This has nothing to do with Contador's fan base buddy-o. It has to do with Versus' coverage of the TdF and sensionalizing something that was of very little importance race-wise.
I'm not going to dig up things that have already been said and need to further debate. Aww! Freak it, I'll add to it. Take the stage where Lance put 41 seconds on Alberto. The Texan is not seen at the front up to the very end, when he was tapped on the shoulder by someone at Columbia. I suspect that Hincapie talking to him earlier during that stage, and warning him of Columbia trying to split the field at the end, or that George is going to Livestrong in 2010 had nothing to do with it. Wait, nooooo! The two events are entirely unrelated.
The way I see it, and I am American by the way, is that Alberto smelled what Armstrong and Johan were cooking even before the Tour began. The more I think about this Tour, Versus' coverage of the entire event and everyone's reaction at Contador winning, the more I come to realise this was supposed to be Armstrong's 8th. He did come in form, there's no question about that. The only problem was that on the prologue Alberto sent them a message that he was also ready for battle.
JB tried to hold him back on various occasions (based on rider's commentary), even after Lance inexplicably put 41 seconds on him (team tactics sure didn't matter then). They figured that if LA was in front by the time the TT rolled around then it'd be a toss up. Verbier rolls around and Johan tries to hold him back again, even though Alberto tells him he is good to go (see
Marca on his commentary). Johan is not happy because it screws up team tactics. The new goal now is to put 3 people on the podium, whereas Johan's goal all along was to win the TdF.
You connect the dots.
Grand Bornand comes around and both JB and LA realise the later just doesn't have the chops. Plain and simple. So... from that point on it all became a game of critizicing the (supposed) team leader. When and where did you ever see that happening??? And the Versus propaganda machine followed suit too. No questioning the other side, other cyclists, nothing. Whatever Lance and Johan say is The Truth, and since Contador is not contesting it, which he did by the way, all you have to do is check out his responses to Marca or Diario As' post-race interviews, he is somehow conceding that he broke the team's "tactical" rules (A.K.A. let Lance win becase he has lots of money and some of it may trickle down to us). If only Versus had put a microphone in front of Alberto more often we would've known more and be in a position to criticize his actions, and we do, just in the wrong language. Hence that brings me to the last point: How can you be that easily deceived into thinking rider A is at fault when you havent even heard his side of the story?
In any case, just so that you know, all of Contador's attacks, according to him, as said in Marca,
and this was not dispeled by Johan, were "OKd by Bruyneel". Alberto also says that his attack on the Colombiére was also cleared with Klöden, who, by the looks of it, couldn't hold the pace.
And going back to the subject at hand, namely Versus' coverage of the TdF, just today, looking at Lance talking to the other riders, something he does often, everyone knows each other in the peloton (more or less), Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwin say stuff like "he's probably offering them contracts"
. I'm friggin speechless. I tell you I have NEVER seen such impartial commentary. They started off well a few years ago but they have gotten considerably worst every year. This year the Lance mania was at horrific levels. Vandevelde, coming off a crash and still finishing 8th! LeMevel, the Schleks, et cetera... so many potential good stories and all these hypocrites do is show rerun after rerun of Lance's 7 TdF wins?
They sound like cycling nazis with a microphone. And they're not even American for peace sake! What the hell is wrong with them?!
Cheers.
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