DFA123 said:
...Contador is painful to listen to as a commentator right now. I think there are two problems: firstly, his voice is pretty grating to listen to for hours on end. It's really scratchy and a bit whiny, he could certainly do with some coaching to improve this - vary his tone and intonation a bit more as well. ...
There's a reason for this. Sometime around '08-'10 a node developed on one of his vocal cords. Before that his voice was much more pleasant, if I recall; in any event that's when the scratchiness started. He was going to get it removed in an operation during the off season, but changed his mind (no reason given, but I can well imagine he had had enough of hospitals and surgeons by that time!) and after that said nothing more about it that I know of.
I can't be more exact about the year, nor can I give a reference. (Somebody who likes listening to old interviews should be able to find the year the node developed.) He had blogged about it on his original official web site, but we lost that record of interesting and insightful comment when it was taken down as a direct result of all the hate posted to it when he got popped. Alberto's official website re-appeared in a different format but the blog was gone and version 2 never excited me much. I think it got taken down too at some point or maybe I just stopped going to it. :surprised:
As some others have posted on the voice subject, yes indeed a voice can be trained to a different sound, though it's hard to break the habits of a lifetime. However, in Alberto's case only removal of the node can make a substantial difference to the sound quality.
As for me, although this looks like my first post, it isn't! but I lost my password in a simultaneous computer and isp change long ago, and not having much to say anyways just settled for lurking for several years. But I couldn't let this go by without setting the record straight. So congrats to DFA for luring my out of hiding.