Teams & Riders Alberto Contador Discussion Thread

[hfer07]

Re:

Seems the deal with Trek is all but confirmed, a shame, I really don't like the team and their kit. And he definitely won't do Giro/Vuelta at that team, at Astana or Etixx that would still be a possibility.

Flo- do you know if Alberto will be taking along some folks from Tinkoff to the team?

 

[TheYouyou7]

Re:

Seems the deal with Trek is all but confirmed, a shame, I really don't like the team and their kit. And he definitely won't do Giro/Vuelta at that team, at Astana or Etixx that would still be a possibility.

Why do you want him to do Giro/Vuelta ? You wanna prove right all the ret*** saying he's done ? Because it would mean that... I want him to go full gas on TDF for these 2 last years.

 

[Taxus4a]

Re:

Seems the deal with Trek is all but confirmed, a shame, I really don't like the team and their kit. And he definitely won't do Giro/Vuelta at that team, at Astana or Etixx that would still be a possibility.

It is Contador who want to do Tour... Vuelta anyway is possible if he wants.

 

[jmdirt]

Re:

Contador to Trek. One year deal only.

http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/racing/alberto-contador-to-trek-2017-255867?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Social

I wonder if he wishes the contract was effective today!

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

Seems the deal with Trek is all but confirmed, a shame, I really don't like the team and their kit. And he definitely won't do Giro/Vuelta at that team, at Astana or Etixx that would still be a possibility.

Flo- do you know if Alberto will be taking along some folks from Tinkoff to the team?

I read his BFF Jesus, his mechanic Faustino, his massage therapist Thomas, De Jongh and possibly also Basso.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

Why do you want him to do Giro/Vuelta ? You wanna prove right all the ret*** saying he's done ? Because it would mean that... I want him to go full gas on TDF for these 2 last years.

I don't care much about the Tour, I love the Giro and next year is the 100th edition. And I value wins higher than top5's Giro-Vuelta win is better than a Tour win anyway.

 

[jmdirt]

Re: Re:

Contador to Trek. One year deal only.

http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/racing/alberto-contador-to-trek-2017-255867?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Social

I'm curios to see if from tommorow they will help him. That would be nice. What climbers did trek bring to this Tour ?

Mollema, Schleck and Zubeldia.

If they can sign a couple of climbing doms Trek will be a good fit for him.

IMO Peter Stetina is going to be a top level MT Dom too.

 

[portugal11]

Re: Re:

Why do you want him to do Giro/Vuelta ? You wanna prove right all the ret*** saying he's done ? Because it would mean that... I want him to go full gas on TDF for these 2 last years.

I don't care much about the Tour, I love the Giro and next year is the 100th edition. And I value wins higher than top5's Giro-Vuelta win is better than a Tour win anyway.

No it isn't. Contador needs to win le tour. Giro and vuelta are too easy for him. 6 participations, 6 wins.
It's like pais vasco, contador is destined to win

 

[Pricey_sky]

Re: Re:

Contador to Trek. One year deal only.

http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/racing/alberto-contador-to-trek-2017-255867?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Social

I'm curios to see if from tommorow they will help him. That would be nice. What climbers did trek bring to this Tour ?

Mollema, Schleck and Zubeldia.

If they can sign a couple of climbing doms Trek will be a good fit for him.

IMO Peter Stetina is going to be a top level MT Dom too.

He has shown some good form, he could be useful for Alberto.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

He's going to Trek? Wow, that's a bad decision. Do they even have one guy capable of supporting him in the mountain?

 

[rehy90]

Until now the Tinkoff strategy looked like there is only Kreuziger as a domestique. Contador for yellow, Sagan for green, Majka to lose as much time as possible and then get to the breaks for polka dots and stage wins...Kreuziger is there to do all the work no matter if its on the flat or in the mountains. I believe the main problem is that there were only two Tinkoff riders able to stay in the front group yesterday. The only time Tinkoff acted like a team during this tour was actually when the guy you are all bashing helped Sagan to win the stage. So yeah, I believe Kreuziger doesnt deserve this. And to be honest, I am quite disapointed by the whole Tinkoff attitude. If they cleared things between themselves, why did they criticize Kreuziger in the media? That is definitely not going to create a better atmosphere inside the team.

