Teams & Riders Alberto Contador Discussion Thread

[Walter Morgan]

Trek's Team for Tour must be Contador, Mollema, Pantano, Zubeldia, De Koert, Degenkolb more 2 of Stuyven/Irizar/Rast/Brandle and 1 of Felline/Cardoso/Stetina

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

Trek's Team for Tour must be Contador, Mollema, Pantano, Zubeldia, De Koert, Degenkolb more 2 of Stuyven/Irizar/Rast/Brandle and 1 of Felline/Cardoso/Stetina

I agree with you. But Stuyven will ride the Giro, so it should be 2 out of Irizar/Rast/Brändle.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Nice to hear Stuyven will ride the Giro, he would obviously had been a great domestique for Contador, but he is better than just being a simple flatland grunt. They have a couple of decent riders for that role anyways.

It doesn't look like a bad team at all I must admit. Felline and Mollema will be question marks, but Pantano is golden, Contador would be screwed without him. Really the perfect guy.

 

[Lexman]

Re:

Trek's Team for Tour must be Contador, Mollema, Pantano, Zubeldia, De Koert, Degenkolb more 2 of Stuyven/Irizar/Rast/Brandle and 1 of Felline/Cardoso/Stetina

if Stuyven does the Giro Theuns might be able to go the Tour for Degenkolb

 

[portugal11]

The great one will loose 1.30 minutes in the TTT so he has to win the queen stage to boost his moral. So unfair he never had a team like sky or even movistar to control the races

 

[LaFlorecita]

Trek is 21st in Team classification so they'll start very early tomorrow. That sucks, it'll be a big disadvantage

And we'll have little to no coverage of them

 

[rune1107]

Trek is 21st in Team classification so they'll start very early tomorrow. That sucks, it'll be a big disadvantage

And we'll have little to no coverage of them

I don't expect much of them, regardless of when they start. Hopefully they will top-10, with the dream scenario of being within 45 sec of the winners.

 

[Carols]

Trek is 21st in Team classification so they'll start very early tomorrow. That sucks, it'll be a big disadvantage

And we'll have little to no coverage of them

It seems he is always starting on the back foot

 

[LaFlorecita]

Trek is 21st in Team classification so they'll start very early tomorrow. That sucks, it'll be a big disadvantage

And we'll have little to no coverage of them

I don't expect much of them, regardless of when they start. Hopefully they will top-10, with the dream scenario of being within 45 sec of the winners.

On paper their team is quite strong, top-5, top-3 if they surprise so I was quite optimistic (in this ranking they are 5th http://www.procyclingstats.com/race.php?id=170997&c=3&stat_id=151 )
But with such an early start I guess they will finish between 5th and 8th, behind BMC, Movistar, Orica, Sky and possibly teams like Quick Step and LottoNL, but more importantly the time gaps between those teams and Trek will be larger. Unless the weather conditions are worse for the last teams, but looking at the forecast that doesn't seem likely. I guess tomorrow will be the end of Alberto's GC chances.

Edit: I see now they dropped to 22nd, only Caja Rural and Cannondale will start earlier

 

[Valv.Piti]

Well there really isn't a big disadvantage at starting earlier. And who knows, maybe that can be an advantage if the winds change a bit.. obviously, it could also change for the worse.

The problem is there is a TTT in the first place, I wouldn't read too much into that they are starting early.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

Well there really isn't a big disadvantage at starting earlier. And who knows, maybe that can be an advantage if the winds change a bit.. obviously, it could also change for the worse.

The problem is there is a TTT in the first place, I wouldn't read too much into that they are starting early.

Riding such a distance without references is terrible, they'll lose at least 20-30 seconds extra. Of course, I agree the TTT is the main problem and shouldn't even exist, but such an early start is deadly for Alberto's overall chances. Before today's stage I thought they could perhaps limit the damage to 30-40 seconds, now I think he's looking at over one minute.

 

[Ricco']

Trek is 21st in Team classification so they'll start very early tomorrow. That sucks, it'll be a big disadvantage

And we'll have little to no coverage of them

I don't expect much of them, regardless of when they start. Hopefully they will top-10, with the dream scenario of being within 45 sec of the winners.

