Does anyone think Contador is over-rated?

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Comments

  • Richrd2205
    Richrd2205 Posts: 1,267
    @ Arkibal
    I share your point of view & am not damning Contador at all....
    Astana have the facility to have removed all my doubts already & refuse to answer any questions about publishing their results, why????
    There are a number of suspicious results ATM &, if I were a DS, I'd be wanting to dispel such doubts with evidence. Where such evidence exists & I don't release it....
    Occam's Razor & all that....

    I hope you're right though
  • RichN95.
    RichN95. Posts: 27,253
    Richrd2205 wrote:
    @RichN95
    I have no idea who may or may not be on hot sauce either, however, I know enough to not believe things-that-pr-people-want-me-to-believe...
    I want to believe in Contador & the new generation & all that, but, unlike you, I'm no happy to trust a name without anything else....
    Can you tell me what the difference would be between Damsgaard saying they're all doped to hell & there being no doping at all in what is released in the press?
    If I were confident in my skills in doping, I'd take on a dodgy team, then experiment with some of the older riders to see what could be spotted....
    I'll not trust someone who can beat a convicted doper by a reasonable margin without seeing the results.

    I apologise for my cynicism...

    With Damsgaard, I'm certain that he wouldn't go to the dark side and become comlicit in a doping program, having been very outspoken on the matter. I also believe that he is one of the leading experts in the field. I also believe that if Astana were fraudulently using his name then he would say so. What is possible is that Astana have found a genius biochemist who can beat the Damsgaard tests - but I find this unlikely.

    You also wonder about Contador beating a convicted doper - but we don't know what Ricco is like without dope. Dope doesn't make a rider unbeatable by any clean rider. Ricco without dope may be like a Chavanel or Casar and needs to dope to get close to the level of the top clean riders.

    As a teenager I was talent sprinter (athletics, not cycling) - 10.9 for 100m at 16. But no amount of doping would have got me close to a genuinely talented clean sprinter like Darren Campbell. A very talented clean rider can beat a doped moderate rider.
    Twitter: @RichN95
  • mtb.boy
    mtb.boy Posts: 208
    He must be quite good - Paddy Power have him at evens to win the Tour next year.
    The first rule of cycling is - Tell everyone how great cycling is.

    The second rule of cycling is - Tell everyone how great cycling is !!!!
  • feersumendjinn
    feersumendjinn Posts: 148
    Its regrettable that the anti Bruyneel clan will shout "doper" at any mention of Astana it odd because they seem not to do the same for say ex T-Mobile riders who went on to run teams
    They also dismiss Astanas Damsgaard testing as a publicity stunt, yet not so for other teams, that Astana don't publish their results is a red herring as they are sent to WADA & the UCI just because their not released to the general public is irrelevant , unless you believe Bruyneel has WADA & the UCI in his pocket too & if you don't trust Damsgaard for Astana why do you trust it for anyone else?
    Just because Bruyneel has a strong team that dominate races is hardly his fault, other teams can buy riders just as good & just as strong, I expect the same argument to be aimed at CSC soon, as if they ride like they did at the Tour they will dominate a lot of races..
  • Tom Butcher
    Tom Butcher Posts: 3,830
    Do the other teams with anti doping programmes all publish the results - I know some do.
    it's a hard life if you don't weaken.
  • Arkibal
    Arkibal Posts: 850
    @Richrd2205
    Astana will be releasing the test results soon, though I don't know why... Are you a doctor or a scientist?

    Interesting that Gusev was the first to fall into Damsgaards trap, ex-CSC rider...
  • rustychisel
    rustychisel Posts: 3,444
    I reckon Contador, and Luis Leon Sanchez, are the 2 best riders out of Spain since Oscar Freire. Whether they're on the hot sauce, I dunno.
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  • victorponf
    victorponf Posts: 1,187
    rustychisel wrote:
    I reckon Contador, and Luis Leon Sanchez, are the 2 best riders out of Spain since Oscar Freire. Whether they're on the hot sauce, I dunno.

    When they begun to ride spanish newspapers named they as the new Pedro Delgado (Contador) and the new Indurain (LL Sánchez). (journalis allways go over the top)

    Contador is going to be better than Delgado, the LL Sánchez challenge is more difficult
    If you like Flandes, Roubaix or Eroica, you would like GP Canal de Castilla, www.gpcanaldecastilla.com
  • secretsqirrel
    secretsqirrel Posts: 2,123
    Contador over-rated?

    Before the Giro, I would have said 'maybe''.

    After the Giro, I say 'no'.

    If he wins the Vuelta, I would not expect anyone to ask the question.
  • victorponf
    victorponf Posts: 1,187
    SecretSqirrel wrote:
    Contador over-rated?

    Before the Giro, I would have said 'maybe''.

    After the Giro, I say 'no'.

    If he wins the Vuelta, I would not expect anyone to ask the question.

    If he wins the Vuelta he will entry in the exclusive club of the "All GT winners" (with Gimondi, Anquetil, Hinault and the great Eddy)
    If you like Flandes, Roubaix or Eroica, you would like GP Canal de Castilla, www.gpcanaldecastilla.com
  • Moomaloid
    Moomaloid Posts: 2,040
    I'm still waiting for the bubble to burst. He did suddenly become a GT contender, and his links to OP are still lingering.... BUT, if nothing comes of this then u have to hold your hands up and say that he could possibly be the next big thing. PLUS he's damn exciting to watch when he's on form and this years tour, in my opinion suffered with him not being there, even if i did agree ASO's decision.

    A
  • pedalpower
    pedalpower Posts: 138
    I was going to start a Contador versus Andy Shleck thread but this one is close enough. Andy Schleck to me just seems incredible - he was riding so far within himself this year on Alpd'Huez that he made the others look like little children he was coaching. And on the col de la bonette he was buzing from front to back of the group like a yo-yo. What's more, I'd bet he is clean.
    Contador on the other hand i don't trust at all. And i don't think he'll be able to match andy schleck as a climber. So it depends a lot on how much Schleck can improve against the clock.

    However, I still think that if he was riding as leader, Andreas Kloeden should be the man to beat. God knows why he's so happy to play second (or third) fiddle all the time. He's still the best timetrialler around (of the GC riders) and not many can put much time into him on the mountains when he's on form. It'll be interesting to see what Bruyneel brings out of him.
  • graeme_s-2
    graeme_s-2 Posts: 3,382
    Tom Butcher wrote:
    Do the other teams with anti doping programmes all publish the results - I know some do.
    Garmin certainly do. The scheme they use is you (you = a journalist I believe) have to request results for a particular rider, and you have to have a signed statement from a doctor in the field, stating that they will help you to interpret the results. I believe Columbia work the same way.

    CSC will only publish the results anonymously, they aren't tied to a specific rider. The problem with this is to read anything into the results you need to be able to spot trends over time, and take races, travel, etc into account. As the CSC results are anonymous, you can't do this.
  • richa
    richa Posts: 1,632
    pedalpower wrote:
    Contador on the other hand i don't trust at all. And i don't think he'll be able to match andy schleck as a climber.
    Contador coped pretty well with Rasmussen. Have we seen enough yet from Andy Schleck to think he will gain more in the mountains than he will lose in the TTs?
    Rich

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