Comments from Contador

frenchfighter

There are people a lot older than him that are less admirable, less humble and less mature that could learn a lot. This guy is going to be a towering Great.

Extracts from an interview at the end of August by Carlos Arribas.

My style of riding is what’s called spectacle. I need to gain time in the mountains and I have to take advantage of whatever opportunities exist. This year in the Tour I took advantage of what I could, and clearly, was filling my head with numbers, times and options that would come up in the following stages. In that sense, if you fight for the general, the spectacle will come.

I don’t know if it’s different, but I am a person who believes in himself, who believes in his potential, and when I set a goal, I’m usually quite realistic. I only think about things that I know I can achieve.

And it’s not about data. In the measurement of power that we took on the bike, in the SRM, it was possible to see whether there was this much, or that much, or that much, but that wasn’t what was important. What you’re interested in is knowing how much you’re capable of moving on D-Day. And the one that knows that is the rider, with the sensations that he’s having in the race.

The level that I had this year in the Tour has been very high, very high, maybe the highest that I’ve achieved during my whole career. The performance that I gave in some stages, the way I felt at Ordino, at Verbier, the time trial at Annecy, were very high-level performances, when I was in the best form of my whole career.

Each person has his own reasons for pride, and I’m very happy at how things are going for me. When I sacrifice for something and see results, then I feel proud. But I never for a moment feel arrogant about it.

If people come to me and say something, and I analyze it and believe that it’s on target, of course I accept it. And if my analysis is different, often I give in, because you’ve got to give in, because it’s a more appropriate thing to do when it affects people other than yourself. But if it only affects me, maybe it takes more to change my mind.

I believe that what has happened to me during these years has been very good. I became familiar with an enormous amount of situations and I’ve learned something from all of them. You’ve got to try to take the good and to know what’s not so good. And at 26 years old, I’m still at an age for learning. I’ve gone through a lot of tricky situations, and there are more to come.

[Talking about the Astana training camp] On the climb of de Masca I was a little less, because some people on the team changed their gearing, since that climb is so hard on the lower slopes of Teide in Tenerife. Armstrong and some of the others used special gears in order to climb it, and I didn’t know. They told me that we would do two hours and when we left, I realized that….Thank heavens for eating energy bars, because if I hadn’t, I would’ve died. It turned out to be a training session like the one before the Tour, 3,300 meters of altitude. We climbed like barbarians. I don’t like Tenerife for cycling.

I consider myself a very normal person, although I’ve got less time than before to be with my friends. It’s clear that I miss having time for myself, but it is possible to live a normal life. And it’s what I want. I enjoy the bike and my work, I don’t aspire to more.

I don’t want to give up being a regular person and make myself a celebrity. It’s natural to me to be quite modest, and that’s what I want. Although now with the victories I get a lot of attention, I want nothing to do with the glamorous life of the stars.

[Talking of Twitter etc] All the means of communication are good as long as you have the ability to control them. They allow you to make contact with a lot of people, and whoever has the most is the most popular. Yes, I do have my profile on all the social networks, but I redirect them to my webpage, and when I want to send a message from there I send it. But I don’t have any active profile for talking through them. In the end it’s too time-consuming, and I don’t have so much time that I can afford to spend it like that.

It’s not something I’m worried about. They always ask me about Induráin’s number, about unseating Armstrong… It’s not a goal I’m considering. Once I finish my career, I’ll see what I’ve achieved and what I haven’t, but now I’m only fixed on keeping on doing what I’m doing, competing on the bike. That’s what I like. And if it’s accompanied by results, it will always be easy for me to fing motivation.

dave_1

Reading Contador's account of Tenerife, sounds like someone did a number on him , not explaining climb and gears, distance......at the very least they were trying to psych him out and give certain others more say.

frenchfighter

Yeah I thought that was a bit odd...wouldn't surprise me though.

I wonder how low 'special' gears are?!

Climbing like Barbarians - that is the first time I have heard that.

dave_1

frenchfighter wrote:

Yeah I thought that was a bit odd...wouldn't surprise me though.

I wonder how low 'special' gears are?!

Climbing like Barbarians - that is the first time I have heard that.

Yes, AC's account of the February Tenerife training run you quote seems shows the skullduggery of certain mebers of his team. To be fair, leipheimer did nothing to unseat AC at Vuelta 08, ...am thinking someone or persons other than LL

greeny12

Cycling's a bit like Formula 1 in that it's a team sport in many ways but ultimately it's all about the personal glory for the top boys.

