Contador leaving Astana

[nowhereman]

Vino's behavior this July were "the height of unprofessionalism"??

Is that what Alberto is now saying?

It is no wonder Alberto has little respect among the Pro peloton.
Ex-managers, riders, and ex-team mates alike....

Where did he say that? reference please.

 

[Cerberus]

Where did he say that? reference please.

Publicus is Alberto gracing our humble forum with his presence. Didn't you know that?

 

[Polish]

Where did he say that? reference please.

I was just asking a question.

Publicus seems to have his finger on the pulse of Alberto's motivations.

I am starting to think Publicus is a paid member of "Estrategias Públicas Inc", the Spanish arm of "Public Strategies Inc."

"Vino is unprofessional"

"The ultimatum caused the rift"

"Race radio dialog during the ITT was disgraceful"

"Finger bang bang bang"

 

[Moose McKnuckles]

I'm starting to think Contador finger-banged Polish one too many times.

 

[Publicus]

Vino's behavior this July were "the height of unprofessionalism"??

Is that what Alberto is now saying?

It is no wonder Alberto has little respect among the Pro peloton.
Ex-managers, riders, and ex-team mates alike....

Good one polish. If you can't read or comprehend what you read, I can't help you chief.

Polish I must have really struck a nerve if you have taken to willfully misrepresenting what I wrote. Hopefully things workout with you and Andy's chamois. You are a lot more fun when you posting under the influence of chamois cream.

 

[Publicus]

Publicus is Alberto gracing our humble forum with his presence. Didn't you know that?

I have no idea what you are talking about.

 

[KazakhNeRider]

Vice-President of Kazakh Cycling Fed. Antyshev about Contador case

It's not a total disaster - for sure! Of course it's a pity, but Contador is not only rider in the whole world.

Yesterday we had a big meeting in Nice with all management of CFRK, Astana, all directors sportiff. The main topic - how we have to build the team further, who do we have to invite to replace Spanish army. It's undisputable that we have to sign riders the same class as Contador, because Astana team is still the project of image of our country and we have to maintain our leading positions in peloton.

 

[Ryaguas]

BLah Blah BlAh bLaH

WTF are you smoking???? You are writting really weird posts, you know? I don't know but if you need help to learn to read, I heard that in Cuba they have an amazing method to help you with your reading...

Anyway... mmmmm I still thinking and thinking about this... and the thing is: Contador is not leaving for money, all of you that have said that AC is leaving cuz the money are Failing big time... I really think that Contador is leaving Astana cuz he is looking for an team structure like he had with the Hog... OFC he is not going with the Hog cuz know the problems between them, so if he is not going with the Hog what team has a similar structure? easy...

Riis' Team...

Contador is disappointed with Astana's management... too many problems, details, little episodes during this season and at the end when you put all those thing together you have a big mass of problems... He is a 5 times GT winner and maybe he is thinking something like "Dang...! I deserve a better team, more organized and dedicated!" so this is where Riis and Specialized enter and they started to do their job taking Contador to the "Dark side"

Also Contador is thinking in the next Tour, He knows that he needs a good team for the TTT, also a better "program" (just see the jump that Andy had this season), and he want a BIG team, a team made just for him to win every single race where he want to ride... is kindda "LA way" but Contador takes more races and the next year he is going for the "Doblete" Giro - Tour or Tour - Vuelta and he knows that with Astana he is not going to make it...

Well sorry for the long post... That's some of my thoughts =D

 

[No_Balls]

I'm starting to think Contador finger-banged Polish one too many times.

No, just too many GT-wins at an early age.

 

[Cerberus]

I have no idea what you are talking about.

Ah, trying to maintain you anonymity I see, but the game is up. It's quite clear from Polishs' post that either:

1) You're Alberto Contador
2) Polish is talking out of his ***.

Now which possibility, good sir, strikes you as more likely? As I said the game is up.








I most say though, that I'm most impressed with you ability to ride a race and post on the forum at the same time. That takes true skill, particular doing descents.

 

[auscyclefan94]

Good one polish. If you can't read or comprehend what you read, I can't help you chief.

Polish I must have really struck a nerve if you have taken to willfully misrepresenting what I wrote. Hopefully things workout with you and Andy's chamois. You are a lot more fun when you posting under the influence of chamois cream.

I don't acually understand why you are bothering with him. Especially because you are a high calibre poster especially in comparison to polish.

 

[KazakhNeRider]

it seems that during the whole season Specialized couldn't find final variant of Shiv for Contador.
it's a photo of our astanafan from stage 19 TdF - what does Faustino do by this rasp-file?

