Well now its definately the end, barring some Pereiro type stuff. But this is not the Contador of 2011 or 2014. Too long now he's seemed to me to be more of a broken man, and the old aura is gone.
So if its goodbye, its a different goodbye than for most riders. He's maybe (despite the fact that Froome now outshines him), the most significant cyclist of the millenium. Certainly his fanbase seems to me the biggest of any cyclist since Pantani, and that's also significant, not just winning titles. The story is also interesting - more so than the Froome or Armstrong ones of - win easily every year. As is the personality and character.
I think what people saw in Contador that made them like him, was that he has traits of an alpha male. Armstrong was portrayed as that, but the ruthlessness about him created the aura of someone who was unable to remain calm under pressure - a form of weakness. Froome's story makes him look like more of a robot than an actual human being and people don't look up to that. Nor do they like someone who seems to so obviously be living a lie.
Contador was calm, always. He never seemed to betray hate. He was diplomatic, and didn't speak or appear that much- creating mystery. His early dominance, combined with the way he was able to light up stages
like no one else occasionally, taking risks gave him a reputation of someone who was always in with a chance and who would never give up. These are traits people look for in their heroes.
He in some ways run on this reputation way beyond its expiry date, visible by the fact that despite not coming close to even wearing a yellow jersey since 2010, somehow every year his fans think he could win.
The doping clouds never hurt him that much, because he never won after they surfaced. Vino maybe had the same thing, which is why a similar cult of personality surrounded him, and actually his profile wasn't too different from the above one I outline for Contador.
On the other hand, if Contador had won his Tours towards the end of his career, they would be remembered more fondly. It would have been a more happy story.
The fact that he won them at the beginning, and then added only giros and vueltas in the second half, will make it for many people a - what could have been. And more of a sad story. Potential unrealised.
Because the way the early years went, maybe he could have made it top 3 of all time with Eddy and Hinault.
No one will ever make that argument now.
But he's still young and got his life set for him, a young family. Hopefully he'll be able to enjoy it, build on it and put cycling behind him.
Once its all over it doesn't even matter that much what you won back when you were young, but the family and the day to day. At the end of the day I doubt its neccesarily the Eddy's and the Bernard's and the Miguel's that live the most satisfying lives. Life is a very different game to cycling.
Could he have beaten Froome at some point? 2014 was obviously the year and that one will always hurt the most for his fans. But hey these things happen to people. I will always feel it was an idiotic decision to go for the Giro in 2015, abdicating his last chance at a win at the Grandady of them all. But it was his decision so hopefully he doesn't regret it. 2013 was out of character, and maybe the one Contador himself will regret most, if he thinks he could have beaten Froome, but it is a hard sport and even people like Contdor can fail to match it sometimes. The clen thing, well that was the worst thing that happened to him and it was a bit of bad luck at the end of the day. Still, others got off worse and at least he still salvaged a second half of a career out of it, which many others were never able to. If it had never happened, probably he would have also won the Tour in 2011 and maybe 2012. But then would he have had as many devoted fans as the new Armstrong? I doubt it, having something to fight against, made him what he became.
That he never won the fight though is a sad ending to the story. For me I will always look back on Contador as a case of what could have been. But its a reminder that cycling really is amongst the most cold, brutal sports, and at the end of the day, as the likes of Marco and Michelle have shown us, there are worse ways for it to end. And maybe Contadors young fans will learn lesson from this too. Your heroes do not always win. Sometimes you have to take the loss and suck it up. And then do the same again year after year. Its a better lesson than the spoilt kids get who's favourite sports stars/ teams always win. And if it helps them live a better life, then maybe Contador's career will have done some good in that way too
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