Teams & Riders Alberto Contador Discussion Thread

[Matteo.]

Re: Re:

Contador has just won another Vuelta.
It'll be in Quintana's palmares, though.

Do not exaggerate.

Anyway , he did good. The best possible. The podium is closer and closer.

Why?
Without Contador's guts, Quintana would've been giving an interview now in style: "There's still enough road... I'll have to defend 55 seconds..."
To be fair, Contador was Quintana's road captain and DS today.

Yesterday i don't see a Quintana as wheelsucker, or not? Obviously, with almost 1 minute on Froome and two MTF ahead why he needed to attack from a distance of 100km? For sure he would have attacked in the last 2kms and probably dropped all the GC guys like a stone
After Yesterday'stage it was clear Quintana is the strongest of race

 

[hfer07]

Today I can certainly say: Gracias Alberto for the show

 

[Flamin]

Re: Re:

Contador has just won another Vuelta.
It'll be in Quintana's palmares, though.

Do not exaggerate.

Anyway , he did good. The best possible. The podium is closer and closer.

Why?
Without Contador's guts, Quintana would've been giving an interview now in style: "There's still enough road... I'll have to defend 55 seconds..."
To be fair, Contador was Quintana's road captain and DS today.

Based on the difference between them today, Quintana would have destroyed Froome in the remainder of the race anyway. I doubt he'll even lose a minute in the TT on current form.

Contador's done brilliantly to give himself a great chance at the podium. In fact, 2nd even looks within reach given how shaky Froome is at the moment. But Quintana deserves a lot of credit himself for how he has ridden this entire Vuelta.

Definitely not 'destroyed' him. On what stages? The difference today on the final climb was caused by yesterday's stage. Froome had to dig really deep to follow Quintana and he paid for it today.

Tomorrow is a flat stage, then a rest day, then a flat stage with a murito. That's two days of recovery, so I doubt Froome would have lost much time, if any there. Then there would only be Aitana MTF left.

 

[DFA123]

Re: Re:

I don't think Froome was shaky at all. He only lost 20s or so to Quintana in the final 4km.

That's loads. Especially considering Quintana had been doing loads more pulling at the front on a pretty flat climb and had been in the break all day.

He got dropped by Chaves, Scarponi, Valverde and several others on a really easy climb. Can't remember him looking so bad (post 2011) on a GT climb.

2012 Cuitu Negru?

Yeah, good shout. That would be the closest. But at least Cuitu Negru is a climb for cracking on with it's steepness. Formigal is a false flat for most of it, to not be able to follow wheels there of B/C rate GC contenders is really poor.

And in 2012 he ended up, what, about 10 minutes down at the end? Certainly still a chance for Contador to get into 2nd.

 

[BigMac]

*claps*

 

[Miburo]

He can still win the vuelta, everything was saying nibali was declining and just like in the giro this year nibali was the architect of the stage that chavez won. Same happened here, 3rd week is gonna start now

I believe

 

[DFA123]

Re: Re:

Contador has just won another Vuelta.
It'll be in Quintana's palmares, though.

Do not exaggerate.

Anyway , he did good. The best possible. The podium is closer and closer.

Why?
Without Contador's guts, Quintana would've been giving an interview now in style: "There's still enough road... I'll have to defend 55 seconds..."
To be fair, Contador was Quintana's road captain and DS today.

Based on the difference between them today, Quintana would have destroyed Froome in the remainder of the race anyway. I doubt he'll even lose a minute in the TT on current form.

Contador's done brilliantly to give himself a great chance at the podium. In fact, 2nd even looks within reach given how shaky Froome is at the moment. But Quintana deserves a lot of credit himself for how he has ridden this entire Vuelta.

Definitely not 'destroyed' him. On what stages? The difference today on the final climb was caused by yesterday's stage. Froome had to dig really deep to follow Quintana and he paid for it today.

Tomorrow is a flat stage, then a rest day, then a flat stage with a murito. That's two days of recovery, so I doubt Froome would have lost much time, if any there. Then there would only be Aitana MTF left.

Completely disagree. In my opinion, the difference in level between Quintana and Froome is huge right now, and all signs point to it growing in the final week. But, enough of that, this is the Contador thread - and he fully deserves his own praise for today.

 

[Brullnux]

Re:

He can still win the vuelta, everything was saying nibali was declining and just like in the giro this year nibali was the architect of the stage that chavez won. Same happened here, 3rd week is gonna start now

I believe

Nibali was also the architect of Valverde's win in Andalo, which is similar sort of to this.

 

[Gigs_98]

On another note, I thought Contador would get combativity (it even says so on the website) but I'm pretty sure I just saw Brambilla receive it on the podium?

I'm pretty sure he got it. At least he won something today because he stood on the podium and combativity is the only one which would make sense.
Anyway, this is why Contador is so popular. Can't win a gt, doesn't care and attacks at the beginning of the stage anyway and causes one of the best cycling stages of the last decade. Basically this was Alp d'Huez 2011 all over again. What a legend.

 

[Flamin]

Re: Re:

Do not exaggerate.

Anyway , he did good. The best possible. The podium is closer and closer.

Why?
Without Contador's guts, Quintana would've been giving an interview now in style: "There's still enough road... I'll have to defend 55 seconds..."
To be fair, Contador was Quintana's road captain and DS today.

