Contador takes swipe at the TDF/ASO
This is my Tour de France for me this year. I prefer to win this Giro than win a second Tour
To some degree, I agree with him. I think coming into the Giro after being on vacation, having little preparation time and after being slighted by ASO and to then win is similar to when Merckx won the TDF (although in more commanding fashion) after the Giro DQ'd him with a suspect drug test. A strong answer.
They (ASO) took a decision that I don’t like and it looks like they’re not going to change their minds. After winning such a hard and demanding Giro, I wouldn’t be able to go to the Tour anyway.
I think Astana is single-handedly going to save the Vuelta this year. Last year's Vuelta was so poor that I don't think they even watched half of it in Spain. And this year, they really didn't do a lot to change the uninteresting and non-GC centered schedule, but if Contador's going for a second GT in a single year and another strong thumb to ASO, it could be very exciting.
Just saw that he also said:
It was a Giro that many could have won and it is at the same level as the Tour de France, maybe at a higher level.
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I shouldn't think ASO could care less what Contador gets up to. He could ride the Tour if he changed teams, the ban is Astana's not his.
The Tour, will I'm sure write it's own stories without him as it did in years when Hinault missed one or Fignon missed one or Anquteil missed one, or Ullrich missed one or Pantani missed one etc etc etc.0 -
skavanagh.bikeradar wrote:I shouldn't think ASO could care less what Contador gets up to. He could ride the Tour if he changed teams, the ban is Astana's not his.
Spot on.0 -
Anyhow, with the TDF under FFC rules now, ASO have way bigger f@ck-ups to answer to than that.0
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I would be interested to know what extra races he would have included if he had known for months that he would be doing the Giro. I take it the Tour of Basque country isn't a race. Simoni hasn't raced much due to illness, Ricco crashed alot and had to miss races, Di Luca off the bike problems. I would say he the best deal, no pressure. I think if Ricco or Di Luca had stonger teams they could have put him in trouble early on. Armstrong proved you don't need to race to prepare.0
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NJK wrote:I would be interested to know what extra races he would have included if he had known for months that he would be doing the Giro. I take it the Tour of Basque country isn't a race. Simoni hasn't raced much due to illness, Ricco crashed alot and had to miss races, Di Luca off the bike problems. I would say he the best deal, no pressure. I think if Ricco or Di Luca had stonger teams they could have put him in trouble early on. Armstrong proved you don't need to race to prepare.
No, Armstrong proved that HE didn't need to do a lot of races in order to prepare. First off, even Lance always did some racing before the TDF to get into racing mode/shape. Second, Lance was one in a million in terms of self-motivation (and that was only after his cancer). Regardless of whether you believe he took drugs, he worked harder and smarter than anyone else during his 7 year reign. What worked for him is not guaranteed to work for anyone else.0 -
NJK wrote:I would be interested to know what extra races he would have included if he had known for months that he would be doing the Giro. I take it the Tour of Basque country isn't a race. Simoni hasn't raced much due to illness, Ricco crashed alot and had to miss races, Di Luca off the bike problems. I would say he the best deal, no pressure. I think if Ricco or Di Luca had stonger teams they could have put him in trouble early on. Armstrong proved you don't need to race to prepare.
Di Luca's team were incredibly strong.
I expect his programme would've included Romandy and perhaps he would've asked to do one of the Italian smaller stage races. Pais Basque is during the week of the cobbled classics which is a fair time away from the Giro.
Armstrong did race to prepare in a very specific way. He'd always pop up around the time of the Ardennes classics and build from there. In the last few years usually in Georgia and then onto the Dauphine but he certainly did race.Fckin' Quintana … that creep can roll, man.0 -
Careful, almost turning into another one of those Armstrong threads.
He certainly rode less and less preparatory races, each year, as he got older. Very little in his final season and abandoning Paris-Nice. Didn't make any difference.
Contador had ridden more kms in his early season, than LA usually had by July. Now, he's ridden another 3500km. He must be getting up to nearly 90% fit, by now. :roll: Just in time for his long lay off. :oops:"Science is a tool for cheaters". An anonymous French PE teacher.0 -
He was in good form at the Tour of Basque country ahead of Piepoli who was no doubt building for the last week of the Giro. To win To win such a hilly small tour you have to be in good knick. He might have been on the beech when he got the call but he was not in bad condition i don't care how much spin the team put on it. Thery make it sound like he hadn't touched the bike for a month
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Riding kilometers does not make you peak. Riding those kilometers in a very specific way makes you peak. And once you peak, there's only one way to go: down. Contador had clearly passed his first peak of the season and was in the rest between that and the beginning of the preparation for the second peak, at the VUelta, I imagine. He was kind of lucky in that his peak had passed, so he could build again,even if not too high. Leipehimer and Klöden entered the race on what looked like their peak, right after their early-season objectives, and we all saw where that got them.
