Teams & Riders Alberto Contador Discussion Thread

[MortiroloForever]

Re: Re:

Yeah , it's always important. But now at the end of career , i don't think winning 2 or 3 P-N it will be essential for him
But winning another Tour at 33 y.o. against people like Quintana or Froome in their best ages...meh , it' s a little bit different

Contador is in a better age than Quintana to win le Tour.

Are you sure?

For example, Indurain was retired from cycling at Contador's current age.

Gilberto Simoni, a long-lived cyclist won his last Giro d'Italia at the age of 32. He still was a big contender next 2 years (2004 & 2005, that close race against Savoldelli), but his performances were drowning down little by litlle.

I think riders mature earlier these days. Miguel Indurain won his first Tour when he was 27-28 years old. Quintana has won the Giro and he has been podium twice in Paris and he actually is 26 y.o.

 

[Taxus4a]

Re: Re:

Yeah , it's always important. But now at the end of career , i don't think winning 2 or 3 P-N it will be essential for him
But winning another Tour at 33 y.o. against people like Quintana or Froome in their best ages...meh , it' s a little bit different

Contador is in a better age than Quintana to win le Tour.

Are you sure?

For example, Indurain was retired from cycling at Contador's current age.

Gilberto Simoni, a long-lived cyclist won his last Giro d'Italia at the age of 32. He still was a big contender next 2 years (2004 & 2005, that close race against Savoldelli), but his performances were drowning down little by litlle.

I think riders mature earlier these days. Miguel Indurain won his first Tour when he was 27-28 years old. Quintana has won the Giro and he has been podium twice in Paris and he actually is 26 y.o.

You put examples of another era. I am not going to talk more about that here, if you want I can explain you in private.

Amyway you talk about Simoni and in the ame era you can find Garzelli till 40 years old, and he did his best year with 36 http://www.cqranking.com/men/asp/gen/rider.asp?riderid=37

Zulle in the era of Induran performed his best year with 34.

But Goss has retired in fact of top level cycling, he has money...what you want to say with the age of some people retirement. there are very different examples long time ago and now.

26 years old is a very good age to face le Tour, but 33 as well, and with the advantage of the experience. 30 is the best IMO, but every rider has a different story.

Evans has won le Tour with 35 (but that is not a question of his best age, he did better performes previoulsly), Valverde has done his best result in le Tour with 34.

You can performe very well above 40 as lot of riders as Horner, Voigt, Rebellin,... has showed.

 

[cellardoor]

Aside from the prestige of P-N itself I think getting a GC win against Porte and Thomas would be an important confidence booster. Still, if he wins a stage and shows good form then I'll be pretty happy even if he doesn't win the GC.

 

[Jspear]

Re: Re:

I just don't think he is already in good enough shape to pull something like that off.. he needs more stamina

He had enough stamina in Tirreno 14' to pull off that amazing attack, don't see why he couldn't now. Unless he is in worse 'March' form which would be bad news.

True, but it was a different stage and a different race against different opponents.. I guess we will see.

You've been hard on him recently.

 

[dacooley]

Re:

Winning Paris Nice matters for like a couple of weeks. at the end of the year, nobody's gonna care. He'd either have won or lost the Tour (only Olympic gold would be some salvation really). This is only an indication of form, so if he shows up on Saturday, it doesn't matter whether he wins PN or not.

you handle it from fans' point of view. winning pn would be a very good boost of confidence and help bertie to say to himself 'yes, i'm on the 2014 path and i'm gonna take it all', not to mention about factor of intimidating opponents.

 

[Eshnar]

One of the stage contador put more time to the rest (except Rujano) was in the Giro, in Etna, 50 seconds with Nibali,...

See the slopes, even you dont have that Km at more than 9.

Wrong climb, Taxus...

 

[Matteo.]

A climb a bit different Taxus.
3.5km 8.5% vs 1km 9.3% and 5km at 5.5% vs 4.5%.
Not to mention that we speak of an Alberto 5 years younger, of a different form (we were at the Giro in May, here we are at the PN in March) and even the opponents are of a different level now.
surely he will try and maybe he can achieve PN, but you can not say that the route favors him with people like Tom D, Thomas, Porte ecc

 

[LaFlorecita]

According to legend, on Etna, Alberto attacked on a 6% section with such speed that not even the motors could follow.
I have not seen such a blistering acceleration from him since that day. Of course he has won races with amazing attacks and strong performances, but that turn of speed, hunched over the bars, on a huge gear and during the attack switching to an even bigger gear, I've not seen it. Very Verbier-esque.

 

[Red Rick]

Re:

According to legend, on Etna, Alberto attacked on a 6% section with such speed that not even the motors could follow.
I have not seen such a blistering acceleration from him since that day. Of course he has won races with amazing attacks and strong performances, but that turn of speed, hunched over the bars, on a huge gear and during the attack switching to an even bigger gear, I've not seen it. Very Verbier-esque.

