Teams & Riders Alberto Contador Discussion Thread

[perico]

Wish he had gone to Trek when Riis left. They look strong as a team.

 

[Pennino]

Yeah he went too early but these races are not about winning but about getting the legs ready for Paris-Nice. This is a very very decent training. Fantastic.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re:

Yeah he went too early but these races are not about winning but about getting the legs ready for Paris-Nice. This is a very very decent training. Fantastic.

He didn't went too early, he attacked at the right time IMO.

 

[Pennino]

Re: Re:

Yeah he went too early but these races are not about winning but about getting the legs ready for Paris-Nice. This is a very very decent training. Fantastic.

He didn't went too early, he attacked at the right time IMO.

Apparently not for the win, but my point is that winning here isn't important. He delivered a great show while making a great training. And tomorrow will be even greater.

 

[Matteo.]

Re: Re:

He is on the right track to achieve TdF podium. He went 500m too early , but still a very good ride. I'm satisfied

Should he be happy with that?

No, not at all. But we can (at least me)

 

[DFA123]

Big take away for me from that stage was Felline's performance. He's probably not on top form yet, but was still able to put in a dig that had Valverde on the limit, Poels dropping and Pinot struggling to hang on. Contador couldn't capitalize ultimately, perhaps hehasn't quite got the depth of fitness yet; but anyway a eammate who can raise the tempo so high relatively late on a climb, is something Contador hasn't had for several years and could be a massive weapon in a GT to break up the Sky train.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re: Re:

Yeah he went too early but these races are not about winning but about getting the legs ready for Paris-Nice. This is a very very decent training. Fantastic.

He didn't went too early, he attacked at the right time IMO.

Apparently not for the win, but my point is that winning here isn't important. He delivered a great show while making a great training. And tomorrow will be even greater.

Winning is important, but its definitely not do and die. My point is, the setup by Felline and the point when Contador attacked was all perfect; if only he had judged his effort better it had been cycling by the book. Cause he most definitely seemed the strongest psychically - at least to me.

 

[Publicus]

I'd like to see a replay, but I think he's definitely at a much better place (from a fitness perspective) now than he was at the same time last year. I think tomorrow comes down to who recovers better from the last two days efforts. I think he's a lock for the podium at this point.

 

[LaFlorecita]

@ DFA
Yes Felline was very important, reminded me a bit of the way Majka used to launch Berto

Contador: "Es el 2º día de competición. El corazón se me pone a 200 pulsaciones, y así voy un poco limitado".
He says his heart rate was rather high which is why he struggled a bit. It's normal because it's only his 2nd race day.

 

[roundabout]

It was a moderately difficult stage ending with a 6k climb. Too early to say whether Felline can be this useful in a genuine GT mountain stage.

 

[portugal11]

Re:

@ DFA
Yes Felline was very important, reminded me a bit of the way Majka used to launch Berto

Contador: "Es el 2º día de competición. El corazón se me pone a 200 pulsaciones, y así voy un poco limitado".
He says his heart rate was rather high which is why he struggled a bit. It's normal because it's only his 2nd race day.

He says the same thing every year.

 

[Cance > TheRest]

Re:

Big take away for me from that stage was Felline's performance. He's probably not on top form yet, but was still able to put in a dig that had Valverde on the limit, Poels dropping and Pinot struggling to hang on. Contador couldn't capitalize ultimately, perhaps hehasn't quite got the depth of fitness yet; but anyway a eammate who can raise the tempo so high relatively late on a climb, is something Contador hasn't had for several years and could be a massive weapon in a GT to break up the Sky train.

Fabio is super impressive. He's really a key rider on Trek and perhaps one of the most versatile riders in the entire peloton.

Alberto looked good today and clearly lacks the amount of race days it takes. He will only get better from now on. I don't know about the bolded part. For me, Felline's pace setting was very remniscent of what Majka did last year on Col d'Eze, but you're right in the sense that Alberto's Tinkoff team lacked climbing depth from 2014 through 2016.

 

[DFA123]

Re:

It was a moderately difficult stage ending with a 6k climb. Too early to say whether Felline can be this useful in a genuine GT mountain stage.

He doesn't have to do it in a genuine mountain stage; although I'm sure he probably could on targeted efforts. If he can launch a springboard like today towards even the end of a medium difficulty stage finishing uphill - there is still the potential to gain significant time.

And there are plenty of medium stages finishing with a tough climb or descent in the Tour this year: Planches de Belles Filles, Mont du Chat, Foix, Izoard... You'd expect him to be in the main group on the final climb on all of those.

 

[Netserk]

The Chat stage is a medium one?????