 

[theswordsman]

Good one polish. If you can't read or comprehend what you read, I can't help you chief.

Polish I must have really struck a nerve if you have taken to willfully misrepresenting what I wrote. Hopefully things workout with you and Andy's chamois. You are a lot more fun when you posting under the influence of chamois cream.

It's my fault for abandoning my post as Contador fanboy / lightning rod. Nothing incites people like Polish more than someone posting press releases or positive stories about someone they don't like.

If you read a LOT of articles about a rider, from a lot of sources, in different languages, you can get a pretty good idea about them. It helps if for the most part they're honest people who will say the sky is blue when the sky is blue.

I read an article the other day (I remember the author but refuse to name him, but publications hire him as an expert in cycling training) about why Contador might have been less fit at this year's Tour. Alberto had mentioned things like the cold or whatever that caused him to skip Spain's TT and take antibiotics when he was meant to be doing altitude training. I considered his altered preparation for the year. After seeing how his team suffered for him at races like Paris-Nice, he exchanged tough races like Pais Vasco for non-UCI events. He also extended the early part of his season by a couple of weeks to ride the Ardennes Classics, which delayed his normal mid-season vacation, and cut two weeks off of his Tour prep.

Back to the article, which caused me to think about the other stuff. It was mentioned that except for the criteriums, Contador didn't race after the 2009 TdF. I figured that was because he didn't want to do another race for Bruyneel. But he's not racing the Clasica today, and not scheduled for the Vuelta, so I kind of doubt whether he'll ride again for Astana.

Schleck was arguably fitter than Alberto was for the Tour. He's putting in a tough day today, and he's riding the Vuelta to support Frank. He'll obviously have to train to prepare for that. So while Contador will start to decondition, Andy has lots of tough days ahead, at least well into September, on places like Bola del Mundo.

All of his time off obviously hurt Sastre. How much might Contador be hurting his 2011 chances by not taking August and September to add to his base fitness? Is he giving Schleck too much of a chance to get ahead?

 

[Cerberus]

It's my fault for abandoning my post as Contador fanboy / lightning rod. Nothing incites people like Polish more than someone posting press releases or positive stories about someone they don't like.

If you read a LOT of articles about a rider, from a lot of sources, in different languages, you can get a pretty good idea about them. It helps if for the most part they're honest people who will say the sky is blue when the sky is blue.

I read an article the other day (I remember the author but refuse to name him, but publications hire him as an expert in cycling training) about why Contador might have been less fit at this year's Tour. Alberto had mentioned things like the cold or whatever that caused him to skip Spain's TT and take antibiotics when he was meant to be doing altitude training. I considered his altered preparation for the year. After seeing how his team suffered for him at races like Paris-Nice, he exchanged tough races like Pais Vasco for non-UCI events. He also extended the early part of his season by a couple of weeks to ride the Ardennes Classics, which delayed his normal mid-season vacation, and cut two weeks off of his Tour prep.

Back to the article, which caused me to think about the other stuff. It was mentioned that except for the criteriums, Contador didn't race after the 2009 TdF. I figured that was because he didn't want to do another race for Bruyneel. But he's not racing the Clasica today, and not scheduled for the Vuelta, so I kind of doubt whether he'll ride again for Astana.

Schleck was arguably fitter than Alberto was for the Tour. He's putting in a tough day today, and he's riding the Vuelta to support Frank. He'll obviously have to train to prepare for that. So while Contador will start to decondition, Andy has lots of tough days ahead, at least well into September, on places like Bola del Mundo.

All of his time off obviously hurt Sastre. How much might Contador be hurting his 2011 chances by not taking August and September to add to his base fitness? Is he giving Schleck too much of a chance to get ahead?

I think you're jumping to conclusion by saying that time of hurt Sastre. He crashed in the Giro and in the Tour he might have been exhausted form the Giro. Blaming his performance on not racing for the post tour 2009 season seems to be a stretch. Look at Armstrong, he hardly rode anything beside the tour and that didn't seem to hurt his chances. Besides Contador has plenty of time to train in the new season before the Tour.

 

[Bicicleta]

Vaughters had an interesting Tweet about Contador's condition:

So why was Contador a bit less than '09? I'd say b/c in '08 he raced both Giro+Vuelta and this set an ideal foundation to build from.

Unrelated - can't find post but someone asked if I was in Asturias, answer: no ahora estoy en los Estados Unidos. Estoy casada con un americano y mis hijos nacieron aca asique por aca nos quedamos.

