Amazing! Steephill's collec./transl. Armstrong vs Contador

donrhummy

Don't know if this is true or not, but if it is - WOW!

http://www.steephill.tv/2009/entries/co ... onference/

They collect a bunch of articles and translated them as well.

It happened on Thursday, a few hours before the Annecy ITT. Contador came downstairs to the entrance of the Palace of Menthon, the luxurious Astana hotel. The Tour was in play. He looked right, then left. Nobody, nothing. No Astana cars or support staff. Cold sweat. A time check. Where are they? The hotel is several kilometers from the start. There he was, the leader of the Tour, in flip-flops, bag in hand and alone. He went to the hall looking for an answer: Armstrong had ordered the staff to go pick up his wife, kids and friends to the airport.

Contador left his room last because he was the last one starting the ITT. Armstrong had managed to take away his means of transportation. The straw that broke the camel’s back. Steaming with anger. He phoned his brother Fran. He came to pick him up by car and took him to Annecy in his own vehicle. He left last and finished first. His best victory. In the ITT. In solitude. The same way he won his second tour.

cswebbo

I'm not a fan of Contador (Puerto customer-allegedly!!!) but he played Armstrong the only way he could-Iin silence. The press were all LA fanboys.

I gather he had to make his own way back from the top of Ventoux as well? This, after waiting for Armstrong all the way up the climb ,when a stage win was likely.

attica

cswebbo wrote:

I'm not a fan of Contador (Puerto customer-allegedly!!!) but he played Armstrong the only way he could-Iin silence. The press were all LA fanboys.

I gather he had to make his own way back from the top of Ventoux as well? This, after waiting for Armstrong all the way up the climb ,when a stage win was likely.

Surely it was AS waiting for FS, I very much doubt AC was waiting for LA, just didn't feel the need to push on as all he had to do was mark AS

dennisn

I'm telling you LA is going to be(or already is) a legend. The tales that will be told, for years to come, will be some of the craziest ever.
The other day my wife got a call from my brother saying that his wife is in the hospital(she was diagnosed with cancer a few months ago). He was telling my wife about a trip he and his wife took over the weekend. She had become sick during the ride. After the call my wife tells me that Laurie threw up all the way home. I call Laurie at the hospital
to see how she's doing and mention that I heard she was barfing all the way home. She tells me "I was not, I threw up once, not all the way home". So, one person tells a story to another and that person tells it to a third person and it's somehow screwed up into almost nowhere near what happened. I'm waiting to hear this same story from one of their friends.

drenkrom

So, Dennis, by your reasoning this whole story is an exageration? Contador came down the stairs and only some team cars were gone, so he had to call his brother for a lift? You make some very valid points, but rarely at the right moment. Logic, dude, logic.

Coriander

I do find myself agreeing with Dennis on this - I'm no fan of LA, but experience tells me it's best to be wary about anything that is not sourced directly from those involved. So while it's possible this story is true, until I read or hear an interview with Contador where he confirms it, I will remain sceptical.

dennisn

drenkrom wrote:

So, Dennis, by your reasoning this whole story is an exageration? Contador came down the stairs and only some team cars were gone, so he had to call his brother for a lift? You make some very valid points, but rarely at the right moment. Logic, dude, logic.

Well, logic would tell you that all stories, when retold, are virtually the same as when they were first told 50 minutes ago or 50 years. Me, I'm a bit more skeptical than that. Guess I'm not all that logical.

gabriel959

Unlikely Contador will say anything, it seems to me that he "mostly" keeps to himself and his family and friends.

jimycooper

not having a go, but does anyone actualy believe that this happened??

you think that everyone in the astana team and staff forgot contador was upstairs....?

cougie

That story just sounds too 'good' to be true. Evil evil Armstrong eh ?

I cant see that everyone in the team would lay down and abandon AC like that.

AC will be around for a good few years to come. OK Lance is in for the next 2 years or so - but remember he walked away from the Disco set up and left a lot of people high and dry. If he'd wanted to - he could have found a sponsor.

donrhummy

Exactly why I prefaced it with "I don't know if this is true..."

But AC doesn't really keep it all to himself. And he's not so "perfect" either. Remember when he accused Levi of trying to win against him but after he watched the race on video, he realized this was clearly wrong and he apologized/retracted his claim?

