Altitude said:
All of the above riders, including Menchov. Contador's specialty is steep climbs with fluctuating gradients, where nobody can find a rhythm. He doesn't like the shallow, steady climbs (see stage 7 of this years Tour).
Okay, here's the main field from stage 7, all same time:
7 Pierrick Fedrigo (Fra) Bbox Bouygues Telecom 0:01:47
8 Ryder Hesjedal (Can) Garmin - Transitions
9 Ruben Plaza Molina (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne
10 Eros Capecchi (Ita) Footon-Servetto
11 Nicolas Roche (Irl) AG2R La Mondiale
12 Linus Gerdemann (Ger) Team Milram
13 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana
14 Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team
15 Cyril Gautier (Fra) Bbox Bouygues Telecom
16 Lance Armstrong (USA) Team Radioshack
17 Damien Monier (Fra) Cofidis, Le Credit en Ligne
18 Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto
19 Luis León Sánchez Gil (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne
20 Andy Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank
21 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Liquigas-Doimo
22 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Team Radioshack
23 Chris Anker Sørensen (Den) Team Saxo Bank
24 Alexander Vinokourov (Kaz) Astana
25 Pierre Rolland (Fra) Bbox Bouygues Telecom
26 Kevin De Weert (Bel) Quick Step
27 Ivan Basso (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo
28 Kanstantsin Siutsou (Blr) Team HTC - Columbia
29 Denis Menchov (Rus) Rabobank
30 Samuel Sánchez Gonzalez (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi
31 Thomas Löfkvist (Swe) Sky Professional Cycling Team
32 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Sky Professional Cycling Team
33 Daniel Navarro Garcia (Spa) Astana
34 Johan Van Summeren (Bel) Garmin - Transitions
35 Janez Brajkovic (Slo) Team Radioshack
36 Christopher Horner (USA) Team Radioshack
37 Robert Gesink (Ned) Rabobank
38 Carlos Sastre (Spa) Cervelo Test Team
39 Steve Morabito (Swi) BMC Racing Team
40 Christophe Le Mevel (Fra) Française des Jeux
41 Michael Rogers (Aus) Team HTC - Columbia
42 Joaquin Rodriguez (Spa) Team Katusha
How can you make your conclusion based on that? According to that result, even though they have the same time, Contador's a 'better' climber than Schleck, Basso, Rodriguez, etc. And he's worse than Capecchi, Roche and Gerdemann? That just doesn't make sense to me.