Teams & Riders Alberto Contador Discussion Thread

[BlurryVII]

Looks like he's had to respond to quite a few attacks by himself, but it's no excuse, he was looking a bit ragged when closing the gaps. Out of the saddle for the time being and sits as soon as he can to breath. When he's feeling really good, he's constantly out of the saddle.

Pretty sure he was better in Paris Nice, he did no climbing between PN and catalunya and mainly recovered from his cold. Might play a big role.

I remember before the Pais Vasco 2014, he stated that he did a high intensity training during the week break because he looked at the stage 1 and saw it was decisive with that steep climb. He had planned that attack. And looked much much better than he did in Catalunya 14'.

 

[Escarabajo]

To me, he seems to be closing gaps too much on these races that are not that important. Maybe should just focus on not winning everything but putting quality miles on his legs. I know Contador's fans don't agree with me but we should face it. He is not the young race horse that he once was and should take care of his racing miles a bit more. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Matteo.]

Today Quintana was simply stronger.
Now the only positive thing is that it seems to me, Alberto was stronger in PN. Hopefully he'll do a better performance in PV

 

[VayaVayaVaya]

Maybe he's putting in work closing down attacks to prepare for the Tour, where he will be tasked with sticking to Froome's mutant attacks. It took its toll today, but he will get stronger.

 

[arvc40]

I blame Majka, should have been there to chase TJVaverage.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Today Quintana was simply stronger.
Now the only positive thing is that it seems to me, Alberto was stronger in PN. Hopefully he'll do a better performance in PV

Yes, hopefully he can win Pais Vasco. He needs a stage race win to boost his confidence.

 

[ILovecycling]

Re:

To me, he seems to be closing gaps too much on these races that are not that important. Maybe should just focus on not winning everything but putting quality miles on his legs. I know Contador's fans don't agree with me but we should face it. He is not the young race horse that he once was and should take care of his racing miles a bit more. Just my 2 cents.

I totally agree with this.

Pretty impressive today , only Quintana is on better form, but that can be changed
Vamos!

 

[Matteo.]

Today Quintana was simply stronger.
Now the only positive thing is that it seems to me, Alberto was stronger in PN. Hopefully he'll do a better performance in PV

Yes, hopefully he can win Pais Vasco. He needs a stage race win to boost his confidence.

Or at least a stage victory by crushing opponents as in 2014 or the Malhao 2016 . One of two things . Otherwise it will become very hard for the Tour ( for the final win )

 

[Jelantik]

well, I was a bit disappointed with the outcome. Contador got out climbed by Quintana who hasn't been raced since January. I'm a bit surprise. Contador always said he needs the race speed and he has been racing twice already. Second place again. Sound like dejavu of 2013. I'm not surprise if Contador isn't going to be stronger than this. Quintana was very surprising. Coming down from altitude and smash everyone. Imagine if he has the racing rhythm already. This year could be the year of Quintana. Froome? is understandably, he probably needs to find his race rhythm and going from hot south africa to cold mountain in spain, must do a bit of get used to for him. He also got out climbed too by Porte? (Did TJ finish ahead of him too)

 

[BlurryVII]

C'mon now, saying he isn't going to get stronger than this is deluded. Had he won PN, you wouldn't be saying that. And he should've won it + don't forget his demonstration on Malhao. Of course there's hope for the rest of the season.

Quintana did an altitude training camp for the last weeks, and really prepared himself for this race harder than last years. While Contador had close to no climbing since PN. If he was to come off a high intensity altitude camp, he'd do much better on such long and harder climbs. That's reserved for Dauphiné and Tour.

Their completely different path and preperation prior to this race can explain a lot of why Quintana had a bit more in the tank today. Everything will be square come the Tour.

 

[sir fly]

Contador doesn't have the dominant physical ability any more. Also, his team can't give him advantage over major rivals.
So, it's going to come down on his tactical excellence.

 

[Mr.White]

Don't think Quintana is stronger at all. Contador closed way too many gaps, first to TJ, then chased Porte, then worked on the front to gap Dan Martin, and then followed Quintana. He's good, but Quintana is also very good. I expect victory at Pais Vasco

 

[BlurryVII]

Re:

He'd need no tactical plan if he reaches this kind of form. Catalunya is not Tour

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

Don't think Quintana is stronger at all. Contador closed way too many gaps, first to TJ, then chased Porte, then worked on the front to gap Dan Martin, and then followed Quintana. He's good, but Quintana is also very good. I expect victory at Pais Vasco

Well, I expected victory here too, and in Paris-Nice, and in Algarve maybe there'll be a different obstacle in Pais Vasco

 

[rhubroma]

Contador, in the twilight of his career, has to face beasts that are more formidable than one rider, no matter how talented, can manage on his own.

Quintana, who is a beast, had a teammate up the road, for which he didn't have to respond to others attacks. He could just follow and wait, then plant the big surge at the most opportune time.

Taking nothing away from Quintana, but Contador is too isolated. He will need monster form to make up for the lack of a team, but with the other talents out there it's difficult to say the least.

