Teams & Riders Alberto Contador Discussion Thread

[Miburo]

The stage is also after a flat stage and the stage after it is also a flat stage. No excuses, now just loads of rain and it'll be even better than that one stage in TA '13

 

[bajbar]

Re: Re:

I already did all the voodoo necessary to get rain on this stage

Yes please. Full Iive coverage, baby.

Random information, live coverage on stages: 1, 9, 15, 19, 20 and 21.

Yes, the stages with a long climb right at the start have been the best through the last few years.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re:

The stage is also after a flat stage and the stage after it is also a flat stage. No excuses, now just loads of rain and it'll be even better than that one stage in TA '13

Yes, its good route making. Even a rest day after Bern at stage 16.

The only excuse I can think about is Contador in yellow. Then again, at that point after the race where Froome dominated Ventoux + ITT in '13 in a very similar setup of stages, its seems highly unlikely.

 

[Miburo]

Yea no way Contador is gonna be in yellow here, hopefully not. Contador in yellow isn't good for the race.

If Nibali isn't too much behind, tinkoff and astana will definitely go full *** here if it rains. Without rain, idk, i hope so but we've been disappointed before

 

[Gigs_98]

Astana will attack there anyway, because both aru and nibali will already have lost a lot of time, I'm pretty sure about that. And at the same time this is the point of the race where the route stops to suit froome and where he might start to fade considering 2013 and 2015

 

[BlurryVII]

Re:

Yea no way Contador is gonna be in yellow here, hopefully not. Contador in yellow isn't good for the race.

So you'd rather have a great show than Contador winning, interesting

Just so you know, Contador not being in yellow at that point will probably mean he is minutes away 2013 style.
I don't think it's gonna be close due to all the hard stages before that so it's gonna be all black or all white.

If he can't make the difference on all pyrenees and Ventoux beforehand, it means he doesn't have it. Which means he won't even have an impact on this stage. Just meaningless attacks. Don't know what you're expecting.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re: Re:

Yea no way Contador is gonna be in yellow here, hopefully not. Contador in yellow isn't good for the race.

So you'd rather have a great show than Contador winning, interesting

You know, there are actually fans like that....

 

[Valv.Piti]

Astana will attack there anyway, because both aru and nibali will already have lost a lot of time, I'm pretty sure about that. And at the same time this is the point of the race where the route stops to suit froome and where he might start to fade considering 2013 and 2015

Stage 15, 2013; Froome getting accused of using motors on Ventoux while spinning away from Contador with an average of 600-700 watts over a sustained effort at 30 seconds

 

[BlurryVII]

Re: Re:

Yea no way Contador is gonna be in yellow here, hopefully not. Contador in yellow isn't good for the race.

So you'd rather have a great show than Contador winning, interesting

You know, there are actually fans like that....

Well yeah, they are cycling fans who only want to be entertained, not Contador fans per se.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re: Re:

Yea no way Contador is gonna be in yellow here, hopefully not. Contador in yellow isn't good for the race.

So you'd rather have a great show than Contador winning, interesting

You know, there are actually fans like that....

Well yeah, they are cycling fans who only want to be entertained, not Contador fans per se.

I don't know if I necessarily agree on that.

Im a huge Nairo fan, but I'd rather see Froome winning if I consistently get entertained over 3 weeks than Nairo winning and we have a few good stages here and there, but overall a dull race.

 

[Miburo]

You're kinda crazy if you think Contador is gonna easily drop Froome in the first 2 weeks, i'm not even sure if '09 Contador can do it. You shouldn't underestimate Froome.

Race really starts for Contador after the ventoux.

And a race is way more exciting when contador isn't in yellow, does that mean he'll be minutes behind? I didn't say that, that's what you implied from it cause you've a hard time thinking rational.

I wanna see exciting racing, tour '09 was boring as *** although it was great seeing Contador on arcali and verbier but i appreciated way more the ride of Contador in the tour of 2011 because that was the real Contador. We only had glimps of it in '09 when he attacked lance on arcalis.

 

[BlurryVII]

It's down to how much of a Quintana fan you are. Probably not as passionate about your rider as I am. I'm at a stage where I don't care if the race's dull, only want Contador to win.

It's like hardcore football fans, they don't care if their team is boring and pulls the Catenaccio every match, as long as they win the Champion's league or world cup.

 

[Miburo]

Why are you a fan of Contador? Cause of his exciting racing? All his rivals were so boring but he was exciting, he's fun to watch so you choose him. Am i correct?

Now it doesn't matter, aslong he wins even if it would be worse than a Levi ride. So you want contador to become what his rivals were.

The irony is beautiful.

 

[BlurryVII]

Re:

You're kinda crazy if you think Contador is gonna easily drop Froome in the first 2 weeks, i'm not even sure if '09 Contador can do it. You shouldn't underestimate Froome.

2.Race really starts for Contador after the ventoux.

I'm not underestimating Froome, I'm well aware of what he's able to do. But if Contador's on his game, I know he'll stick with him and eventually take some time from him.

2. That affirmation is an absolute joke, that just shows you don't believe in Contador one bit. If you think his race starts AFTER Ventoux, then go start celebrating Froome's win already. What the hell.

 

[Flamin]

Re:

It's down to how much of a Quintana fan you are. Probably not as passionate about your rider as I am. I'm at a stage where I don't care if the race's dull, only want Contador to win.

It's like hardcore football fans, they don't care if their team is boring and pulls the Catenaccio every match, as long as they win the Champion's league or world cup.

I do feel sorry for you then, though you can't help it of course.

