Teams & Riders Alberto Contador Discussion Thread

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

You are forgetting one who also did it before with decent success, the man himself.

Wasn't he notably worse in 2015 than the year before?

 

[fantomas]

After this tour suddenly really everything makes sense. I remember seeing an interview a few weeks before the Dauphine where he was asked how his shape is compared to other years. You could see that he was uncertain about that question but said that he thinks his numbers are good enough to compete for the win in the tdf. Back then I expected it to be a typical lie for his sponsors but now I really think that he himself was misled by his training numbers since he was as strong es ever when he trained but he already noticed that in the races he couldn't really show the shape he had in short training efforts.

Yeah. I really hope he and his trainers will realize this as well, it probably can't be countered completely but maybe a part of it can be countered by training. It just explains everything and as you say now suddenly his uncertainty before the race makes sense, his training data didn't match his performance and hasn't for a while.

Tbh that has always been kind of a weakness, even in his greatest year, it has just been more obvious now. He absolutely annihilated fields on easier courses, Verbier, Montagne de Lure, Mende etc. etc., but had some trouble, for example in LGB in 2009 (I dont think he could drop Schleck like on Verbier), Gardeccia in 2011 (he lost a lot in the end, despite he was the best still - he was just that much better than everybody else still), Galibier 2011.

Even in 2007 it showed. Rasmussen beat him on pure stamina.

 

[DNP-Old]

Personally I'd rather see him target the Italian classics this fall. He lacks that one big classic and Lombardia has never been more suited to climbers.

 

[Climber123]

Re: Re:

You are forgetting one who also did it before with decent success, the man himself.

Wasn't he notably worse in 2015 than the year before?

In spring absolutely. Giro he was outstanding.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

I say go to Spain. Rest. Target some Spring races and try Tour again. I'd rather have him on Tv in July than not.

Fortunately Alberto is still the one who decides because he knows what's best for him.

Absolutely !. He wouldn't listen to anybody posting here for 1 second, certainly hope not !

I wonder if he is a regular reader of this thread? :lol:

I hope not. If this thread makes me feel depressed most of the time I open it, I can't even begin to imagine how it would feel to him.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

You are forgetting one who also did it before with decent success, the man himself.

Wasn't he notably worse in 2015 than the year before?

In spring absolutely. Giro he was outstanding.

Not really. He had 1 or 2 great performances. The TT of course the standout performance. He was definitely nowhere near his 2014 level.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

Personally I'd rather see him target the Italian classics this fall. He lacks that one big classic and Lombardia has never been more suited to climbers.

Ah, he can ride if he wishes to but the chances of him winning Lombardia must be close to 0.

 

[Red Rick]

Re: Re:

I say go to Spain. Rest. Target some Spring races and try Tour again. I'd rather have him on Tv in July than not.

Fortunately Alberto is still the one who decides because he knows what's best for him.

Absolutely !. He wouldn't listen to anybody posting here for 1 second, certainly hope not !

I wonder if he is a regular reader of this thread? :lol:

I hope not. If this thread makes me feel depressed most of the time I open it, I can't even begin to imagine how it would feel to him.

Contrary to us, he knows a lot more about himself than we do.

I imagine there would be a combination of giggles, facepalms and heartwarming if he read it.

Except if he starts on page 1, he'd find that weird Flo. He would find that weird. Sorry to tell you that

 

[Climber123]

Re: Re:

I say go to Spain. Rest. Target some Spring races and try Tour again. I'd rather have him on Tv in July than not.

Fortunately Alberto is still the one who decides because he knows what's best for him.

Absolutely !. He wouldn't listen to anybody posting here for 1 second, certainly hope not !

I wonder if he is a regular reader of this thread? :lol:

I hope not. If this thread makes me feel depressed most of the time I open it, I can't even begin to imagine how it would feel to him.

Yeah although I am sure he would have a chuckle at the occasional bursts of hype on here

 

[Red Rick]

Re: Re:

Personally I'd rather see him target the Italian classics this fall. He lacks that one big classic and Lombardia has never been more suited to climbers.

Ah, he can ride if he wishes to but the chances of him winning Lombardia must be close to 0.

Is the Lombardia route even out?

