Teams & Riders Alberto Contador Discussion Thread

[IMA]

Re:

Maybe we should wait for Lagos de Covadonga to make an assessment.

He may not be at his best, but he is the only contender without a GT on his legs.

When was the last time he improved his performance during a GT?

...

Too much pressure on him, not in a good shape, terrible team and not the best parcours to make up for lost time...

Definetly, it´s not looking good.

He´s got too many things on his mind the last months. He´s not 100% focus on the bike. And when you get this old, you have to work harder every year.

 

[yaco]

Contador's performance in the Vuelta may make him re-consider retirement - Still no notice of his signing with Trek.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

Contador's performance in the Vuelta may make him re-consider retirement - Still no notice of his signing with Trek.

He has signed the contract - it just hasn't been made public yet
Pretty sure Guercilena will feel stupid now though

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

l
He´s got too many things on his mind the last months. He´s not 100% focus on the bike. And when you get this old, you have to work harder every year.

How do you know I certainly don't have that impression

 

[KyoGrey]

Re: Re:

Maybe we should wait for Lagos de Covadonga to make an assessment.

He may not be at his best, but he is the only contender without a GT on his legs.

When was the last time he improved his performance during a GT?

...

Too much pressure on him, not in a good shape, terrible team and not the best parcours to make up for lost time...

Definetly, it´s not looking good.

He´s got too many things on his mind the last months. He´s not 100% focus on the bike. And when you get this old, you have to work harder every year.

Its not the fact that he can improve his form, but if his form can be sustained while the form of the other contender decline due to past GT efforts.

I guess that what I am trying to say is that it is too early to know.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

How many times hasn't Contador exploded like this? Incredible. He has this burning desire to stick with the leaders, but when he doesn't have it, he explodes and loses a bunch of time. Seen it time and time again. It doesn't have to be as extreme as Froome, but he really isn't good to measure his efforts at times.

I know, it is horribly frustrating. He's just so stubborn, he never gives up. That character has won him quite a few races already, but in situations like this it really hurts him.

 

[lenric]

Re: Re:

Maybe we should wait for Lagos de Covadonga to make an assessment.

He may not be at his best, but he is the only contender without a GT on his legs.

When was the last time he improved his performance during a GT?

...

Too much pressure on him, not in a good shape, terrible team and not the best parcours to make up for lost time...

Definetly, it´s not looking good.

He´s got too many things on his mind the last months. He´s not 100% focus on the bike. And when you get this old, you have to work harder every year.

Vuelta '14.

 

[buchanan]

For me the worrying thing is that a large number of riders beat him, not just some of the obvious big names like Froome, Quintana and Valverde.

To lose as much as 30 seconds to Froome as he did there, is significant. Typically, gaps between top contenders in good form on that climb have been maybe 10 - 15 seconds. 30 seconds is a lot and suggests that his form right now is way behind Froome, Quintana, Valverde.

I guess the expectation/hope is that he will improve while the TDF finishers will start to fatigue and fade as the race goes on. But right now he is looking way off the TDF guys' pace and he has a big gap in form to narrow and then surpass.

 

[TommyGun]

Im so sad tonight, I hate cycling right now. This is it, surely a defining moment in Contador's career.

My last hope is that this has something to do with the horrible team for which he has wasted a few years of his career (maybe he got zero support on and off the bike, this being the last year of Tinkoff and all, like they dont care about Alberto anymore). Can we hope for a last hurrah next year if he is surrounded by more competent people?

 

[Miburo]

So much panic.

 

[rick james]

Re:

So much panic.

so much false hope from you.

 

[TommyGun]

Re:

So much panic.

yeah, sorry, but for once I cannot share your optimism

 

[IMA]

Re: Re:

Maybe we should wait for Lagos de Covadonga to make an assessment.

He may not be at his best, but he is the only contender without a GT on his legs.

When was the last time he improved his performance during a GT?

...

Too much pressure on him, not in a good shape, terrible team and not the best parcours to make up for lost time...

Definetly, it´s not looking good.

He´s got too many things on his mind the last months. He´s not 100% focus on the bike. And when you get this old, you have to work harder every year.

Vuelta '14.

I don´t think so.

Ancares and Farrapona suited him better than any other stage in that Vuelta. Plus in Valdelinares and in the ITT he showed a good performance, and that happened early in the race.

 

[Aristarchus]

Re:

To lose as much as 30 seconds to Froome as he did there, is significant. Typically, gaps between top contenders in good form on that climb have been maybe 10 - 15 seconds. 30 seconds is a lot and suggests that his form right now is way behind Froome, Quintana, Valverde.

That gap from today was alarming. To be sure, it happened on a very steep section of road, but those kinds of gaps can't be given away, particularly since it is so far from certain that he can claw back that much time later. This, combined with the subpar TTT, and Alberto is starting things off in a real hole.