 

[PremierAndrew]

Re: Re:

Don't think Quintana is stronger at all. Contador closed way too many gaps, first to TJ, then chased Porte, then worked on the front to gap Dan Martin, and then followed Quintana. He's good, but Quintana is also very good. I expect victory at Pais Vasco

That doesn't account for the 15 second gap. Quintana was simply stronger today. Whether that's because Contador's ill or that was just a fabricated excuse, we don't know

 

[rm7]

I know a lot of people talk about his 2014 spring as something really special, but if you look at the actual competition in those races aren't very impressive (impressive in terms of Contador standard). I'm not really sure he's below that 2014 spring level right now.

2014:
He lost algarve til kwiatkowski. This year he would have destroyed Kwiatkowski with more than 10 sec.

Won T-A over Quintana in an impressive manner, but people tend to forget that Quintana was building up for the Giro. You're way to closer to peak condition if you're peaking for the spring with the Tour in mind, rather than building up for the Giro. Kreuziger was also nr. 3 in that race.

Catalunya:
Lost GC with 4 seconds to JRod. A close battle with all the favourites. He actually beat almost all those riders with a bigger margin this year, except for Quintana. Also remember that Quintana was still building up for the Giro.

Pais Vasco:
He won the race with that impressive attack against Valverde. But tbh, he would crush Valverde in this form at the same climb again. Other than that it was soft competition.

2016:

Algarve:
He had one bad day, but put in a dominant performance on the only real hard climb of the race.

P-N:
Clearly would have won the race if stage 3 wasn't cancelled. He looked strong on that soft climb, but even in 2014 he wouldn't have won that in that manner. If stage 3 wasn't cancelled he would probably have been in yellow, and attacked in the last km to gain the victory this year as well.

Catalunya:
Actually think he's doing better here than in 2014, but Quintana didn't have that spring peak that year, because of the Giro.

Also count the factor that Quintana is actually entering the best year of his career, and Contador is in his last year of his.

But is 2016 really poor compared to the 2014? Also if you compare the competition he's facing this year?

 

[rhubroma]

Quintana is just so strong on the climbs. They are both targting the Tour, but Quintana has the better team.

Today was a bit strange, Sky didn't come through and, ironically, AC needed the race controlled more to not have to expend more energy than he could afford against Quintana.

 

[LaFlorecita]

In 2014 he looked imperious. You'd look at him and know he would do well, he just looked that good.
I've not seen him like that this season (yet) (mind you I've not been able to watch many stages)
I think he is slightly better than in 2015, slightly worse than in 2014. It would make sense, he is 2 years older, it's very hard to reach the same level as when he was 31. I hope I'm wrong because I think he needs at least 2014 level to win the Tour unless he has Nibali-like luck.
I'm not discarding the possibility just yet, in Paris-Nice he looked good enough to me. Let's see what he can do in Pais Vasco. It would be sad if he couldn't win even 1 race in his last year.

 

[rm7]

What is his competition in Pais Vasco?

Actually, in 2014 I remember watching several stages where I thought he was in deep trouble, and suddenly the next thing you know, he's flying away. I think it was a mixture of just experienced the 2013 season and him using a higher gear when climbing.

He certainly doesn't look as smooth as 07-11, and is missing the acceleration.

I'm not sure he was really 15 seconds weaker than Quintana. And i'm not trying to be biased here. Look at the stage and see that Contador closed SEVERAL gaps . Quintana outsmarted him by just following wheels all the time and then put in his accelerations in the last 1,5 km. Contador said after the stage that he was loosing his breath from all the accelerations.

Quintana knew that Contador wanted to win the race and took full advantage of that by letting him do the job. I still think that with Froome in the mix today, it would have been a different outcome.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Actually his attacks have great punch this year, I didn't expect it, he's really explosive. But maybe he just lacks some power/stamina.

In Pais Vasco he'll race against Valverde, Purito, Henao, Landa, Aru, Quintana, Pinot, Dumoulin - it'll be difficult.

 

[metaCYCLE]

Paradoxically what went completely in AC's disadvantage was how weak Sky were today. While he clearly has no climbing firepower in his team for this race (though Jasper's effort must be lauded!) he had to cover a lot of the attacks which, normally would have been shut down by the likes of Poels or Nieve. Tough luck. Bring on PV!

 

[ray j willings]

Don't forget Bertie was stronger than Quintana only a day ago on a climb. Bertie did a lot more chasing today but in the end the margin was not huge. Froome should be more worried if you are going on form and what about Aru.
Fact is ,its early days. I still think when the tour comes around and we have a bonkers aggressive Astana, Aru will be the man to beat. Froome wont get the luxury again of riders "Quintana" scared to attack and if Bertie stays healthy then Froomes chances of a tour win will get blown away in the third week.
I think Bertie looks good but not 2014 form

 

[ILovecycling]

Re: Re:

He'd need no tactical plan if he reaches this kind of form. Catalunya is not Tour

Please dont post this pic so often, it always put me in the *** mood...it reminds one of the worst moments for a cylcling fan

 

[rm7]

And how is Tinkoffs team in Pais Vasco? He needs a better team, no one can handle all those attacks by himself.

I don't expect him to better there, actually maybe a little bit worse?

4th stage race within short time. It's closer to the Giro, so some of those guys should definitely show some form there.