Harry Hill

I think what really happened was as AC came down the stairs they suddenly changed from a normal set of stairs into a slippery steel slide - a la James Bond, and dumped AC into a pool full of sharks. AC then swam through an underwater tunnel using a mini aqualung that his brother had thoughtfully put into his kit bag, emerging in a cove down by the beach where his spanish friend and technical genious "Ke?" was waiting for him with a solar powerd hang glider that he then used to get to the race start. He parachuted from the hang glider down and straight onto his TT bike, ripping off the easily rip-off-able dinner suit that he had on, revealing his skin tight "Astana" skin-suit, which clung skin-like to his sleek body . . . . .

mercsport

Some might be offended if I said that I thought this was well written and quite funny and illustrative of the fact that not all Americans think Lance is the business . Heartening really : http://www.theonion.com/content/news/la ... _thousands

gabriel959

This is good fun too...

http://www.theonion.com/content/infogra ... o_contador

To be honest I have been reading some American forums and some of them also seem pretty critical of Armstrong so as you say quite heartening

dennisn

Harry Hill wrote:

I think what really happened was as AC came down the stairs they suddenly changed from a normal set of stairs into a slippery steel slide - a la James Bond, and dumped AC into a pool full of sharks. AC then swam through an underwater tunnel using a mini aqualung that his brother had thoughtfully put into his kit bag, emerging in a cove down by the beach where his spanish friend and technical genious "Ke?" was waiting for him with a solar powerd hang glider that he then used to get to the race start. He parachuted from the hang glider down and straight onto his TT bike, ripping off the easily rip-off-able dinner suit that he had on, revealing his skin tight "Astana" skin-suit, which clung skin-like to his sleek body . . . . .

I'll buy that. Sounds completely plausible. Now we know the truth. Sad though, as it means this thread is over. Did you hear that from a friend of your second cousin Ernie's
girlfriends fathers sister who was only 10 miles away, trying on a pair of shoes, when it happened? Me too.

gabriel959

donrhummy wrote:

Exactly why I prefaced it with "I don't know if this is true..."

But AC doesn't really keep it all to himself. And he's not so "perfect" either. Remember when he accused Levi of trying to win against him but after he watched the race on video, he realized this was clearly wrong and he apologized/retracted his claim?

You said it though, he apologised. A we say in Spanish:

Errar es humano, rectificar es de sabios.

donrhummy

gabriel959 wrote:

donrhummy wrote:

Exactly why I prefaced it with "I don't know if this is true..."

But AC doesn't really keep it all to himself. And he's not so "perfect" either. Remember when he accused Levi of trying to win against him but after he watched the race on video, he realized this was clearly wrong and he apologized/retracted his claim?

You said it though, he apologised. A we say in Spanish:

Errar es humano, rectificar es de sabios.

Yes but it never should have happened. That should have been a private conversation,, giving Levi a chance to address AC's concerns - which he didn't do..

dennisn

mercsport wrote:

Some might be offended if I said that I thought this was well written and quite funny and illustrative of the fact that not all Americans think Lance is the business . Heartening really : http://www.theonion.com/content/news/la ... _thousands

It's a great "news" site. Well worth a look once and a while. Always something off the wall to give you a chuckle. No one is spared.

mercsport

dennisn wrote:

mercsport wrote:

Some might be offended if I said that I thought this was well written and quite funny and illustrative of the fact that not all Americans think Lance is the business . Heartening really : http://www.theonion.com/content/news/la ... _thousands

It's a great "news" site. Well worth a look once and a while. Always something off the wall to give you a chuckle. No one is spared.

Isn't it the one most US journo's are signed up to and probably wished they wrote for ?

It hits my mailbox fairly regularly as a subscriber . It cheers me up . I'm lost with the p*ss takes on the US sports though .

dennisn

I remember reading a Hank Williams Sr. biography once. In it the author talked about the origins of his very famous song "I Saw The Light". Hank admitted to writting it in a car his mother was driving, with him and a FEW other people in it, home from a concert. The author said that in his research he discovered that it would have had to have been a bus
with all the people who have claimed to have been in that car, that night.

gabriel959

donrhummy wrote:

gabriel959 wrote:

donrhummy wrote:

Exactly why I prefaced it with "I don't know if this is true..."

But AC doesn't really keep it all to himself. And he's not so "perfect" either. Remember when he accused Levi of trying to win against him but after he watched the race on video, he realized this was clearly wrong and he apologized/retracted his claim?

You said it though, he apologised. A we say in Spanish:

Errar es humano, rectificar es de sabios.

Yes but it never should have happened. That should have been a private conversation,, giving Levi a chance to address AC's concerns - which he didn't do..

True as well, I suppose he was a bit altered after the LA thing, but yes it was a mistake. He said sorry though.

SpaceJunk

drenkrom wrote:

So, Dennis, by your reasoning this whole story is an exageration? Contador came down the stairs and only some team cars were gone, so he had to call his brother for a lift? You make some very valid points, but rarely at the right moment. Logic, dude, logic.

I'm with Dennis on this. Conrador's story (if it is even true) might not be as sinister as some would like to suggest.

Riders like to warm up for upwards of an hour or so. There was never any doubt he would miss his start time.

Maybe AC went downstairs, saw no one and arranged for his brother to take him (BTW - I've also read a concierge took him). Sure maybe his lift was running 10 mins late.

Who knows.

But just because it was reported, doesn't mean it's true.