think if Leipheimer was real threat, he would have waited the last K to do it?

Probably would've accelerated from 5 or 6 k out to blow up Leipheimer but he just didn't care, he was cruising in on Mosquera's wheel without being worried about LL.

Wasn't it exactly THAT stage, where Leipheimer even sprinted for bonus seconds at the finish after being not allowed to chase Contador's attack?

Contador even got mad with Leipheimer after that Vuelta. Because obviously at some point of the race he broke the match plan, by actually becoming a little thread and going all-in at the final time trial.

Leipheimer was his domestique that Vuelta, so officially no (real) thread. He still gave away the jersey two times, until Contador finally got it and would've won if not for the bonus seconds. If that's not a case of Contador also being a bit lucky sometimes during his career, what would be? It's hard to give a call on things that actually were pretended to ever happen (Contador versus Leipheimer fight).

And LOL to the Rasmussen comment. He barely lost any ground to the favorites group up to Tignes and dropped everyone on Aubisque before Rabobank fired him.

Why is this even a discussion? Contador has had bad luck and he has had some little luck during his career! But in 2009 for example he won despite very unlucky circumstances, simply by being the strongest man.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

I just would like to see him cover a few attacks and some smooth pedalling out of the saddle and such things because these last days he's all over the place looking very rigid too. Staying with the main guys would be good basically.

And if he's dropped tomorrow, he'll be dropped on Tuesday as well.

Blurry

I saw no grimacing today

I agree that if he gets dropped tomorrow - outright dropped, not just gapped in the sprint - he will have a hard time on Tuesday too

 

[BlurryVII]

Re: Re:

Oh I forget how AC attacked in the last K on Fuentes de Invierno to win the stage because he had the Vuelta almost in the bag, do you think if Leipheimer was real threat, he would have waited the last K to do it?

Probably would've accelerated from 5 or 6 k out to blow up Leipheimer but he just didn't care, he was cruising in on Mosquera's wheel without being worried about LL.

Wasn't it exactly THAT stage, where Leipheimer even sprinted for bonus seconds at the finish after being not allowed to chase Contador's attack?

It's hard to give a call on things that actually were pretended to ever happen (Contador versus Leipheimer fight).

And LOL to the Rasmussen comment. He barely lost any ground to the favorites group up to Tignes and dropped everyone on Aubisque before Rabobank fired him.

Yeah, it was THAT stage, and it's exactly because Leipheimer wasn't considered a threat that Contador didn't go berserk from much earlier in the climb, do you get that?

If you 'think' it's hard to make a call, then why are you opening it saying he was lucky? He won, and would have been much more aggressive if Leipheimer was not on his team. That's it, just deal with it?

Rassmussen would've never been able to get away in the first place if he was not far behind in the GC, it's not about his climb up Tignes, it's just that peloton would've chased him immediately if he was close at that time.

And then of course he took advantage of being leader on Aubisque, by letting unexperienced AC empty himself with useless attacks and countering at the end. But AC still showed to be stronger on Galibier and Peyresourde.

AC was also taking time back from Rassmussen on the ITTs, so without the breakaway, AC would've won either way.

Rassmussen wasn't even in yellow in paris, I don't know why is this a discussion in the first place.

 

[staubsauger]

If you win a race by bonus seconds it IS with some luck. With bad luck (mechanical in the final tt), he could've lost it.

And only because Rasmussen was lucky that his plan to fly under the radar before the long tt succeeded, it doesn't mean Contador wasn't lucky chicken got fired by his team.

I never tried to offend Contador and his legacy. I only stated that he also has had a fair-share of luck during his career, like he has had an unfair-share of bad luck and concluded that this simply belongs to a cyclists career!

 

[Miburo]

Once again i only said contador had a lot of bad luck crashing in recent tours and hope it stops in this one. That's all

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

I never tried to offend Contador and his legacy. I only stated that he also has had a fair-share of luck during his career, like he has had an unfair-share of bad luck and concluded that this simply belongs to a cyclists career!

You missed the point. It wasn't that Contador is extremely unlucky, but rather that Contador and the Tour don't go well together. There's almost always something that goes wrong.

I've posted this before:

2004 - would ride his first TDF but got ill
2005 - first TDF
2006 - would ride TDF but wasn't allowed to because of OP
2007 - won first TDF
2008 - not allowed to defend Tour title by ASO
2009 - won TDF but extremely mentally stressful race
2010 - won but tested positive and lost result
2011 - 5th after lots of crashes and lost result
2012 - banned
2013 - complete off-year with a terrible TDF
2014 - crashes out
that's 9 out of 11 years from which you can conclude Alberto & TDF is not a happy relationship

 

[staubsauger]

Re:

Once again i only said contador had a lot of bad luck crashing in recent tours and hope it stops in this one. That's all

I'm fine with that!

Me, too. I don't like it when a contender gets beaten due to crashes. Perfectly, it should be fair & square!

@LaFlo: BULB! Finally got it.Thanks. (y)

 

[LaFlorecita]

Vamoss!

 

[cellardoor]

Just re-watched the 2011 edition of Mur de Bretagne. He should have won, but just got his push for the line slightly too late. Would be nice to see him get revenge with a stage win, but I can't see it happening the way things have been going. If he gets dropped here, no excuses, it's a bad sign - can't say this climb doesn't suit him.

 

[ad9898]

Re: Re:

I just would like to see him cover a few attacks and some smooth pedalling out of the saddle and such things because these last days he's all over the place looking very rigid too. Staying with the main guys would be good basically.

And if he's dropped tomorrow, he'll be dropped on Tuesday as well.

Blurry

I saw no grimacing today

I agree that if he gets dropped tomorrow - outright dropped, not just gapped in the sprint - he will have a hard time on Tuesday too

He won't be dropped tomorrow, every day is days extra racing in his legs. he'll be at the front or just dropping a few seconds. On Sunday the team will get more or less all the time back on Sky in the TTT. On Tuesday we start to see his form. The last week we are in for fireworks.