I don't think the racing programme would've changed too much. He'd have started later and/or slower, probably taking in Romandie or the Giro del Trentino. The main difference would've been in route scouting and training camps, I think. Going up the Mortirolo for the first time by car three days before racing up it in the Giro is hardly optimal.0 -
skavanagh.bikeradar wrote:I shouldn't think ASO could care less what Contador gets up to. He could ride the Tour if he changed teams, the ban is Astana's not his.
The Tour, will I'm sure write it's own stories without him as it did in years when Hinault missed one or Fignon missed one or Anquteil missed one, or Ullrich missed one or Pantani missed one etc etc etc.
Maybe so but for me the Tour is certainly poorer without him. He is THEE class act in GT racing at the moment and he should be on the start line imo.
cheers
MGGasping - but somehow still alive !0 -
The grand tour I'd like to see:
Andy Schleck
Bertie Contador
Riccardo Ricco
Danilo Di Luca
Damiano Cunego
Denis Menchov
Cadel Evans0 -
We'll see in the 2009 Tour for Contador. Like it's been said, Contador could always swap teams. Indeed, imagine if he approached Bouygues Telecom and said he'd like to ride for them, bringing Astana and its petrodollars as a co-sponsor for July only.
The Giro is really an Italian affair. Almost unknown riders were racing for the honours. Sella? Boissio? Kiriyenka? Ricco might set the Giro on fire but I can't see him doing this in the Tour. So if Contador managed to win, I wouldn't read too much into it, he did it against a relatively lower standard of riders.0 -
Kléber wrote:We'll see in the 2009 Tour for Contador. Like it's been said, Contador could always swap teams. Indeed, imagine if he approached Bouygues Telecom and said he'd like to ride for them, bringing Astana and its petrodollars as a co-sponsor for July only.
The Giro is really an Italian affair. Almost unknown riders were racing for the honours. Sella? Boissio? Kiriyenka?
None of them were going for the overall though with maybe the exception of Sella (who isnt an unkown rider)at the end.
Ricco might set the Giro on fire but I can't see him doing this in the Tour. So if Contador managed to win, I wouldn't read too much into it, he did it against a relatively lower standard of riders.
Di Luca,Ricco,Pellizotti etc are decent riders who have trained specifically for the Giro you can only race against what is put in front of you, just like Hinault and Indurain etc did and now Bertie has done the same. Can you name a better GT rider at the moment than Bertie ?
cheers
MGGasping - but somehow still alive !0 -
I think professional racing must be in a poor state if Contador is truly the greatest GT rider in the sport - especially after his pitiful display at the Giro. If that's the way a grand champion races these days then the sport really has lost its way.0
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It's hard to sit on a saddle when your ass is sore from a load of injectionsDan0
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They would have wanted quite a thorough look in his kit bag I would have thoughtKléber wrote:imagine if he approached Bouygues Telecom and said he'd like to ride for them 0 -
micron wrote:I think professional racing must be in a poor state if Contador is truly the greatest GT rider in the sport - especially after his pitiful display at the Giro. If that's the way a grand champion races these days then the sport really has lost its way.
What was pitiful about it did you say the same about Big Mig when all he did was defend his TT gains in the mountains othetr than one or two notable attacks ? Contador has now won two GTs in two diffrent ways the mark of class imo, he will have a few more before he is finished id imagine. I am still waiting for someone to come up with a better GT rider than bertie.......................
cheers
MGGasping - but somehow still alive !0 -
Guess you buy the myth then MG? That Dertie was at 80% and did it all on lettuce and water and no training and a cracked elbow to boot?
Indurain always took his responsibility as a rider - you only have to watch old footage of him to see that - he didn't have to rely on collaborations with several other teams. And he always managed to win stages.
Sorry, but I cannot ever see Contador climb as brilliantly as he did in his early career again now that he has this 'winning formula' - and that I think is very sad. If riding 100% defensively, never attacking and never getting off the wheel shows class then cadel Evans must be the classiest rider in the sport :roll:
But each to their own, eh? Guess i just have different expectations from a GC rider to you MG.0 -
I reckon that if he had done the specific training for the Giro, he would have attacked a whole lot more. That is his normal style. I think that the way he approached the Giro was due to his less than ideal training. Yes he was fit, but I would imagine that he was short of 'top end' training, which would have enabled him to be more explosive.0
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If the professional racing scene is poor at the moment then perhaps that's a good thing in terms of you-know-what? Remember, we're all happy for performance to decrease if everyone's clean, right? Right?0
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The way Contador won the Tour and the way he won the Giro were completly different because he trained for the Tour.He won Paris-Nice 07 by attacking and is normally an exciting rider so give him a chance as he said he was only here for the first week of the Giro but would see how it went.
