Teams & Riders Alberto Contador Discussion Thread

[Climber123]

Re: Re:

I'm unsure how to feel about this, afraid he won't be recovered before P-N. This isn't the season to experiment with race schedules.

Abu Dhabi is basically one climb and comfortably being paced by the pack for four days.

Agree, and on that one climb he will be able to test himself against Quintana and Nibali.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re: Re:

Just saw ammatti calculated 6,4 w/kg for both Quintana and Contador on somewhat similar climbs. While we can analyze that number all we want, I still saw Quintana on a different level on Mas de la Costa. Yes, I do recognise the opposition was worse in Valencia (Antunes, Hermans, Poels, Kudus etc. doing well tho, so not complete rubbish he was racing against), but I think it was obvious to most that Quintana's ride was much more effortless than Contador's today. Maybe because he blew himself up like an overeager junior rider when he really didn't need to.

Yeah, maybe, but we've seen a lot of examples where riders don't seem to make any effort when riding up at high pace, suggesting that they've got something more in them, only to never show that for real. Like Quintana. He just not has that extra aggressiveness. Otherwise he'd be very stupid not to use it when Froome was ready to be slaughtered in 2015 for example.

It has nothing to do with aggressivness. My point just was using the eye-test (which often tells you more), Quintana looked comfortably one level above Contador this season on Mas de la Costa.

 

[Red Rick]

I'm perfectly willing to believe Quintana is better than Contador at the moment, but I don't think looking at how comfortable they look at the bike is a great indication.

 

[Red Rick]

Anyway, decent TT today. Shame he loses the jersey, but he's done a lot worse in early season TT's in the last few years.

 

[DFA123]

You have to think Contador has thrown this race away a bit. There's no way that after Valverde cracked with around 3-4km to go yesterday, that Contador should have only taken five seconds from him. Perhaps he doesn't care that much, and I'm sure he'll say it was nothing more than a training race, but it must hurt a bit - especially losing to Valverde in front of his home crowd.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Damn so unfortunate

 

[Climber123]

How did his first TT performance look like in 2014?

 

[DFA123]

Re:

How did his first TT performance look like in 2014?

Slightly better than this from what I remember. Not sure how much these short TTs really show us though. There's a pretty huge anaerobic element to them and that's not been Contador's strength for about 6 years now.

I thought he looked reasonably good today though, especially after two hardish stages and no racing so far this year. Perhaps a bit tentative on some of the corners.

 

[Climber123]

What is encouraging is that he seems to have re-discovered that explosiveness in his attacks that's really been missing since the 2015 Giro. I really hope he delays his attacks a little more for the remainder of the season. And getting third in a time trial that really doesn't suit him is impressive.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

How did his first TT performance look like in 2014?

Slightly better than this from what I remember. Not sure how much these short TTs really show us though. There's a pretty huge anaerobic element to them and that's not been Contador's strength for about 6 years now.

I thought he looked reasonably good today though, especially after two hardish stages and no racing so far this year. Perhaps a bit tentative on some of the corners.

4th in Algarve
http://cqranking.com/men/asp/gen/race.asp?raceid=25664


Arghhh I'm so upset, this is like the 3rd or 4th time he loses a race by 1 second it never goes his way when it's close Well except Burgos last year

 

[LaFlorecita]

Ok something positive to come out of today's ITT

Berto says he felt good and had "spark" in his legs

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

It has nothing to do with aggressivness. My point just was using the eye-test (which often tells you more), Quintana looked comfortably one level above Contador this season on Mas de la Costa.

Yes Quintana always looks comfortable, even when suffering, what else is new? Meanwhile Berto grits his teeth and pulls faces even when flying away from everyone.