That turn of speed in Pais Vasco 2014 stage 1 was pretty brutal as well, but that was on a huge gradient

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

According to legend, on Etna, Alberto attacked on a 6% section with such speed that not even the motors could follow.
I have not seen such a blistering acceleration from him since that day. Of course he has won races with amazing attacks and strong performances, but that turn of speed, hunched over the bars, on a huge gear and during the attack switching to an even bigger gear, I've not seen it. Very Verbier-esque.

That turn of speed in Pais Vasco 2014 stage 1 was pretty brutal as well, but that was on a huge gradient

You're right, but because it was so steep it didn't look as impressive.
His sprint on Tirreno 2014 stage 4 was pretty good as well (I forgot the climb)

 

[Miburo]

Time to drop everyone on the ventoux tomorrow, just for style points.

And Contador's best acceleration of all time was galibier '07, nothing comes close.

 

[TheYouyou7]

Re:

Time to drop everyone on the ventoux tomorrow, just for style points.

And Contador's best acceleration of all time was galibier '07, nothing comes close.

True

 

[Red Rick]

Re:

Time to drop everyone on the ventoux tomorrow, just for style points.

And Contador's best acceleration of all time was galibier '07, nothing comes close.

Yeah I always forget that one

 

[LaFlorecita]

That's Ferminal's favorite, when he out-races the motorbikes coming out of the corner

 

[BlurryVII]

AC said this morning "PN is a very important objective for me, Saturday could make for some good racing'.

Put your seat belt on.

 

[TheYouyou7]

Re:

AC said this morning "PN is a very important objective for me, Saturday could make for some good racing'.

Put your seat belt on.

Yes but it even the previous climbs are not that hard so..

 

[Miburo]

Re:

AC said this morning "PN is a very important objective for me, Saturday could make for some good racing'.

Put your seat belt on.

He won't wait for the last climb.

 

[Matteo.]

Re: Re:

AC said this morning "PN is a very important objective for me, Saturday could make for some good racing'.

Put your seat belt on.

He won't wait for the last climb.

I don't know.
For sure , wait the last climb to drop Matthews ,it will be a suicide

 

[gregrowlerson]

Re:

Winning Paris Nice matters for like a couple of weeks. at the end of the year, nobody's gonna care. He'd either have won or lost the Tour (only Olympic gold would be some salvation really). This is only an indication of form, so if he shows up on Saturday, it doesn't matter whether he wins PN or not.

Paris-Nice is a rather prestigious affair that people are still going to care about, even years after the fact. It's not all about the Tour, just like it's not all about the Olympics (referring to sports where the Olympics is the true pinnacle like athletics and swimming).

Had Cacho had a better career than Morceli and El Guerrouj after he'd won olympic gold (92) and before they had (96 and 04)?

Unfortunately there are some idiots out there who would answer yes.

Most of us remember Contador's 2014 season as being wonderful - despite not finishing the Tour - because he put in performances like he did at T-A (similar standard race, and almost the same prestige as P-N). Such a result matters then, and it matters now. P-N matters this week too.

So long as the riders actually get to race this weekend

 

[Red Rick]

Re: Re:

Winning Paris Nice matters for like a couple of weeks. at the end of the year, nobody's gonna care. He'd either have won or lost the Tour (only Olympic gold would be some salvation really). This is only an indication of form, so if he shows up on Saturday, it doesn't matter whether he wins PN or not.

Paris-Nice is a rather prestigious affair that people are still going to care about, even years after the fact. It's not all about the Tour, just like it's not all about the Olympics (referring to sports where the Olympics is the true pinnacle like athletics and swimming).

Had Cacho had a better career than Morceli and El Guerrouj after he'd won olympic gold (92) and before they had (96 and 04)?

Unfortunately there are some idiots out there who would answer yes.

Most of us remember Contador's 2014 season as being wonderful - despite not finishing the Tour - because he put in performances like he did at T-A (similar standard race, and almost the same prestige as P-N). Such a result matters then, and it matters now. P-N matters this week too.

So long as the riders actually get to race this weekend

Races like PN are big and they matter. However, we're way past the point where it's a significant addition to his palmares. That doesn't mean he won't want to win them, they're still important, mostly to distinguish between good and dominant seasons. TA wasn't big because he won it, it was big because of the context and the way that he did. It wasn't like 'whoooh, I won TA', it was more like 'I'm back mother********'.

 

[Matteo.]

Has anyone seen the stage? as you have seen him for tomorrow?

 

[Miburo]

Re:

Has anyone seen the stage? as you have seen him for tomorrow?

Gonna ride everyone on a minute tomorrow

 

[LaFlorecita]

Interview with Reuters:
"I don't think we have to look back to 6,7 years ago. I feel stronger than last season, maybe similar to 2014."

 

[dacooley]

Interview with Reuters:
"I don't think we have to look back to 6,7 years ago. I feel stronger than last season, maybe similar to 2014."

2 minutes into the second tomorrow

 

[Miburo]

Still not sure what kinda drug some of you are on.

This climb is more than enough to destroy everyone, especially cause of the profile of the stage before the last climb.

Reminder that Contador's best performances are never on 8+% climbs.