 

[Francois the Postman]

I have had a feeling that Contador wasn't as fighting fit most of us assumed from Paris Nice onwards. I do think, between him and Andy, Contador is the far better rider if they are both swinging their best legs.

I also thought Contador's riding style in the Tour showed distinct traits of an overly nervous rider. Either because he felt that AS could make his life very hard, or because he feared AS could make his life very hard. Nervousness saps energy. At the end of the ITT he looked like he had been put through the wringer and then some. Whatever it was, the TdF wasn't just a physical race for Alberto.

I know he is head strong and determined when when he feels strong and there are obvious factors conspiring against him. Bits of the jigsaw that ought to support him but are trying to get to him instead. Last year's news.

I don't know Contador well enough to know how he reacts to mental setbacks when he might feel he should be in control and have it sown up, but discovers he hasn't. This year.

Does he look for explanations? And does he look at himself first, or does he try to find things that got in the way of "perfect prep" around him? Most people find the last route very tempting.

None of the things listed so far sound like genuine problems, mild annoyances at best. And if that Astana car was telling him Andy was cycling him out of a jersey, that wasn't stretching the truth more than a few seconds tops, wasn't it?

Something is playing in his head that we aren't seeing, I think. I find no other way to explain the change of heart he appears to have had, all in a few weeks that ended well.

It does look like somehow he has made a turn-around during the Tour, as all signs were that the Astana signature was almost a formality that could only have been swept off the table if the Astana sucked during the Tour or Vino did an Armstrong. Which didn't happen, far from it.

Riis and Specialized will only have been able to persuade Contador if he was open to the suggestion in the first place. If he was not settled. Or unsettled.

I'm wondering if we had two actual winners this Tour. One on the road, with Maillot Jaune number three. And one off the road, Schleck, with the head battle. Maybe Contador won but felt beaten.

Not sure if Schleck won it, or Contador lost that second one, if that's indeed the case.

But we do have that Italian poster who reported that there were words spoken at the end of that stage where Vino drove off into the far distance and broke the back of a chasing Team Saxo (a strategy that was considered the best Astana could do to support Alberto that stage by many here). An event that several found hard to place, maybe even ignored because of that.

Maybe Andy, or maybe Alberto's own head, but something seems to have got through to him in the end - helped by nerves, tiredness, form, whatever - and maybe good judgement did leave that day after all, and there was a tense exchange (uncalled or, if true).

And maybe that is indeed where he became open to a change of team for 2011. Maybe his head was starting to find external problems to explain his own "less expected but very real" struggle to himself. Que Riis and Specialised. Maybe Riis appeared, to weary ears, to be the magic genie that could take away the annoyances that Contador experienced. Irritations that found their way into his head more and more during the Tour (rightly or wrongly).

I only need to look at my own life to know that tiredness, stress and doubt can add up to a different reading of good things immediately around you, then you would arrive at in retrospect, or after a good night's rest. And some actions that you take as a consequence aren't always bad, but are possibly very different than what you would have done if it hadn't all come together on the 3rd week of July. An ideal moment for something fairly meaningless to become a big player, let's say some ill-timed words by an Astana official, suggesting he needed a decision quickly. And maybe triggered one.

Technically, this year, the best rider we have was well supported, and in charge and control (could race and prep how he wanted, could reschedule, had good equipment, and had motivated folk riding for him). Yet he had a much tougher time on the road than you would conclude at the end of that list. He looked a wreck after 50k on Saturday afternoon, chasing someone who he should ride away from.

I think this Tour has taken more out of him than he bargained for. Andy deserves some credit for that, but I still speculate that it is more what Contador brought to the starting line himself that was a bigger hindrance than anything Andy threw at him.

Maybe moving away from Astana is Contador's way of silencing his internal voice, making sense of it all without looking closely at how he handled it himself. Rightly or wrongly.

To me it is a sign that he did actually crack during this Tour, but was still too good to lose it.

If so, he will be the same bundle of nerves next year, as it would have been more in his head than actually around him. Excuses more than reasons.

Unless the Riis' survival camp manages to change Contador's frame of mind before they hit the start line, or something shuts that little guy on his shoulder up.

 

[Ryaguas]

....

Well I'm officially totally scared... gosh... this post was a really well thought inside view about what happened to Contador this year... OFC I know that this is totally speculation but if this is true well... Contador is Facked up

So I really wish that you are wrong Francois...!

 

[manolo]

I really like ths post. These are my aforite statements:

Maybe Contador won but felt beaten.

Couldn't agree more!...