 

[ninjadriver]

Re:

Oh, FFS, people saying he should quit and prepare for Olympics or Vuelta or whatever. Hell no. Let's wait and see, and if project GC fails, which it might already have, he should stay and try something spectacular.

FANTOMAS: No rider since Pantani during the Festina-weakened 1998 TDF has won back-to-back Grand Tours during the same calendar year.

Contador himself has proven this point, both in 2011 and in 2015. And to me, Contador at the 2011 Giro was the most dominant Contador of all, beyond the 2009 TDF. He was frightening at the 2011 Giro - I have the DVDs to remind myself of it.

The time period between 2 Grand Tours (i) isn't short enough to permit a rider to stay on form, which I don't think would be possible even if the tours were only a week or two apart due to exhaustion from the first of the two, and (ii) isn't long enough for a rider to rest and recuperate and then re-train to peak again for the 2nd tour.

If Contador "waits and sees" and stays in the TDF, he will exhaust himself and not have enough time to revitalize and re-train for the Vuelta.

A critical reason why Contador won the 2014 Vuelta was because he abandoned the 2014 TDF relatively early.

 

[movingtarget]

Re: Re:

Why do you want him to do Giro/Vuelta ? You wanna prove right all the ret*** saying he's done ? Because it would mean that... I want him to go full gas on TDF for these 2 last years.

I don't care much about the Tour, I love the Giro and next year is the 100th edition. And I value wins higher than top5's Giro-Vuelta win is better than a Tour win anyway.

Well a win is a win but he is not riding against the best opposition when he does not ride the Tour. Seeing Quintana against Froome and Contador and few others in the Giro would be great but it's unlikely to happen especially with Froome. Unless Froome wins the Tour this year and changes his schedule and lets someone else have a shot at the Giro. Even that is unlikely I think. Sky don't have a good history at the Giro and would probably prefer not to relive some of their past experiences with their best rider. I am not too surprised by Contador's contract. These days employers are very age minded even with high achievers. And Contador's chances of winning the Tour again seem to be getting less and less likely.

 

[The Hitch]

Well if he gets to the point where he can only do top 5 in the Tour then competing for a Giro win is 100% the better option.

That would makes it even sadder though that he wasted one of his peak years - 2015, on the Giro.

"For of all sad words of tongue or pen..."

 

[ninjadriver]

Re:

So, if Contador was to withdraw soon from the TdF with the intent of getting ready for the Vuelta, and the others on Tinkoff stayed in the TdF to the end -- who is he going to get to accompany him at the Vuelta and be with him in the mountains? I don't think the others that are in the TdF would be ready in less than a month to give him a bunch of help when he really needed it.

I tend to agree with LENRIC, NACHO, that Contador needs less of a team than most Grand Tour riders. He is exceptional at marking others, has demonstrated brilliant patience, and does a terrific job of conserving energy.

If I recall correctly - and set me straight if I'm wrong - Contador won the 2015 Giro with "no" team, including on his heroic Mortirolo chase, In fact, I remember, Contador using Intxausti, Anton and Nocentini on that climb, and Kruijswijk everywhere else. Super-domestique Contador teammate Basso was horrific and close to useless.

Alberto won the 2009 Tour with his DS, Bruyneel, against him (supporting Armstrong), with Alberto dropping his own teammate and my favorite rider, Kloden, on the Colombiere, and by going on solo attacks repeatedly to drop teammate Armstrong, among others (the Schlecks; Nibali; Wiggins). Maybe Paulinho helped him? I guess Kloden did somewhat, although I remember Kloden supporting Armstrong, not Contador, including on Verbier.

Lastly, I recall Contador winning the 2012 Vuelta, overtaking Rodriguez on yet another heroic solo launch from 300K out or so, beginning on a descent, with no team support.

Contador of course would benefit from Sylvester Szmyd or Landa, etc., but he's one of the most independent, and awesome Grand Tour riders I've ever seen. His only true competitors at the 2016 Vuelta, as I wrote previously, look to be Chavez and Kruijswijk, not a loaded Team Sky or Deutsche Telekom or US Postal.