Its the riders who make the race and Ricco didn't attack him enough,Di Luca tried and blew Sella was always prepared to have a go,you have to give Contador credit for bluffing his opponents to win.0 -
micron wrote:I think professional racing must be in a poor state if Contador is truly the greatest GT rider in the sport - especially after his pitiful display at the Giro. If that's the way a grand champion races these days then the sport really has lost its way.
You mean as opposed to it's glory days in 1990 when Greg Lemond won the TDF without winning a single stage? :roll: :roll: :roll:
Just because he didn't win a single stage doesn't mean he didn't ride a tough, hard fought, intelligent, great race. Remember that he soundly beat the other GC guys in the TT's (because Giro riders tend to be more mountain-oriented given the insane mountain stages) but there were a few TT specialists who did a little better. And he rode quite strong in the mountains but there happened to be a guy (Sella) who simply rode like a Rasmussen on a mission there but was destroyed in the TT's. Not winning a stage simply means there were some specialists in each area. Remember the GC is not all about being the best at everything but about being the cumulatively-best at many things.0 -
+1 donrhummy0
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I feel sorry for you those of you that feel this was a performance worthy of a Grand Champion - you are obviously fully paid up members of the Astana cult because you swallow their BS hook line and sinker
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micron:
If you were able to watch the Giro you could see with your own eyes that Contador was not in his best form.
I'm not a member of any cult you so stubbornly want to put me in.
You claim you don't hate Contador or Astana, yet your posts are full of poison towards them regardless what they do.
Amazing, really, that you are able to watch cycling, you seem so bitter towards Astana that it's unbelievable.
I really enjoyed this Giro, it was exciting and beautiful.
And Contador winning it was something that I never even expected!0 -
Certain riders made the Giro great - and, if you accept a 'level playing field' of doping then Sella and Ricco and Di Luca (all of whom have been lambasted on this forum) set the race alight. Contador did nothing - he was a bit better than the others in the time trials and had the good fortune to be bailed out of trouble by CSF, Lotto and Liquigas in the mountains. He never once launched an attck, which at least made his riding in the Tour dynamic. I am angry with this way of riding because it is not the riding of a Grand Champion and I think it is a shame that Bruyneel has taken an exciting climber and made him an unexciting all rounder. I remember Lemond's 1990 Tour win and to compare the 2 performances is disingenuous - Lemond's teammate Pensec was in an early break and was over 10 minutes ahead, trading the MJ with Bauer and Chiapucci. The situation was considerably more complicated for Lemond than it ever was for Contador.
What suprises me is that so many here are willing to accept such a dull performance as something special.0 -
I suppose iit must be galling for some, having seethed through the seven years of Lance, only to find the relief of finally getting rid of him is shot to bits when his mentor, Bruyneel, gets his clutches on the next dominant GT rider....
And before I get accused of being an Astana "fanboy", as Tim Moore put it, quoting Eddy Merckx; "I am completely indifferent"....Le Blaireau (1)0 -
It was great piece of performance management, whether you believe him fully fit, or not.
Other than that, there is little to dignify it as a great ride.
I'm a bit concerned, because he rode Basque, in exactly the same manner.
Nothing like he rode Paris-Nice, last year.
He attacked 1km from the top of the first climb, sat on the last breakaway, as he did Menchov on the Marmolada, then attack him, when he was of no more use.
Took an 8 second lead through the week, riding defensively, then took a further 30 seconds in just 4 km of the ITT.
It was a deadly dull Basque Tour. The worst I can remember and I've seen quite a few.
If this is a sign of his change and things to come, gone will be those stinging attacks in the mountains, to be replaced by stinging attacks, born in a wind tunnel.
Only his most dedicated fans will appreciate this change in styles."Science is a tool for cheaters". An anonymous French PE teacher.0 -
donrhummy wrote:micron wrote:I think professional racing must be in a poor state if Contador is truly the greatest GT rider in the sport - especially after his pitiful display at the Giro. If that's the way a grand champion races these days then the sport really has lost its way.
You mean as opposed to it's glory days in 1990 when Greg Lemond won the TDF without winning a single stage? :roll: :roll: :roll:
/quote]
Be fair, Greg did get a cap in the ass in the late '80s. Which is enough to put anyone off their stride.___________________
Strava is not Zen.0