 

[RattaKuningas]

Not an ideal stage today for Contador but could've been worse.

 

[PremierAndrew]

This was always going to happen. Surprised Quintana went so well, but with this parcours, the Tour boys don't have much chance. Contador lost time to Chaves on this Murito which was expected and gained time on Kruijswijk with MAL's GC challenge ending

Hes in a pretty good position

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Re:

This was always going to happen. Surprised Quintana went so well, but with this parcours, the Tour boys don't have much chance. Contador lost time to Chaves on this Murito which was expected and gained time on Kruijswijk with MAL's GC challenge ending

Hes in a pretty good position

How was this always going to happen? He was second best here in 2012 and horrible today.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re: Re:

How many times hasn't Contador exploded like this? Incredible. He has this burning desire to stick with the leaders, but when he doesn't have it, he explodes and loses a bunch of time. Seen it time and time again. It doesn't have to be as extreme as Froome, but he really isn't good to measure his efforts at times.

I know, it is horribly frustrating. He's just so stubborn, he never gives up. That character has won him quite a few races already, but in situations like this it really hurts him.

It has really become a Contador-special. Watched it with by brother (as usual) and when he dropped, he immediately said he will lose 30 seconds. Mur de Huy and Ax-3-Domaines were even worse, but this is up there.

 

[PremierAndrew]

Re: Re:

This was always going to happen. Surprised Quintana went so well, but with this parcours, the Tour boys don't have much chance. Contador lost time to Chaves on this Murito which was expected and gained time on Kruijswijk with MAL's GC challenge ending

Hes in a pretty good position

How was this always going to happen? He was second best here in 2012 and horrible today.

In 2012, Froome was already done by the time this stage came. This year, Contador was always going to struggle at the start and improve as the race went on. Not to mention that Contador hasn't been particularly good on super steep gradients for a while now

 

[dacooley]

Re: Re:

This was always going to happen. Surprised Quintana went so well, but with this parcours, the Tour boys don't have much chance. Contador lost time to Chaves on this Murito which was expected and gained time on Kruijswijk with MAL's GC challenge ending

Hes in a pretty good position

How was this always going to happen? He was second best here in 2012 and horrible today.

In 2012, Froome was already done by the time this stage came. This year, Contador was always going to struggle at the start and improve as the race went on. Not to mention that Contador hasn't been particularly good on super steep gradients for a while now

the problem is that it's a stronger froome / quintana and possibly a weaker contador, looking back at the 2012 vuelta.

 

[Red Rick]

Re: Re:

So much panic.

so much false hope from you.

So much purpose in this post

 

[PremierAndrew]

Re: Re:

This was always going to happen. Surprised Quintana went so well, but with this parcours, the Tour boys don't have much chance. Contador lost time to Chaves on this Murito which was expected and gained time on Kruijswijk with MAL's GC challenge ending

Hes in a pretty good position

How was this always going to happen? He was second best here in 2012 and horrible today.

In 2012, Froome was already done by the time this stage came. This year, Contador was always going to struggle at the start and improve as the race went on. Not to mention that Contador hasn't been particularly good on super steep gradients for a while now

the problem is that it's a stronger froome / quintana and possibly a weaker contador, looking back at the 2012 vuelta.

Stronger Froome. Stronger by 10 minutes? (Yeah he didn't ride that hard once he knew he'd lost, but even trying 100% it would probs have been about 8 minutes)
Stronger Quintana. Stronger than 'stronger Froome'?
What about Valverde? Oh he's ridden 3 GTs this year
What about Purito, the strongest guy in the 2012 Vuelta? Oh he's not here
Chaves? Can't hold his form over 3 weeks

Contador may be weak but his competition isn't all that good either

 

[Simurgh]

Re:

Im so sad tonight, I hate cycling right now. This is it, surely a defining moment in Contador's career.

My last hope is that this has something to do with the horrible team for which he has wasted a few years of his career (maybe he got zero support on and off the bike, this being the last year of Tinkoff and all, like they dont care about Alberto anymore). Can we hope for a last hurrah next year if he is surrounded by more competent people?

I certainly hope so. Without Alberto, and with Pinot disappointing, I find it difficult to enjoy cycling at the moment..

 

[LaFlorecita]

Finally a comment from Berto, judging by a journo's tweet it would seem it took him an incredibly long time to produce a urine sample, anyway he said that on the 30% section he was up to 200BPM out of nowhere and his legs just disappeared, he doesn't know what the reason was, possibly the heat.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re:

Finally a comment from Berto, judging by a journo's tweet it would seem it took him an incredibly long time to produce a urine sample, anyway he said that on the 30% section he was up to 200BPM out of nowhere and his legs just disappeared, he doesn't know what the reason was, possibly the heat.

That just doesn't come out of the blue, he must definitely have felt it leading up to it. Things like that just can't happen without some warnings from your body