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Prime Lance vs. Contador ... Who Wins

Jul 2, 2009
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Unfortunately, you can't really debate this without going into Clinic territory.

If you look at pure times then I think Armstrong wins. He did Alpe d'Huez in 38 minutes flat in 2001, while an on form Sastre did it in 39.31 with a full on attack from the bottom to win the Tour in 2008. Maybe Contador could do it in 39 mins. He did it recently in about 42.30 (into a headwind) to win the stage earlier this month.

Armstrong relied on his team a lot though, while Contador seems a little less dependant.

But as I say, they're two close, but yet incomperable eras. This year's Giro shows how times on climbs have dropped in the last few years.

I think that Contador is probably the more talented. However, Armstrong seems more tactically astute and is a more intimidating opponent.
 
Dec 29, 2009
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Juan Pelota said:
irrelevant for this discussion.

Alright, I'll liven things up with some trash talk.

Contador never ever rode away from the field
the way Lance did in 2000 and 2001.

that was part of the "plan". don't you remember :)?

ed rader
 
I don't care if we are talking Lance + Doping vs Clean contador or Contador with less doping in today's age, versus nearly unmitigated doping of past. Don't care.

Who rode faster. contador now. Lance in 2001.

What are the climbing times of this years Giro? Got a link?
 
Jun 22, 2010
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Juan Pelota said:
I don't care if we are talking Lance + Doping vs Clean contador or Contador with less doping in today's age, versus nearly unmitigated doping of past. Don't care.

Who rode faster. contador now. Lance in 2001.

What are the climbing times of this years Giro? Got a link?

contador is the most doped of all... evans is the only cleasn rider in the top few along so lance the rest are high as a bird
 
Juan Pelota said:
irrelevant for this discussion.

Alright, I'll liven things up with some trash talk.

Contador never ever rode away from the field the way Lance did in 2000 and 2001.

Ahem. Did you miss the Verbier stage last year, skippy?

Plus, so far, Contador has never been the undisputed leader of a team at a Grand Tour. Despite winning 4 of them.
 
I think Contador would win. I just don't see how a 74kg Lance could stay with or put time into a 61kg Contador on decent climb:confused: It just seems physically impossible if you are conceding nearly 2 1/4 bikes worth of weight on a climb.
 
Jul 2, 2009
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Juan Pelota said:
What are the climbing times of this years Giro? Got a link?

You'll have to do thorough research yourself, but the best comparison is the TT up Plan de Corones. It was used this year and in 2008 - exactly the same course, both stage 16.

The top five this year and the positions they would have come in 2008 are

1. Garzelli 7th
2. Evans 9th
3. Gadret 11th
4. Nibali 13th
5. Scarponi 13th

Garzelli was 1 minute 02 slower than the winner in 2008 (Pellezotti). The top five in 2008 included Pellezotti, Ricco and Sella. (Simoni and Contador were the other two)

Now the weather and race conditions may have been different, but Nibali improved his time by 37 seconds from 2008 to 2010, which seems about right to me.

Make of it what you will.
 
Aug 16, 2009
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mowie133 said:
contador is the most doped of all... evans is the only cleasn rider in the top few along so lance the rest are high as a bird

Yeah. Evens is a super athlete and has much better recovery and lactate threshold than all the other guys int eh top 20 of a GT. He also tries so much harder than all the others cos he wants to win soo bad, unlike the other riders who a getting bord of winning races cos they are so juiced.

Did you know that Evens has a really high natural vo2 max? I bet someone like Contador doesnt have that.

And I have three words for on Lance. NEVER TESTED POSITIVE.
 
May 6, 2009
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BroDeal said:
If both start out with empty closet refrigerators then Armstrong does not get within twenty minutes of Contador. In a clean environment, Contador could still win the Tour; Armstrong could not break the top ten.

Where do you think he would finish? Top 20, Top 50? DNF? Wasn't it around 1995 that he first started working for Ferrari?

**** it, can a mod please move thread to the Clinic, it will be easier that way.
 
Mar 18, 2009
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It's impossible to compare the two because Lance in his prime was on such a huge amount of drugs--so much more than riders can take today, what with the bio-passport and all. Today riders have to micro-dose and work around the testers. In Lance's prime, you could take all the drugs you wanted, whenever you wanted. Ah, those were the days... If you put Contador on the program Lance was on in his prime, it would be like watching a bicycle duct-taped to the space shuttle go up the alps. You have to factor all that in when figuring out which one is the most talented.
 
El Imbatido said:
I think Contador would win. I just don't see how a 74kg Lance could stay with or put time into a 61kg Contador on decent climb:confused: It just seems physically impossible if you are conceding nearly 2 1/4 bikes worth of weight on a climb.

Lance wins hands down. I saw a show on Versus many years ago when it was called OLN that got into the science of why he was so dominant. :rolleyes:
 

Barrus

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Apr 28, 2010
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Wallace said:
Ah, those were the days... If you put Contador on the program Lance was on in his prime, it would be like watching a bicycle duct-taped to the space shuttle go up the alps.
Kinda like Pantani ;)
 
Juan Pelota said:
I don't care if we are talking Lance + Doping vs Clean contador or Contador with less doping in today's age, versus nearly unmitigated doping of past. Don't care.

Who rode faster. contador now. Lance in 2001.

What are the climbing times of this years Giro? Got a link?

Polish compiled this bit of useful info and AC's most recent time was estimated on that same thread at 41:38:http://forum.cyclingnews.com/showthread.php?t=8032
 

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