 

[LaFlorecita]

What his race schedule would have been like:
15-19 February Ruta del Sol
5-12 March Paris-Nice
20-26 March Volta a Catalunya
3-8 April Vuelta al Pais Vasco
4-11 June Criterium du Dauphiné
Roughly two weeks between Ruta and P-N, then 1 week race - 1 week rest - 1 week race - 1 week rest - 1 week race. And then a two-month gap to Dauphiné.
Now he has a 3-day break after Ruta and a 6-day break and several of those rest days will be wasted traveling to and from the desert, which means he won't be properly rested and also won't get the chance to build his form in training. I'm sure he'll get a nice sum of money from the organizers but I really don't think it's a good idea. He will be fatigued for Paris-Nice and subsequently below par in Catalunya and Pais Vasco and he might even get ill because of the difference in weather. As I said this is not the season to experiment and it would be foolish to change an approach that has always worked very well for him.

 

[bajbar]

To be fair, the four days in Qatar are not really much different than a good, solid training. Three flat stages and one hill-top finish. The travel itself might be more problematic.

But I have just checked the P-N route and it looks perfect for Contador. Much more than last year. The Mount Broully time trial (when was the last time he lost a hilly TT?), an actual MTF (15km at more than 7%) and another two difficult stages. Looks good, with the shape being as it is.

 

[Jspear]

Re: Re:

It has nothing to do with aggressivness. My point just was using the eye-test (which often tells you more), Quintana looked comfortably one level above Contador this season on Mas de la Costa.

Yes Quintana always looks comfortable, even when suffering, what else is new? Meanwhile Berto grits his teeth and pulls faces even when flying away from everyone.

I liked his facial expressions back in July 2009.

 

[portugal11]

How did contador's position on the bike look in this TT?

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re: Re:

It has nothing to do with aggressivness. My point just was using the eye-test (which often tells you more), Quintana looked comfortably one level above Contador this season on Mas de la Costa.

Yes Quintana always looks comfortable, even when suffering, what else is new? Meanwhile Berto grits his teeth and pulls faces even when flying away from everyone.

It wasn't all about aesthetics, it was just how easy he put a huge amount of time into the rest attacking alone from the bottom.

 

[sir fly]

I'm little surprised that Contador was slower than Valverde, but it generally isn't that surprising.
Pretty good showing. Similar to 2015.. But this time around the objectives differ and I think he'll have better build up, so no one should write him off. Especially on this year's Tour route.

 

[portugal11]

Re: Re:

It has nothing to do with aggressivness. My point just was using the eye-test (which often tells you more), Quintana looked comfortably one level above Contador this season on Mas de la Costa.

Yes Quintana always looks comfortable, even when suffering, what else is new? Meanwhile Berto grits his teeth and pulls faces even when flying away from everyone.

It wasn't all about aesthetics, it was just how easy he put a huge amount of time into the rest attacking alone from the bottom.

Let's wait for abu dhabi

 

[Jspear]

Re: Re:

It has nothing to do with aggressivness. My point just was using the eye-test (which often tells you more), Quintana looked comfortably one level above Contador this season on Mas de la Costa.

Yes Quintana always looks comfortable, even when suffering, what else is new? Meanwhile Berto grits his teeth and pulls faces even when flying away from everyone.

It wasn't all about aesthetics, it was just how easy he put a huge amount of time into the rest attacking alone from the bottom.

Let's wait for abu dhabi

Yep, but like Red Rick said. We should kinda expect Quintana to be better right now. As long as he's competitive and doesn't get slaughtered, I'll be happy.

 

[Publicus]

i wonder if this race is about getting Contador and Mollema a chance to ride together? I could see Contador actually working for Mollema on the mountain stage since he has the Giro coming up....EDIT: then i remembered that Quintana is there and maybe I should stop speculating as to the why....

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re:

i wonder if this race is about getting Contador and Mollema a chance to ride together? I could see Contador actually working for Mollema on the mountain stage since he has the Giro coming up....EDIT: then i remembered that Quintana is there and maybe I should stop speculating as to the why....

I actually think you'd expect Tour-riders, generally speaking, to be better at this moment in time than Giro-riders.

 

[snccdcno]

Damn dogs.

 

[Cance > TheRest]

Pretty good TT today. It just happened that Valverde was really really good. Too bad about the overall

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

How did contador's position on the bike look in this TT?