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Teams & Riders Alberto Contador Discussion Thread

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Re: Re:

PremierAndrew said:
LaFlorecita said:
PremierAndrew said:
He's not gonna win the Tour either way, at least this way he racks up the week long race wins
What :eek:

Even if hes digging too deep rn and slightly compromising his level in July, its worth it
He's not exactly "racking up the week long race wins", is he?
I wouldn't say compromising his July form for a bunch of second places is worth it. What if Froome is off his best form or crashes out and Contador loses to for example Porte by 20 seconds. No thanks.

However, I highly doubt he's compromising his July form here and he said he'll ride Dauphiné purely for training, which should help
 
Re:

portugal11 said:
He said in interview that last year he went to the dauphine overcooked because he did overtraining in teide

That seems possible. Seems consistent with going in sharp and then getting recked on Vaujany.


I don't think it's great to overexert yourself in the early year. You have 2 months after this, but it's not like you can come out overraced. A similar thing happened in 2013, where he came out the winter undertrained and overweight and I think he trained too hard to catch up. Going deep in every race. Also raced some disastrous conditions that spring.

In 2015 it happened a wee bit as well. Going from super strong on the Hazallanas in februari to dropped by Porte on La Molina a month later.
 
Re: Re:

Red Rick said:
I don't think it's great to overexert yourself in the early year. You have 2 months after this, but it's not like you can come out overraced. A similar thing happened in 2013, where he came out the winter undertrained and overweight and I think he trained too hard to catch up. Going deep in every race. Also raced some disastrous conditions that spring.

In 2015 it happened a wee bit as well. Going from super strong on the Hazallanas in februari to dropped by Porte on La Molina a month later.
I don't think he trained very hard in 2013 at all, he was chubby at the Tour :p in fact it seemed like he got heavier as the season progressed

But you're right, he came into the season with a very small base to build on and his main mistake: he didn't drastically change his build up. He continued racing and training (perhaps a bit more than usual to "catch up") as he would have if he had had a normal winter which meant he never got to build the base he needed. I remember at the time a member of the staff (don't remember who) had suggested he should race the Giro as training, I think that would have been a good idea in hindsight.
 
Re: Re:

Netserk said:
LaFlorecita said:
Netserk said:
I foresee a 2nd place in GC ;)
Yeah :p
I don't really think we should be disappointed when he just did as expected :p

Itzulia, on the other hand, will be conquered :cool:
You think so? I reckon it'll be very hard against Piti but also Kwiat, Roglic etc. Seems there are a lot of riders that *could* beat him which means it's rather likely one of them *will* beat him. I'm happy Porte isn't racing :p
 
Le+Tour+de+France+2013+Stage+One+w5xspePf7MNx.jpg

He's almost as large as Noval here :p

7009087-cycling-tour.jpg

:eek: :cool:
 
Re: Re:

LaFlorecita said:
the asian said:
That's cool. He's going to be second in the Tour this year.
I don't care for 2nd at the Tour and definitely not 2nd after Froome :exclaim:
That's two of us :) .

Second, yes, but showing some good form. I'm still not ready to write Alberto off for the TdF win. Trapping Froome as it happened this week or at last year's Vuelta seems to be the only way though. The Skyborgs army will be hard to crack in the mountains...
 
Cance > TheRest said:
LaFlorecita said:
TheYouyou7 said:
I've just seen Itzulia's route, it's crap... He won't win.
I'm mainly worried about the Arrate climb on stage 5. It's a different side which is much steeper than the usual side, which could hurt him a lot.
The TT should suit him but then again it should also suit Valverde, Roglic, Kwiatkowski.
4kms at 10.8%. Is that so bad for him?
No not at all.
The point is if he'll have good legs...at least as he was in PN
 
Cance > TheRest said:
LaFlorecita said:
TheYouyou7 said:
I've just seen Itzulia's route, it's crap... He won't win.
I'm mainly worried about the Arrate climb on stage 5. It's a different side which is much steeper than the usual side, which could hurt him a lot.
The TT should suit him but then again it should also suit Valverde, Roglic, Kwiatkowski.
4kms at 10.8%. Is that so bad for him?
At first glance no but it should be better for Valverde, especially because 2km are at ~15%. At the very least I doubt he'll take time there and with his lack of explosiveness he could lose time as well. It would come down to the TT to take the lead and I don't have much confidence in his TT vs. a Valverde in the shape of his life and Kwiat and Roglic. At least there are no bonus seconds (I think) which should help.
Another threat could be Henao who could take a lot of time on Arrate and defend in the TT.
 

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