 

[Gigs_98]

Seriously, Contador needs one last tour de france. We are living in a world full of julyers and another giro or vuelta win won't add anything special to his palmares. I know Flo and many others will disagree but I try to look at this topic from the perspective of someone who doesn't spend a few hours every day in a cycling forum. Try to look at his career from the perspective of someone who watches this sport one month every year. People already discuss if Froome or Bertie are the best gc riders of their generation and Froome has won 2 gt's. But still those two gt's were tours and although I still think it's nonsense to say Froome is better than Contador (I'd say Froome at least needs 4 tours for that) the fact that this discussion even exists shows that the big times of Contador are already forgotten and outside of this forum there aren't thousands of cycling fans still saying Contador is one of the best ones ever.

If Contador wants to be the legend, which he is according to a few people here, he has to win the only race which would still add something big to his career.

 

[Tonton]

Re: Re:

Bordure (french word I guess) is basically when crosswinds produce breaks in the peloton. I don't know the specific word.

Thanks! I understand now.

Funnny sometimes: the French never say "domestique", a French word (servant), but instead use the Italian word "gregario". Go figure...

 

[ninjadriver]

Re:

Well if he gets to the point where he can only do top 5 in the Tour then competing for a Giro win is 100% the better option.

That would makes it even sadder though that he wasted one of his peak years - 2015, on the Giro.

"For of all sad words of tongue or pen..."

Contador didn't look "peak" to me at the 2015 Giro, HITCH. Landa and Aru both had him dead-to-rights, despite each doing horrible time trials.

One more mountain stage, and Contador would have finished 3rd. Also, if Astana had shifted to backing Landa midrace, Landa would have beaten AC outright. The last "peak" Contador I saw was in 2011. One could argue the end of 2014, although I'm not sure.

 

[ninjadriver]

Seriously, Contador needs one last tour de france. We are living in a world full of julyers and another giro or vuelta win won't add anything special to his palmares.......If Contador wants to be the legend, which he is according to a few people here, he has to win the only race which would still add something big to his career.

Merckx has 11 Grand Tour victories, Hinault 10. Contador to me has 9, and I'd love to see him get to 12. I think 2 more Vueltas and 1 more Giro is way beyond his current abilities, but I'd rather he attempt that or at least bag as many as possible than get hammered by Froome, Quintana, possibly Landa, maybe Bardet, Barguil and Aru.

Gimme a Giro or a Vuelta for him at this point far above finishing even 2nd at the TDF, let alone where he's going to finish if he doesn't abandon.

 

[Carols]

Seriously, Contador needs one last tour de france. We are living in a world full of julyers and another giro or vuelta win won't add anything special to his palmares. I know Flo and many others will disagree but I try to look at this topic from the perspective of someone who doesn't spend a few hours every day in a cycling forum. Try to look at his career from the perspective of someone who watches this sport one month every year. People already discuss if Froome or Bertie are the best gc riders of their generation and Froome has won 2 gt's. But still those two gt's were tours and although I still think it's nonsense to say Froome is better than Contador (I'd say Froome at least needs 4 tours for that) the fact that this discussion even exists shows that the big times of Contador are already forgotten and outside of this forum there aren't thousands of cycling fans still saying Contador is one of the best ones ever.

If Contador wants to be the legend, which he is according to a few people here, he has to win the only race which would still add something big to his career.

He has a tremendous following on FB and many people saying he is a living legend there.

 

[movingtarget]

Re: Re:

Well if he gets to the point where he can only do top 5 in the Tour then competing for a Giro win is 100% the better option.

That would makes it even sadder though that he wasted one of his peak years - 2015, on the Giro.

"For of all sad words of tongue or pen..."

Contador didn't look "peak" to me at the 2015 Giro, HITCH. Landa and Aru both had him dead-to-rights, despite each doing horrible time trials.

One more mountain stage, and Contador would have finished 3rd. Also, if Astana had shifted to backing Landa midrace, Landa would have beaten AC outright. The last "peak" Contador I saw was in 2011. One could argue the end of 2014, although I'm not sure.

Some riders peak in their early years and I think Contador's best years were 2007-2011. The way he won races in that period was not comparable to later years even though he is always an attacking rider. Either he really thought the double was possible in his Giro years or he underestimated Froome. I don't think he was riding the Giro to avoid Froome but who knows, maybe a win in the Giro was more preferable to Contador after he already had a few Tour wins under his belt and it also allowed him to back up in the Vuelta. Some riders struggle with two GTs a year but Contador never did.