The years of Contador genuinely being a shot at big 1 day races passed a while ago. In hindsight it's a bit of a shame that he rarely raced post Tour in 2007-2011

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

Except if he starts on page 1, he'd find that weird Flo. He would find that weird. Sorry to tell you that

He just signed his own image.
Tattooed onto someone's back
It doesn't get much weirder than that

 

[Red Rick]

Re: Re:

Except if he starts on page 1, he'd find that weird Flo. He would find that weird. Sorry to tell you that

He just signed his own image.
Tattooed onto someone's back
It doesn't get much weirder than that

 

[Climber123]

Re: Re:

Except if he starts on page 1, he'd find that weird Flo. He would find that weird. Sorry to tell you that

He just signed his own image.
Tattooed onto someone's back
It doesn't get much weirder than that

Flo where is your tattoo?

 

[Carols]

I just Really hate to see all of you youngsters delude yourselves. He showed glimmers of his class in this race, it's called back class, and rode a good final ITT while finishing 3rd and 6th on 2 stages and 9th overall. I surely would like to see him win one final GT before he hangs up the bike. But your expectations are Very High.

Has he signed a contract for 2018?

 

[Red Rick]

Re:

I just Really hate to see all of you youngsters delude yourselves. He showed glimmers of his class in this race, it's called back class, and rode a good final ITT while finishing 3rd and 6th on 2 stages and 9th overall. I surely would like to see him win one final GT before he hangs up the bike. But your expectations are Very High.

Has he signed a contract for 2018?

I think people are mostly discussing an optimal route toward 2018, and most want to see him on good form in a GT one last time. I don't think people are necessarily expecting a win.

That said, I suffered through supporting Andy Murray in 5 Aussie open finals, I can handle this dammit

 

[Carols]

Re: Re:

I just Really hate to see all of you youngsters delude yourselves. He showed glimmers of his class in this race, it's called back class, and rode a good final ITT while finishing 3rd and 6th on 2 stages and 9th overall. I surely would like to see him win one final GT before he hangs up the bike. But your expectations are Very High.

Has he signed a contract for 2018?

I think people are mostly discussing an optimal route toward 2018, and most want to see him on good form in a GT one last time. I don't think people are necessarily expecting a win.

That said, I suffered through supporting Andy Murray in 5 Aussie open finals, I can handle this dammit

The optimal way for him to go out with a win IMO is to rest now, build to the Giro. If he wins it, just do a grand farewell ride around Spain in the Vuelta with no pressure. If he loses the Giro, well he has one more chance.

But Alberto will decide if he feels well enough now to ride this years Vuelta. I just pray he doesn't ride the Tour next year, it has never been good for him for 7 years now.

 

[Red Rick]

Re: Re:

I just Really hate to see all of you youngsters delude yourselves. He showed glimmers of his class in this race, it's called back class, and rode a good final ITT while finishing 3rd and 6th on 2 stages and 9th overall. I surely would like to see him win one final GT before he hangs up the bike. But your expectations are Very High.

Has he signed a contract for 2018?

I think people are mostly discussing an optimal route toward 2018, and most want to see him on good form in a GT one last time. I don't think people are necessarily expecting a win.

That said, I suffered through supporting Andy Murray in 5 Aussie open finals, I can handle this dammit

The optimal way for him to go out with a win IMO is to rest now, build to the Giro. If he wins it, just do a grand farewell ride around Spain in the Vuelta with no pressure. If he loses the Giro, well he has one more chance.

But Alberto will decide if he feels well enough now to ride this years Vuelta. I just pray he doesn't ride the Tour next year, it has never been good for him for 7 years now.

I'm pretty sure he's done with the Tour. He made his last kamikaze move, showed a lot of guts and panache throughout the race, and finished with a great ITT. He basically tore the GC opposition bar Froome a new one. I think like to think that he showed in the Tour that if he doesn't crash he's still a force to be reckoned with. It is a small thing, but it seems a lot better than just fading horribly toward the end and any small win for the mind, heart or ego is of some consolation I hope.

It's been a bit of a mental ride for fans the last 2 years. I know it has been for me. In 2014 he was insane. Then in 2015 there were crashes and spring illness, and a Giro with crashes, followed by a Tour-ridden crash, and he still top 5'd. In 2015 there were obvious excuses as to why he didn't perform.