Based on the difference between them today, Quintana would have destroyed Froome in the remainder of the race anyway. I doubt he'll even lose a minute in the TT on current form.

Contador's done brilliantly to give himself a great chance at the podium. In fact, 2nd even looks within reach given how shaky Froome is at the moment. But Quintana deserves a lot of credit himself for how he has ridden this entire Vuelta.

Definitely not 'destroyed' him. On what stages? The difference today on the final climb was caused by yesterday's stage. Froome had to dig really deep to follow Quintana and he paid for it today.

Tomorrow is a flat stage, then a rest day, then a flat stage with a murito. That's two days of recovery, so I doubt Froome would have lost much time, if any there. Then there would only be Aitana MTF left.

Completely disagree. In my opinion, the difference in level between Quintana and Froome is huge right now, and all signs point to it growing in the final week. But, enough of that, this is the Contador thread - and he fully deserves his own praise for today.

Yes, it was huge mainly because of yesterday. There are no more stages like that to come.

 

[LaFlorecita]

On another note, I thought Contador would get combativity (it even says so on the website) but I'm pretty sure I just saw Brambilla receive it on the podium?

I'm pretty sure he got it. At least he won something today because he stood on the podium and combativity is the only one which would make sense.
Anyway, this is why Contador is so popular. Can't win a gt, doesn't care and attacks at the beginning of the stage anyway and causes one of the best cycling stages of the last decade. Basically this was Alp d'Huez 2011 all over again. What a legend.

Yeah, I saw that on twitter. All my tv channels and streams quit at the same time, unfortunately, right after Brambilla got on stage.

 

[Cance > TheRest]

Wow what a show today. Alberto will definitely get confidence from this stage, although, in regards to the podium, it also seems as though Chaves is getting better and better. On the other hand, this could be a major blow to Froome's confidence, so I would not reject the idea of both Contador and Chaves overtaking him in the final GC.

 

[RattaKuningas]

Even if Contador is no where near his best form he can still turn everything upside down. Exciting stage today.

 

[Gigs_98]

Re:

Wow what a show today. Alberto will definitely get confidence from this stage, although, in regards to the podium, it also seems as though Chaves is getting better and better. On the other hand, this could be a major blow to Froome's confidence, so I would not reject the idea of both Contador and Chaves overtaking him in the final GC.

Chaves will probably lose time on Contador in the ITT. Not sure about Froome though. He looked really weak today but I don't know how much he worked earlier in the stage. Maybe he will still be the 2nd strongest climber but maybe he will just completely crack after today.

 

[Cance > TheRest]

Re: Re:

Wow what a show today. Alberto will definitely get confidence from this stage, although, in regards to the podium, it also seems as though Chaves is getting better and better. On the other hand, this could be a major blow to Froome's confidence, so I would not reject the idea of both Contador and Chaves overtaking him in the final GC.

Chaves will probably lose time on Contador in the ITT. Not sure about Froome though. He looked really weak today but I don't know how much he worked earlier in the stage. Maybe he will still be the 2nd strongest climber but maybe he will just completely crack after today.

He definitely will. However, Alberto needs to be very aware of Chaves from now on. If he can keep him inside 30 seconds reach before the time trial, then I am certain he will beat him for 3rd eventually. It will be interesting to see the trajectory of Froome's shape from now. Something tells me today's unexpected loss could send him on a downward spiral

 

[LaFlorecita]

I would love to have both Berto and Chavito on the podium but I see only one of them making it.

 

[fantomas]

 

[red zone]

Re: Re:

Contador has just won another Vuelta.
It'll be in Quintana's palmares, though.

Do not exaggerate.

Anyway , he did good. The best possible. The podium is closer and closer.

Why?
Without Contador's guts, Quintana would've been giving an interview now in style: "There's still enough road... I'll have to defend 55 seconds..."
To be fair, Contador was Quintana's road captain and DS today.

no need to be so bitter about your boy's hopes being shattered today and this is the reason why Alberto is so loved compared to your stem watching bots

hell of a show put on by the legend today and i don't care if he'll never be at the top again since it's still a pleasure to watch him ride

heart of a champion and i'm still hopeful he can have a tremendous off season and come back stronger/healthier next year

 

[Miburo]

Re:

Quintana is lucky that Froome *** contador more over than quintana did

 

[dacooley]

i might be stupid with this wild guess, but if froome managed to pull off the double, Alberto would've regarded his golden years kind of being thrown away in a trash at least in terms of gt doubles, so that was principal not to let this happen. Fantastic show from the legend. That was a stage for ages.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

Great sportmanship

 

[jsem94]

He has the podium well within reach now. The question now is, try again and take the top spot? Nairo and Movistar are so strong tho

 

[Matteo.]

Fight for podium ( and stage victory ).
Quintana and Movistar are too strong

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

Fight for podium ( and stage victory ).
Quintana and Movistar are too strong

I hope Quintana allows him some freedom now so Alberto can possibly take a stage.
It will be tough though, there's still Froome, Chaves etc.

 

[dusty red roads]

Wow, what a stage, what a ride! Chapeau Alberto! Totally deserved the stage win, Pity he didn't have the form.