On paper their team is quite strong, top-5, top-3 if they surprise so I was quite optimistic (in this ranking they are 5th http://www.procyclingstats.com/race.php?id=170997&c=3&stat_id=151 )
But with such an early start I guess they will finish between 5th and 8th, behind BMC, Movistar, Orica, Sky and possibly teams like Quick Step and LottoNL, but more importantly the time gaps between those teams and Trek will be larger. Unless the weather conditions are worse for the last teams, but looking at the forecast that doesn't seem likely. I guess tomorrow will be the end of Alberto's GC chances.

Edit: I see now they dropped to 22nd, only Caja Rural and Cannondale will start earlier

Funvic too, I think they are the first to go out.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Funvic too, I think they are the first to go out.

You're right, looks like only two of their riders finished among the first 156 so the others are not yet included in the results, which is why they're not shown in the team ranking.

At least that means we'll have 3 extra minutes during which we could see Trek on TV

 

[GraftPunk]

I'm figuring 1:30 time loss, expecting the worse yet hoping for the best! As has been previously noted weather conditions may change to their benefit.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Hmm, 20-30 seconds for lack of time differences? I guess we would have to experience managing/rider ourselves before we would be able to say how much it would influence their performance, but I think its too much. Anyways, we won't know.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

I'm figuring 1:30 time loss, expecting the worse yet hoping for the best! As has been previously noted weather conditions may change to their benefit.

I've checked the weather, change of rain is the same for 15:00, 16:00 and 17:00. The only difference is that the wind direction changes from SE to ESE, but that's unlikely to matter much.
Edit: in fact the wind shifting to E means the last few teams will have a tailwind in the 2nd half of the course

 

[Pennino]

So. Nobody has to care one second about this race. Sorry. If they want to ruin it with such a TTT, be my guest. But maybe someone then will have a brutal coup in mind

 

[Jelantik]

When I read there's TTT at Catalunya... ow boy, Contador will start from the backfoot again! Kinda making it hard for him to win overall if you give someone like Froome ahead to begin with.

 

[GraftPunk]

Re: Re:

I've checked the weather, change of rain is the same for 15:00, 16:00 and 17:00. The only difference is that the wind direction changes from SE to ESE, but that's unlikely to matter much.
Edit: in fact the wind shifting to E means the last few teams will have a tailwind in the 2nd half of the course

Ouch!

 

[rick james]

When I read there's TTT at Catalunya... ow boy, Contador will start from the backfoot again! Kinda making it hard for him to win overall if you give someone like Froome ahead to begin with.

froome will not contend the GC

 

[Colonel]

When I read there's TTT at Catalunya... ow boy, Contador will start from the backfoot again! Kinda making it hard for him to win overall if you give someone like Froome ahead to begin with.

froome will not contend the GC

Im not buying that, he is to greedy not to and to prove some dominance to AC and show Sky he is the leader. Its his personality as a racer. Not saying its a bad thing, just saying its his thing.

 

[Hayabusa]

When I read there's TTT at Catalunya... ow boy, Contador will start from the backfoot again! Kinda making it hard for him to win overall if you give someone like Froome ahead to begin with.

froome will not contend the GC

Im not buying that, he is to greedy not to and to prove some dominance to AC and show Sky he is the leader. Its his personality as a racer. Not saying its a bad thing, just saying its his thing.

Usually if Froome is contending for the GC he'd be quite far up the results on a sprint stage and I believe today he was near the back, seems like he's just using the race for fitness

 

[Colonel]

When I read there's TTT at Catalunya... ow boy, Contador will start from the backfoot again! Kinda making it hard for him to win overall if you give someone like Froome ahead to begin with.

froome will not contend the GC

Im not buying that, he is to greedy not to and to prove some dominance to AC and show Sky he is the leader. Its his personality as a racer. Not saying its a bad thing, just saying its his thing.

Usually if Froome is contending for the GC he'd be quite far up the results on a sprint stage and I believe today he was near the back, seems like he's just using the race for fitness

Or he has been told to stop meddling in the sprints.

 

[rei_da_montanha]

Oleg Tinkov is a very sick men.

 

[GraftPunk]

Re:

Oleg Tinkov is a very sick men.

If that's actually him he's probably just looking for some limelight that he's been lacking.