what team?

[Ripper]

I agree here. He could have done a lot more damage to the GC if he went all out on Ventoux and stage 17 when klodi got dropped. Then again, if he won by 8-9 minutes, the old "speculation" starts up again.

About S/L, i agree he would have won with them, and no doubt Jurgen van den Breakaway would not of caused internal struggles. Then again, despite what contador says, I think in the individual TTs he went all out to prove a point to armstrong and bruyneel, that he is the numero uno!! so I think the team leadership issue did spur him on and help his motivation, even if he doesn't admit this

I still think the support he rec'd from some teammates on Astana cannot be overlooked. He would have used a lot more energy riding with S-L.

FWIW, if you are riding for the overall, you go all out in the TTs.

 

[auscyclefan94]

It comes down to how good the GC rider is. Riding for a good team will always be an advantage but if a rider is clearly the best then riding without that advantage might still be enough to win.

If we look at Sastre last year for example, he wasn't classes better than everyone else so the team help probably was a diffrence between winning and not winning.

In other GTs the winner has won with several minutes and in those cases it probably wouldn't have mattered as much if the team was not as good.

As for Contador in this years Tour then yes he would probably have won if he had ridden on Silence Lotto as well. The feeling throughour the Tour was that he never really went all out. He only did enough to win but he could probably have done alot more. The benefit to riding for Silence Lotto would have been to not have the internal struggles he had this year so that would probably have been a positive effect as well.

Contador would of definetly not won in 07 if he was on PRL

 

[Indurrey]

He would have won with any team, and probably quite handily.

You can point to the three minutes Astana took out of S-L... but let's not forget that was with AC on the team! Put him on S-L in place of their worst rider, while replacing him on Astana with a much inferior racer... and that margin comes down.

As for the help he actually did receive from (some of) his Astana teammates... how many of those teammates actually did actively help him? Maybe four or so. I would think help from a full eight teammates would outweigh that, no matter how strong those four Astana riders may have been.

 

[blaxland]

i guess that contador staying with astana might give us the chance to see if he can win on a less strong team next year.....vino will be good help though..

 

[Ripper]

He would have won with any team, and probably quite handily.

You can point to the three minutes Astana took out of S-L... but let's not forget that was with AC on the team! Put him on S-L in place of their worst rider, while replacing him on Astana with a much inferior racer... and that margin comes down.

As for the help he actually did receive from (some of) his Astana teammates... how many of those teammates actually did actively help him? Maybe four or so. I would think help from a full eight teammates would outweigh that, no matter how strong those four Astana riders may have been.

I think the 4 from Astana would have been a lot more helpful than the none (or 1) at S-L. They need to be near you to be of help! And, just like Evans at S-L, Conti would have had to pull for half the TTT

It's call just guessing right now. But ... it looks like next year, if things continue with Astana (i.e. Contador getting screwed and staying with the team), we'll have a much better idea.

 

[Ripper]

i guess that contador staying with astana might give us the chance to see if he can win on a less strong team next year

Damn, you beat me to it!

vino will be good help though..

Not so sure about this. The high mountains are not his forte, and he can be kinda hot or cold.