Contadors isolation

trekrider127
trekrider127 Posts: 83
edited July 2009 in Pro race
He seems to be increasingly isolated by the Astana team doesn't he? I wonder if they are 'outing' a doper without spitting in the soup?

One thing about Armstrong ... when he was wearing the yellow and had to face the inevitable doping questions ..... he handled them better than Contador ...... 'next question'

Given that Contador has been consistently my favourite rider for a few years .... and I've thoroughly enjoyed watching him stick it to the big Tex ..... I'm beginning to get a sickening deja vu feeling!
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Comments

  • iainf72
    iainf72 Posts: 15,784
    trekrider127 wrote:
    He seems to be increasingly isolated by the Astana team doesn't he? I wonder if they are 'outing' a doper without spitting in the soup?

    In all honesty, Contador would know too much for them to risk it.
    Fckin' Quintana … that creep can roll, man.
  • SunWuKong
    SunWuKong Posts: 364
    Very isolated yesterday. Rode the whole stage alone, well apart from the motorcycles that is.
  • edhornby
    edhornby Posts: 1,741
    SunWuKong wrote:
    Very isolated yesterday. Rode the whole stage alone, well apart from the motorcycles that is.

    :lol: brilliant

    what does he care, he'll go to caisse d'epargne next season anyway, or jsut stay with astana if they get a half decent DS
    "I get paid to make other people suffer on my wheel, how good is that"
    --Jens Voight
  • turkeytickler
    turkeytickler Posts: 640
    Astana outing a doper? Kettle, Black, Pot etc etc
  • andy_wrx
    andy_wrx Posts: 3,396
    If Astana outed all their dopers (maybe ex-dopers ?) and isolated them, wouldn't they all be riding around individually ?

    I don't believe they could do it - after all they need 5 to finish together in the TTT...
  • DaveyL
    DaveyL Posts: 5,167
    The chaps on the cyclingnews/procycling podcast certainly seemed to think he was quite isolated in the team. I have the feelign he won't be joining Lance and Bruyneel, so I guess the mindgames have already started for when they are on rival teams next year.
    Le Blaireau (1)
  • dennisn
    dennisn Posts: 10,601
    Where do you get this isolated thing? I seem to see Astana boys near him all the time.
    O.K. maybe not a few times near the end of a stage but I think that's to be expected.
    Especially in the mountains.
  • Pokerface
    Pokerface Posts: 7,960
    dennisn wrote:
    Where do you get this isolated thing? .

    I think he gets isolated back at the team hotel.


    He gets his own room.
  • Tusher
    Tusher Posts: 2,762
    and none of them speak to him in Spanish
  • gabriel959
    gabriel959 Posts: 4,227
    I bet he speaks in Spanish to Haimar Zubeldia. He can probably also speak with Sergio Paulinho.
    x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
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  • Kléber
    Kléber Posts: 6,842
    He gets berated if he speaks Spanish.

    Apparently for the last two days there has been no team soigneur waiting for him at the finish.
  • Tusher
    Tusher Posts: 2,762
    [quote="Kléber"

    Apparently for the last two days there has been no team soigneur waiting for him at the finish.[/quote]


    I'm no fan of Contador, but I have to feel sorry him just now.

    He must be an icon now for bullied kids.
  • Steven Martin
    Steven Martin Posts: 280
    He was isolated from the start. He has been riding behind LA most of the time not because he is a team member, but to make sure he could close down any potential attacks. Of course, LA hasn't been able to attack him. That's poetic justice for the way LA and Astana have chosed to treat the most talented Grand Tour rider in the peloton.
  • AndyRubio
    AndyRubio Posts: 880
    trekrider127 wrote:
    He seems to be increasingly isolated by the Astana team doesn't he? I wonder if they are 'outing' a doper without spitting in the soup?
    I had that same thought. Makes sense, Lance has too much to lose by being associated with dopers (now) and Bertie's performance has been too good to be true...
    My hour on the plinth
  • afx237vi
    afx237vi Posts: 12,630
    Does he speak any English at all? They showed the Astana team meeting on Eurosport today and Bruyneel made some kind of joke (although I can't remember what he said) and Berto laughed at it - so I guess he must have a basic grasp.