 

[Gigs_98]

Seriously, Contador needs one last tour de france. We are living in a world full of julyers and another giro or vuelta win won't add anything special to his palmares. I know Flo and many others will disagree but I try to look at this topic from the perspective of someone who doesn't spend a few hours every day in a cycling forum. Try to look at his career from the perspective of someone who watches this sport one month every year. People already discuss if Froome or Bertie are the best gc riders of their generation and Froome has won 2 gt's. But still those two gt's were tours and although I still think it's nonsense to say Froome is better than Contador (I'd say Froome at least needs 4 tours for that) the fact that this discussion even exists shows that the big times of Contador are already forgotten and outside of this forum there aren't thousands of cycling fans still saying Contador is one of the best ones ever.

If Contador wants to be the legend, which he is according to a few people here, he has to win the only race which would still add something big to his career.

He has a tremendous following on FB and many people saying he is a living legend there.

Well, you are probably right. Contador has a crazy fanbase, but outside of that fanbase I have the feeling Contador doesn't really get appreciated anymore. I wrote about the Froome vs. Contador discussion because GCN made a video about it this week and when I looked through the comments I read hardly any pro-contador posts.

 

[Carols]

Seriously, Contador needs one last tour de france. We are living in a world full of julyers and another giro or vuelta win won't add anything special to his palmares. I know Flo and many others will disagree but I try to look at this topic from the perspective of someone who doesn't spend a few hours every day in a cycling forum. Try to look at his career from the perspective of someone who watches this sport one month every year. People already discuss if Froome or Bertie are the best gc riders of their generation and Froome has won 2 gt's. But still those two gt's were tours and although I still think it's nonsense to say Froome is better than Contador (I'd say Froome at least needs 4 tours for that) the fact that this discussion even exists shows that the big times of Contador are already forgotten and outside of this forum there aren't thousands of cycling fans still saying Contador is one of the best ones ever.

If Contador wants to be the legend, which he is according to a few people here, he has to win the only race which would still add something big to his career.

He has a tremendous following on FB and many people saying he is a living legend there.

Well, you are probably right. Contador has a crazy fanbase, but outside of that fanbase I have the feeling Contador doesn't really get appreciated anymore. I wrote about the Froome vs. Contador discussion because GCN made a video about it this week and when I looked through the comments I read hardly any pro-contador posts.

954K followers. He says Good Morning and 65K people respond . Yeah I'd say he has a fan base on FB.

EDIT: I never looked at Froome's page before; 404K so less than 1/2 the fan base.
EDIT: You do realize GCN is a British production, right?

 

[movingtarget]

Seriously, Contador needs one last tour de france. We are living in a world full of julyers and another giro or vuelta win won't add anything special to his palmares. I know Flo and many others will disagree but I try to look at this topic from the perspective of someone who doesn't spend a few hours every day in a cycling forum. Try to look at his career from the perspective of someone who watches this sport one month every year. People already discuss if Froome or Bertie are the best gc riders of their generation and Froome has won 2 gt's. But still those two gt's were tours and although I still think it's nonsense to say Froome is better than Contador (I'd say Froome at least needs 4 tours for that) the fact that this discussion even exists shows that the big times of Contador are already forgotten and outside of this forum there aren't thousands of cycling fans still saying Contador is one of the best ones ever.

If Contador wants to be the legend, which he is according to a few people here, he has to win the only race which would still add something big to his career.

He has a tremendous following on FB and many people saying he is a living legend there.

Well, you are probably right. Contador has a crazy fanbase, but outside of that fanbase I have the feeling Contador doesn't really get appreciated anymore. I wrote about the Froome vs. Contador discussion because GCN made a video about it this week and when I looked through the comments I read hardly any pro-contador posts.

There is appreciation still but there also has to be realism. Some call it the bitter truth. His race is not over but any further time loss before the hardest stages and it is at least for a podium position unless others in front of him have bad luck which is always possible. I don't think today's stage will decide much unless Contador is feeling really bad.

 

[perico]

Re: Re:

Seems the deal with Trek is all but confirmed, a shame, I really don't like the team and their kit. And he definitely won't do Giro/Vuelta at that team, at Astana or Etixx that would still be a possibility.

It is Contador who want to do Tour... Vuelta anyway is possible if he wants.

For once I agree with Taxus. Who cares about a Giro/Vuelta double. He's been there and done that.

Contador isn't putting off retirement to win the Giro again. He said so himself. He was going to sign with the team that will support him fully at the Tour. His words.