Nick777 said:
... recent prologue win to me? Because I am baffled.
If you had paid attention to Contador's results over the past couple of years you shouldn't be.
Dekker_Tifosi said:
Contador was always a specialist in short time trials. It might have been forgotten a little when he started climbing extroardinary well.
But his first win as a professional? Short time trial
First big win a professional? Again a short time trial
Has he done anything like this before? Yes, like beating Cadel Evans and Thomas Dekker in a short time trial in Basque last year.
He was always good at this, and now he simply became a step better, not that strange, considering he is only 26, and thus still improving. I think people are misled by the media, who reported some years ago that Contador is not a strong time triallist, which was simply wrong.
I fully agree, and as I posted in a previous thread, since I don't like to just say anything, I will back it up with some facts and results...
Andreas Kloden is 140lb/63.5kg. He came in second after Cancellara at the TdF 2007 Prologue (7.9k) in London, and was lightyears ahead (10s) of Bradley Wiggins.
With regard to Contador, in 2008 he won the prologue (9km) at the Vuelta a Castilla y Leon before Leipheimer. In the same year he beat Thomas Dekker and Cadel Evans in the Vuelta Ciclista al País Vasco 20km TT. He came in 2nd in the 39.4km TT in the Giro 2008 before guys like Kloden, Menchov and Leipheimer. He was 4th in the 40km TT of the Vuelta a Espana 2008, which Leipheimer (less than 140 lb?) won.
Again, as Deker_Tifosi mentions, short TT are somewhat his specialty, with 2nd, prologue (5.1km), Ruban Granitier and 2nd, stage 7 (ITT 1.6Km), Circuito Montañés in 2002. He came in 9th in the 4th stage (ITT 14.4Km), Vuelta a Burgos in 2003. In 2004 he came in 5th, in stage 1 (ITT 13.2km), Paris-Nice...
It's easy to check, just go to his website
http://www.albertocontadornotebook.info/palmares.html
you might even want to compare it to Wiggins palmares....