... Maybe moving away from Astana is Contador's way of silencing his internal voice, making sense of it all without looking closely at how he handled it himself. Rightly or wrongly.

That sort of explains it. He did have a grteat team at his service!...

... he... was still too good to lose it.

How accurate!...

If so, he will be the same bundle of nerves next year, as it would have been more in his head than actually around him....

You're probably right!...

Unless the Riis' survival camp manages to change Contador's frame of mind...

What a good thing to hope for!

Nice post! Good reading! Thanks!

 

[Beech Mtn]

I saw something that made me wonder about Alberto's decision to leave Astana. Follow this link to some great photos taken of Vino warming up and riding the final TT in the Tour - scroll down and look at the 6th photo, which has this caption:

Parting words from Kazakhstan Federation of cycling sport (General secretary Valentin Rekhert)

Vino is trying to warm up for the TT, and the sponsor is really involved, trying to motivate him or whatever. You don't often see riders being bothered while they warm up. Usually they are on iPods and "in the zone."

That photo gave me a bit of pause and reminded me of Alberto saying there was a lot of pressure this year. Maybe he had a ton of pressure from the sponsors. There was certainly pressure for Vino to get a stage win, along with AC getting the overall win.

Then there is Martinelli's statement on Italian TV about the tension at the dinner table after Vino didn't get his stage win on stage 12 in Mende. I remember seeing this photo of Alberto after that stage. He was sitting and talking on his cell phone (caption said he was talking to his mom). He looked kind of miserable. This is a guy who just took 10 seconds back from his nearest rival on GC, but he doesn't look happy.

I think this Tour was pretty tough for Alberto. Maybe more so than in 2009 because he and Vino were friends.

 

[bobs nob]

I don't acually understand why you are bothering with him. Especially because you are a high calibre poster especially in comparison to polish.

Dude, if you subtract me from you or vice versa, you still get a relatively high calibre poster relative to Pole-ish.

My only thought about Polish is "Exactly how dumb is this guy?" Other than trying to discover that, his posts are pointless.

 

[bobs nob]

SS - ss - ss nnnniiiiiipppppppp.....

Soulity is the breve of wit.

I do agree that this is one of te hollower victories I could possibly imagine. I repeatedly speculated that something had him unnerved.

Maybe this is just me reflecting on my own experiences, and no one has put forth a theory that is like 'Oh, that's it.', imo. But when there is no obvious distraction that can be pointed to (i.e. Poor Health, Lack of proper preparation) my first thought is always that the distraction is a woman.

 

[cyclopeon]

Maybe this is just me reflecting on my own experiences, and no one has put forth a theory that is like 'Oh, that's it.', imo. But when there is no obvious distraction that can be pointed to (i.e. Poor Health, Lack of proper preparation) my first thought is always that the distraction is a woman.

You may have a point-- haven't heard anything about his fiancee this Tour, usually there is the odd mention or so. But maybe it was there and I missed it.


Although I'm not given (much!!) to wild speculation, I recall seeing something somewhere (within the past two weeks) about Specialized getting a slew of e-mails unhappy with their bike-sponsorship of Astana every time one of their ads ran. (yes, it seems a bit over the top to me too, but what do I know?). So, if that is a fact or close to one, could that explain Specialized getting involved with brokering a new team for Contador during the latter stages of the Tour? (Stranger things have happened, or have they?)


Whether or not his mind was working on him, I think there was a physical issue as well, although I don't know what. The first several km of the TT, his style on the bike was sh*t, legs and body all over the place. Compare the video with the prologue, where he was just plain smoooth! He settled down more and more as the TT went on, thank heaven, but I don't think he really got into his normal style. Yep, he looked a wreck at the end, and so he should have, he was the defending champion teetering on the edge of losing it; his team left everything on the road for him every day, it was his turn to drain himself completely for them, and I'd have lost some respect for him if he hadn't been wrecked at the end.

 

[Denkoff]

How do you think COntador in sky realy?

 

[oronet commander]

You may have a point-- haven't heard anything about his fiancee this Tour, usually there is the odd mention or so. But maybe it was there and I missed it.

He was shown on Spanish TV giving a very emotional hug to his fiancee just after the end of the Paris stage. It was a TVE camera, not Tour's, so it's very likely that the image wasn't seen in the rest of the world.

 

[OctaBech]

Unless the Riis' survival camp manages to change Contador's frame of mind before they hit the start line, or something shuts that little guy on his shoulder up.

Army camp isn't the only tool Riis possesses, as preparation for this season Fabian had a mental coach teaching him to stay calm under pressure and not give up on an attack.