 

[perico]

Re:

@ DFA
Yes Felline was very important, reminded me a bit of the way Majka used to launch Berto

Contador: "Es el 2º día de competición. El corazón se me pone a 200 pulsaciones, y así voy un poco limitado".
He says his heart rate was rather high which is why he struggled a bit. It's noremal because it's only his 2nd race day.

Trek is much more of a diesel on the actual climbs. I think people have also underestimated Zubeldia's ability to still perform as a high level domestique.

 

[roundabout]

Re: Re:

It was a moderately difficult stage ending with a 6k climb. Too early to say whether Felline can be this useful in a genuine GT mountain stage.

He doesn't have to do it in a genuine mountain stage; although I'm sure he probably could on targeted efforts. If he can launch a springboard like today towards even the end of a medium difficulty stage finishing uphill - there is still the potential to gain significant time.

And there are plenty of medium stages finishing with a tough climb or descent in the Tour this year: Planches de Belles Filles, Mont du Chat, Foix, Izoard... You'd expect him to be in the main group on the final climb on all of those.

Seems a tad optimistic for a rider who previously could just about make top-20 in selected stages in week 3 by De Greefing his way up.

But maybe he will indeed suddenly magically get better at 27. It has happened before.

 

[DFA123]

Re:

The Chat stage is a medium one?????

Of course, it's not a medium stage overall, but because the first two climbs come fairly early, followed by a flat section before Chat, you'd expect Felline to still be at the front going into the final climb. Which is all the matters as far as his domestique role is concerned.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

It was a moderately difficult stage ending with a 6k climb. Too early to say whether Felline can be this useful in a genuine GT mountain stage.

He doesn't have to do it in a genuine mountain stage; although I'm sure he probably could on targeted efforts. If he can launch a springboard like today towards even the end of a medium difficulty stage finishing uphill - there is still the potential to gain significant time.

And there are plenty of medium stages finishing with a tough climb or descent in the Tour this year: Planches de Belles Filles, Mont du Chat, Foix, Izoard... You'd expect him to be in the main group on the final climb on all of those.

Seems a tad optimistic for a rider who previously could just about make top-20 in selected stages in week 3 by De Greefing his way up.

But maybe he will indeed suddenly magically get better at 27. It has happened before.

Did you see last year's Vuelta?

 

[DFA123]

Re: Re:

It was a moderately difficult stage ending with a 6k climb. Too early to say whether Felline can be this useful in a genuine GT mountain stage.

He doesn't have to do it in a genuine mountain stage; although I'm sure he probably could on targeted efforts. If he can launch a springboard like today towards even the end of a medium difficulty stage finishing uphill - there is still the potential to gain significant time.

And there are plenty of medium stages finishing with a tough climb or descent in the Tour this year: Planches de Belles Filles, Mont du Chat, Foix, Izoard... You'd expect him to be in the main group on the final climb on all of those.

Seems a tad optimistic for a rider who previously could just about make top-20 in selected stages in week 3 by De Greefing his way up.

But maybe he will indeed suddenly magically get better at 27. It has happened before.

Seems like you missed the Vuelta last year. Anyway, he doesn't need to challenge for the stage and pace his efforts, helping Contador up the whole climb. He's not the kind of rider to do that. What he can do is put in one really powerful pull to break up the SKy train somewhere fairly early on the final climb. Try to isolate Froome as much as possible. That's certainly within his capabilities.

 

[roundabout]

Re: Re:

It was a moderately difficult stage ending with a 6k climb. Too early to say whether Felline can be this useful in a genuine GT mountain stage.

He doesn't have to do it in a genuine mountain stage; although I'm sure he probably could on targeted efforts. If he can launch a springboard like today towards even the end of a medium difficulty stage finishing uphill - there is still the potential to gain significant time.

And there are plenty of medium stages finishing with a tough climb or descent in the Tour this year: Planches de Belles Filles, Mont du Chat, Foix, Izoard... You'd expect him to be in the main group on the final climb on all of those.

Seems a tad optimistic for a rider who previously could just about make top-20 in selected stages in week 3 by De Greefing his way up.

But maybe he will indeed suddenly magically get better at 27. It has happened before.

Did you see last year's Vuelta?

Uh, yes.

And here I thought the discussion was about the level that he can perform while staying in the main group, not how well he can do in a break.

And he actually started the Vuelta as one of the GC cards for Trek. Didn't finish in the top-30 on any stage ending uphill prior to going in the break to Covadonga.

So thanks for proving my point, I guess.

 

[roundabout]

Re: Re:

It was a moderately difficult stage ending with a 6k climb. Too early to say whether Felline can be this useful in a genuine GT mountain stage.