    Not that I'm saying he should speak English or anything.
  • knedlicky
    knedlicky Posts: 3,097
    gabriel959 wrote:
    I bet he speaks in Spanish to Haimar Zubeldia.
    I imagine Zubeldia does speak with AC because he (Zubeldia) recently said, with some dissatisfaction, that LA came too late to Astana and has since disturbed the balance in the team to its disadvantage.
  • k2rider
    k2rider Posts: 575
    so much shite being spoke here its unreal!! haha
    who cares?
  • afx237vi
    afx237vi Posts: 12,630
    knedlicky wrote:
    gabriel959 wrote:
    I bet he speaks in Spanish to Haimar Zubeldia.
    I imagine Zubeldia does speak with AC because he (Zubeldia) recently said, with some dissatisfaction, that LA came too late to Astana and has since disturbed the balance in the team to its disadvantage.

    That was Benjamin Noval, who Contador wanted to bring to the Tour de France. Zubeldia hasn't been at Astana much longer than LA.
  • knedlicky
    knedlicky Posts: 3,097
    afx237vi wrote:
    knedlicky wrote:
    gabriel959 wrote:
    I bet he speaks in Spanish to Haimar Zubeldia.
    I imagine Zubeldia does speak with AC because he (Zubeldia) recently said, with some dissatisfaction, that LA came too late to Astana and has since disturbed the balance in the team to its disadvantage.

    That was Benjamin Noval, who Contador wanted to bring to the Tour de France. Zubeldia hasn't been at Astana much longer than LA.
    I don't know how long Zubeldia has been at Astana (signed on last Autumn?) but his remarks were reported in the newspaper L'Equipe last week, on 17 July - "Armstrong est arrive plus tard dans l'equipe".
  • moray_gub
    moray_gub Posts: 3,328
    Kléber wrote:
    He gets berated if he speaks Spanish.

    Apparently for the last two days there has been no team soigneur waiting for him at the finish.

    What language do they berate him in then is it English ? or Belgian ? or maybe Ukrainian and do they berate Haimar Zubeldia as well ?
    Gasping - but somehow still alive !
  • moray_gub
    moray_gub Posts: 3,328
    AndyRubio wrote:
    trekrider127 wrote:
    He seems to be increasingly isolated by the Astana team doesn't he? I wonder if they are 'outing' a doper without spitting in the soup?
    I had that same thought. Makes sense, Lance has too much to lose by being associated with dopers (now) and Bertie's performance has been too good to be true...


    Whats so unreal about a brilliant climber and very good tester having a 5 minute lead ?
    Gasping - but somehow still alive !
  • AndyRubio
    AndyRubio Posts: 880
    In itself nothing - it's not damning enough to do more than raise an eyebrow in armchair land. But I got into watching pro cycling in 2006 - admiring Contador in Paris-Nice actually, wishing I looked that good on a bike - and I have been taught to take it as read that the top GT guys are more than likely to be involved in cheating of one kind or another (Basso, Ullrich, Landis, Vino, Rasmussen, Di Luca). In that context it's pretty unreal to me.
    My hour on the plinth
  • SpaceJunk
    SpaceJunk Posts: 1,157
    AndyRubio wrote:
    trekrider127 wrote:
    He seems to be increasingly isolated by the Astana team doesn't he? I wonder if they are 'outing' a doper without spitting in the soup?
    I had that same thought. Makes sense, Lance has too much to lose by being associated with dopers (now) and Bertie's performance has been too good to be true...