 

[nesvik]

Contador gonne be a beast this years TDF barring any injuries and a few people will realise reality since some seems to already have forgotten what a fresh inform Contador do to people.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re:

It's down to how much of a Quintana fan you are. Probably not as passionate about your rider as I am. I'm at a stage where I don't care if the race's dull, only want Contador to win.

It's like hardcore football fans, they don't care if their team is boring and pulls the Catenaccio every match, as long as they win the Champion's league or world cup.

No, Im definitely not, but I'd like to think Im up there. I don't think many are as passioned as you, probably none at this forum at least.
I've just *** put a huge poster up on my wall from a tour magazine on my wall, written Sueño Amarillo at it and circled Arcalis, Ventoux and Emosson. Go go.

 

[Miburo]

And again overreacting, you really can't help yourself

 

[LaFlorecita]

I am with Blurry, I don't care about the race as long as Alberto wins. It could be the most exciting GT in history (not very likely with Sky, though) but if Alberto lost I'd still hate the race.

And Alberto's TDF most definitely doesn't start after Ventoux, that's nonsense.

 

[portugal11]

Re:

I already did all the voodoo necessary to get rain on this stage

No!!! We need rain in aspin!!! Aspin will be AX3 and PSM of tour 2016!!!

 

[gregrowlerson]

Re:

Why are you a fan of Contador? Cause of his exciting racing? All his rivals were so boring but he was exciting, he's fun to watch so you choose him. Am i correct?

Now it doesn't matter, aslong he wins even if it would be worse than a Levi ride. So you want contador to become what his rivals were.

The irony is beautiful.

I think that many of us are fans of Contador because he is from a different era of cycling. Well he is sort of the bridge between the Lance/Jan/Ivan/Roberto/Andreas era and the Chris/Nairo/Vincenzo/Alejandro one. For many of us his rise to the top closely coincided with our own interest in the sport, and that has a lot to do with it.

When AC won the '14 Vuleta he didn't exactly do so via an onslaught of long range attacks. He did it by riding tactically smart, sitting on Froome for key periods on MTF's, before taking some time almost Purito style. Of course ANYTHING that Contador did at that Vuelta would have been incredible given his injuries at the Tour, and we - Alberto fans - adored all of those moments that gave Contador a remarkable GT victory.

I think that's his best win. I can still remember the talk on the forum a month, and then even weeks out from the start of the race. Contador was NO chance to ever START the Vuelta. What happened was *** amazing

Most of us understand now that Alberto isn't quite at the peak of his powers anymore. I think that the absolute best Froome is slightly better than the absolute best Contador, with the first two stages of the '14 Dauphne being a very accurate depiction. That doesn't mean that Contador cannot win this TDF. But he'll likely have to race it super smartly and not race so much to 'entertain'. We'd all love to see Alberto attack halfway through a multi mountain stage as early as stage 8, but such gun ho bravado will likely backfire big time in the long run.

Stage 5 will give us some information on how everyone is tracking, and we don't want to see a repeat of stage 5 of the Dauphne there....

But if Froome goes thermonucleur on Arcalis and Contador loses thirty seconds, then he might actually be the winner. He can lose some time. Just don't get destroyed.

Don't try to hang on for as long as you can, '07 Evans style. Let it go, and limit those losses a little.

The point about the race starting for Contador after Ventoux is a good one. It's to suggest that Froome will peak from around stages 5-12. It is after that when Contador might have a chance to take time back. And he might be close enough to yellow that he doesn't have to ride in the vane of Landis into Morzine, but rather just take time on the final climb (and descent) of the day.

I know. How boring

 

[Taxus4a]

Re: Re:

What is true is that froome didnt need his team to drop Contador.

It i hard maybe to accept reality. Reality is not my blame, brother. and it is not my blame people here saying the difference was the team... becouse is not true.

 

[Ricco']

Re: Re:

I think that many of us are fans of Contador because he is from a different era of cycling. Well he is sort of the bridge between the Lance/Jan/Ivan/Roberto/Andreas era and the Chris/Nairo/Vincenzo/Alejandro one. For many of us his rise to the top closely coincided with our own interest in the sport, and that has a lot to do with it.

Well, I'm not sure you can say that Alejandro is from the same era as Froome and Nairo and say in the same sentence that Contador represents the bridge between these two eras.

Valverde was a factor even before Contador's first shows, being on the podium of the Vuelta already in 2003 and beating Armstrong in Courchevel in 2005.

 

[gregrowlerson]

Re: Re:

I think that many of us are fans of Contador because he is from a different era of cycling. Well he is sort of the bridge between the Lance/Jan/Ivan/Roberto/Andreas era and the Chris/Nairo/Vincenzo/Alejandro one. For many of us his rise to the top closely coincided with our own interest in the sport, and that has a lot to do with it.

Well, I'm not sure you can say that Alejandro is from the same era as Froome and Nairo and say in the same sentence that Contador represents the bridge between these two eras.

Valverde was a factor even before Contador's first shows, being on the podium of the Vuelta already in 2003 and beating Armstrong in Courchevel in 2005.

You are right, I completely forgot that Valverde has been around forever! In fact he really is the bridge between the eras (thinking of Courchevel, personally I don't even think I had heard of the Vuelta at that time ).

My attempted point was even more fatally flawed though.

Because everyone hates him

 

[Carols]

I am a cycling fan first and foremost. Great Champions come and go, I have seen quite a few. Alberto is definitely one of them.

I want a Grand Race, hard fought and hard to win. Ideally Alberto wins and adds more Glory to an already glittering plamares. But if he doesn't, I'll still love cycling. Granted I'll be a bit depressed if Froome is an alien and just rides away with it .

Regardless of the outcome I'll be in line to watch the next race on the calendar because it's the sport I'm hooked on not any single rider.

Vamos Alberto!