He doesn't have to do it in a genuine mountain stage; although I'm sure he probably could on targeted efforts. If he can launch a springboard like today towards even the end of a medium difficulty stage finishing uphill - there is still the potential to gain significant time.

And there are plenty of medium stages finishing with a tough climb or descent in the Tour this year: Planches de Belles Filles, Mont du Chat, Foix, Izoard... You'd expect him to be in the main group on the final climb on all of those.

Seems a tad optimistic for a rider who previously could just about make top-20 in selected stages in week 3 by De Greefing his way up.

But maybe he will indeed suddenly magically get better at 27. It has happened before.

Seems like you missed the Vuelta last year. Anyway, he doesn't need to challenge for the stage and pace his efforts, helping Contador up the whole climb. He's not the kind of rider to do that. What he can do is put in one really powerful pull to break up the SKy train somewhere fairly early on the final climb. Try to isolate Froome as much as possible. That's certainly within his capabilities.

Yes, he will suddenly become a lot better than he was previously and break up much more solid and consistent GT riders, because it's "certainly" within his capabilities.

Shame that he wasted years before realizing what he was "capable" of.

 

[DFA123]

Re: Re:

It was a moderately difficult stage ending with a 6k climb. Too early to say whether Felline can be this useful in a genuine GT mountain stage.

He doesn't have to do it in a genuine mountain stage; although I'm sure he probably could on targeted efforts. If he can launch a springboard like today towards even the end of a medium difficulty stage finishing uphill - there is still the potential to gain significant time.

And there are plenty of medium stages finishing with a tough climb or descent in the Tour this year: Planches de Belles Filles, Mont du Chat, Foix, Izoard... You'd expect him to be in the main group on the final climb on all of those.

Seems a tad optimistic for a rider who previously could just about make top-20 in selected stages in week 3 by De Greefing his way up.

But maybe he will indeed suddenly magically get better at 27. It has happened before.

Seems like you missed the Vuelta last year. Anyway, he doesn't need to challenge for the stage and pace his efforts, helping Contador up the whole climb. He's not the kind of rider to do that. What he can do is put in one really powerful pull to break up the SKy train somewhere fairly early on the final climb. Try to isolate Froome as much as possible. That's certainly within his capabilities.

Yes, he will suddenly become a lot better than he was previously and break up much more solid and consistent GT riders, because it's "certainly" within his capabilities.

Shame that he wasted years before realizing what he was "capable" of.

He doesn't have to become better; he did it today. He put in an attack which launched Contador while dropping Nieve, Poels and Rosa - who will be three of Froome's main domestiques. He's a more explosive rider than the Sky train - that's the difference he can make. Of course he can't outclimb Sky's doms on a major mountain - but he doesn't have to - he just has to get Contador in a position where he is being chased down by Froome himself rather than by Poels or Rosa.

 

[LaFlorecita]

"It was a very hard ascent, and we wanted to drive as hard as we could in the team," Contador said afterwards. "I maybe went for it too early, there was a strong headwind, but I wanted to be sure my attack counted.

"My pulse rate went up quite high quite soon, but that’s what always happens to me in these early races. It would be the same in the Algarve when I’ve raced there. The climb, finally, was just a little too long for me, although I was surprised that Pinot caught me. I’m disappointed I didn’t win, because I wanted to do that to thank the team. But overall I’m pleased.

"Not knowing the climb didn’t help. I think maybe if I’d got to the last 200 metres alone I would have won, but that’s all there is. In any case, given I’m building towards Paris-Nice, this was a very good sign for the future."

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/contador-moves-into-ruta-de-sol-lead-but-misses-out-on-stage-win/?utm_content=bufferde8a0&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

 

[yaco]

Re: Re:

It was a moderately difficult stage ending with a 6k climb. Too early to say whether Felline can be this useful in a genuine GT mountain stage.

He doesn't have to do it in a genuine mountain stage; although I'm sure he probably could on targeted efforts. If he can launch a springboard like today towards even the end of a medium difficulty stage finishing uphill - there is still the potential to gain significant time.

And there are plenty of medium stages finishing with a tough climb or descent in the Tour this year: Planches de Belles Filles, Mont du Chat, Foix, Izoard... You'd expect him to be in the main group on the final climb on all of those.

Yeah nailed it with your post - And if two or three of the GC teams make this type of stage/s harder for longer, you will weaken the Sky train in the mountains, especially seeing Sky employ a top heavy climbing team.

 

[Red Rick]

What do we say to the god of half measures? Not today

Contador gonna Contador, Contador gonna go boom.

I'm cautiously optimistic