    So why did LA join Astana?
  • trekrider127
    trekrider127 Posts: 83
    SpaceJunk wrote:
    AndyRubio wrote:
    trekrider127 wrote:
    He seems to be increasingly isolated by the Astana team doesn't he? I wonder if they are 'outing' a doper without spitting in the soup?
    I had that same thought. Makes sense, Lance has too much to lose by being associated with dopers (now) and Bertie's performance has been too good to be true...

    So why did LA join Astana?

    Bruyneel !!

    Lance can't afford any link to doping now ..... Livestrongs reputation is to important. No one who clearly displays such a passion as he does for the charity ... can quote figures all day .... and has lived through the horror of cancer, would use it for personal gain.

    Peter Cossins interview (Procycling Feb 2009) with him convinced a sceptic, and I'm convinced too. For sure he wanted some personal achievement again, but you can't go through cancer and not have it completely reshape your life.

    I wonder if he came back to Astana because of Bruyneel, unquestionable in my view, then realised that Contador is a liability to his reason for being there, hence isolation.
  • Harry Hill
    Harry Hill Posts: 114
    Where do you get this "isolated" sh!t from?

    For the last 2.5 weeks I've watched Alberto sit behind his team mates - just as you would expect any team leader with a GC chance to do so. Do you expect them to share a big bed and bunk up together too?

    Why not just give the boring song a rest and appreciate the man for the talent he is?

    Now THERE'S a novel idea . . . . .
    .. who said that, internet forum people ?
  • aurelio_-_banned
    aurelio_-_banned Posts: 1,317
    trekrider127 wrote:
    He seems to be increasingly isolated by the Astana team doesn't he? I wonder if they are 'outing' a doper without spitting in the soup?
    Contador's problem has nothing to do with doping. The real problem is that he has not played along with Armstrong's /Bruyneels plan of getting Armstrong to the top of the podium. Your post also suggests that you think Armstrong is riding clean. The phrase about 'old dogs and new tricks' springs to mind...

    In the past we have seen that 'loyal' teammates are well protected, especially when they are doping to help Armstrong achieve his goals. Once they show disloyalty they become 'outsiders' and 'bad' things seem to happen to them pretty quickly, witness all the ex-team mates of Armstrong who have been busted for doping. Contador needs to watch his back from now on before he becomes yet another victim of the Armstrong machine.
  • Mettan
    Mettan Posts: 2,103
    edited July 2009
    He's certainly determined - from a slightly marginalised postion, he's repeatedly defied "team orders" and nicked enough time on certain stages to win the Tour de France - not bad going for the chap - he's probably thought to himself - "bit of an awkward camp, what with Lance etc, but stuff the lot of them, I'm taking this race by hook or by crook" ...... and he's done so. He did look too easy on stage 17 though - he might be at it, but who knows. I'm not overly keen on how he "looks".
  • Mettan
    Mettan Posts: 2,103
    aurelio wrote:
    The real problem is that he has not played along with Armstrong's /Bruyneels plan of getting Armstrong to the top of the podium.

    Agreed - that's about the size of it.
  • aurelio_-_banned
    aurelio_-_banned Posts: 1,317
    trekrider127 wrote:
    Lance can't afford any link to doping now
    Don't worry, the UCI is on Armstrong's side and are determined that nothing 'embarrassing' will happen. After all the UCI were willing to protect Armstrong back in 1999 (the hatchet job on the LNDD which was commissioned by Hein Verbruggen when all that Epo was found in his 1999 Tour samples, accepting a pre-dated TUE when Armstrong tested positive for corticoids, playing along with Armstrong's ridiculous 'French conspiracy' theories and so on) and the stakes are far higher now.

    Plus the ASO also seem to have decided that they don't want any more doping related controversy , even going so far (after discussions with Armstrong) as to sack Patrice Clerc, the only man who has shown any real determination to tackle doping in the Tour.
  • trekrider127
    trekrider127 Posts: 83
    I think a new thread is needed - 'What we will use to attack Armstrong' - suddenly a rider with reputed links to Puerto is 'someone to be appreciated for their talent'.

    Pretty inconsistent to me!

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