Then last year, he's good in the spring, is amazing in PV, wins the DL prologue and crashes out of the Tour again. That Vuelta was painful, but yet again there were crashes, and it was quite obvious this couldn't have been the best he had left to give.

Then 2017 rolls around. Again he's up there in the spring, but the sharpness to make the difference when it matters seems to have faded when you look back through the years.

Last year I had hopes he could win the Tour and was quite devastated when he crashed and dropped out. The Vuelta was a disappointment, but at least he decided the race and I could give myself some hope for 2017. I do have to say that I hadn't stopped hoping for a win but that losses, especially respactable losses, haven't been as hard for me to deal with as a fan. The most frustrating thing has been that there hasn't been any pay off this year in terms of wins, and that he keeps crashing in GTs to the extent that we have to keep guessing what the best is that Alberto Contador can do as he's closing in on his 35th birthday.

One last thing that makes it easy to say that he's past it, is that competition across all stage races has gotten a lot denser. Top performances haven't gotten better than 2012-2015, and the Tour hasn't seen any out of this world performances since 2015, but it would seem that the amount of riders capable of a level just below that has increased. That partially explains why a bad GT means getting 9th rather than 5th, like it might have been a while ago.

Honestly, the most important thing is that I see Contador retiring happily. If he seems at peace with how his last few years in the peloton ended up, or with how he finished, that would help. Seeing favorite athletes not bitter post retirement is a great thing, no matter how frustrating it was to support them toward the end.

 

[Tonton]

I think that Bertie will leave this Tour with mixed emotions. On the negative side, there's confirmation that he no longer has what it takes to win a TdF. If he didn't know it back in June, now he knows it.

On the positive side, once the win was no longer a realistic option, Alberto's decided to please his fans with some gutsy moves. Was he trying to recapture the flame? In any case, that was cool to watch.

Today's performance also shows that although he's in the twilight of his career, Contador remains an extremely strong bike rider. No longer at the top, but still very near the top. Can he win a GT with lesser opposition? Time is running out, but I think that he still can do it.

Also, nice to see the cheers when he started his ITT. Not the classiest pubic today, but here they got it right.

 

[kingjr]

Have to pay respect where it is due. I've been feeling indifferent about Contador in recent years, but when he came by the second timecheck I really hoped he could somehow hold it until the finish. He didn't, but a valiant effort nonetheless.

 

[Jelantik]

Any chance he'll be riding Vuelta? He didn't seem to over exert himself at the Tour since he was out of contention in the first week already.

 

[Electress]

I don't really mind what he does next. I just like watching him. Irrespective of his ageing, he still brings something very special to racing. When he finally hangs up his bike, he might have regrets about things not won, but I don't think he'll have regrets about things not tried, and that matters. I also think he'll be able to look back and know that he's held in a great deal of affection - and I like to think that matters to him as well as the palmares.

 

[Pennino]

Re: Re:

And why should doing the Vuelta hurt his Giro chances next year? Oct-Nov to rest and then slowly building some form. Just take a full month rest now and see what the Vuelta could bring. 2017 owes him at least one victory.

He normally starts building form in November & he can't do that properly with the fatigue of a Tour and Vuelta in his legs. He'd be chasing form throughout spring and the Giro would come too early.

Boh, I'm not convinced that's the case. There are, as mentioned above, plenty of riders whom race until deep into the season, Worlds, Lombardia, and then peaking for the spring, whether it be the cobbled classics, the stage races or the Ardennes. Of course I agree that Contador's preparation would be some more delicate in comparison with other star riders, but here I don't see much of a problem as long as he's able to stick to the plan and does exactly what was planned to do. And there's absolutely no need to train aggressively in november and december. While building form, the body is also resting.

And I just want to see as much Contador as possible in the last stint of his terrific career...

 

[Sciocco]

Vuelta 2018 needs to put an ITT on the final stage from Pinto to Madrid (24km). Just climb off the bike and retire right there.

Or he could ride for a few more years beyond that and I would not mind at all.

 

[Red Rick]

I for one am wondering if Contador will try to do a lead out again tomorrow. He tried in 2013 and he was hilarious

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re:

Vuelta 2018 needs to put an ITT on the final stage from Pinto to Madrid (24km). Just climb off the bike and retire right there.

Or he could ride for a few more years beyond that and I would not mind at all.

MTT up Navacerrada, like 2008 (I think). Good chances of winning that one.