Remember the Senna/Prost rivalry at McLaren? That culminated in them driving each other off the track at top speed...makes the Armstrong vs Contador rivalry seem quite harmless by comparison...

calvjones

greeny12 wrote:

Cycling's a bit like Formula 1 in that it's a team sport in many ways but ultimately it's all about the personal glory for the top boys.

Remember the Senna/Prost rivalry at McLaren? That culminated in them driving each other off the track at top speed...makes the Armstrong vs Contador rivalry seem quite harmless by comparison...

Was actually quite a mild low speed corner IIRC. Long time ago now though!

jerry3571

I love Armstrong as he slays the nastiest, most ferocious of quarry. A slayer of forked tongued beasts. We owe a huge deal to our great Knight, nickanmed "Lance-a-lot"
I have listed some of the slayed monsters here-

1. Jan Ullrich; commonly seen picking flowers and violently pulling the petals off.
2. Damiano Cunego; seen riding past a School in Italy tearing past children riding their bikes whilst arrogantly eating a Sandwich to prove his dominance.
3. Alberto Contador; seen aggessively hanging behind oppostion riders and refusing to make himself breathe hard and make the job look harder. The big headed Spaniard also organising his own press conferences out in the Sun just to make him look even harder.
4. Next; his greatest challenge, must surely be to take on a 4 legged beast with tridents on it's head and this creature is so bad that they made a film about it. Yes....It's BAMBI !!

Go Lance!!

-Jerry

moray_gub

frenchfighter wrote:

Yeah I thought that was a bit odd...wouldn't surprise me though.

I wonder how low 'special' gears are?!

.

Depends for a Pro very low would be a compact with 34 inner or maybe 36 would consitutue low, if i recall riders ran 34 inner in the Angliru stage last year except Valverde who ran a 36. Though in this instance maybe what he meant was fitted a 25 or 27 rear

thamacdaddy

Not that I am saying he isn't but it's easy to have humility when you are top dog, it's how you react when something doesn't go your way or you start to lose it that shows the cracks. Remember how Mercxx was a legend on the way up but on the otherside he struggled with not being able to compete well enough anymore and lashed out a little, understandable as sportsmen of that calibre have to be pretty driven.

jim one

thamacdaddy wrote:

Not that I am saying he isn't but it's easy to have humility when you are top dog, it's how you react when something doesn't go your way or you start to lose it that shows the cracks. Remember how Mercxx was a legend on the way up but on the otherside he struggled with not being able to compete well enough anymore and lashed out a little, understandable as sportsmen of that calibre have to be pretty driven.

Back with the f1 comparison I would say Alonso is a good example of this. The young kid, taking on the great Schumacher, and beating him. But as soon as there was another new guy on the block, who was also in the same team he totally lost it in his will to win. The question is though who is the young talent to take on Contador in a few years??

greeny12

calvjones wrote:

greeny12 wrote:

Cycling's a bit like Formula 1 in that it's a team sport in many ways but ultimately it's all about the personal glory for the top boys.

Remember the Senna/Prost rivalry at McLaren? That culminated in them driving each other off the track at top speed...makes the Armstrong vs Contador rivalry seem quite harmless by comparison...

Was actually quite a mild low speed corner IIRC. Long time ago now though!

Actually, to be fair the worse of the two incidents was the year after when Prost had moved to Ferrari - you get the idea though...

gabriel959

jim one wrote:

thamacdaddy wrote:

Not that I am saying he isn't but it's easy to have humility when you are top dog, it's how you react when something doesn't go your way or you start to lose it that shows the cracks. Remember how Mercxx was a legend on the way up but on the otherside he struggled with not being able to compete well enough anymore and lashed out a little, understandable as sportsmen of that calibre have to be pretty driven.

Back with the f1 comparison I would say Alonso is a good example of this. The young kid, taking on the great Schumacher, and beating him. But as soon as there was another new guy on the block, who was also in the same team he totally lost it in his will to win. The question is though who is the young talent to take on Contador in a few years??

That one is a debatable one though as it was proved a few times that the team was favouring Lewis through Dennis.

Garry H

thamacdaddy wrote:

Not that I am saying he isn't but it's easy to have humility when you are top dog, it's how you react when something doesn't go your way or you start to lose it that shows the cracks. Remember how Mercxx was a legend on the way up but on the otherside he struggled with not being able to compete well enough anymore and lashed out a little, understandable as sportsmen of that calibre have to be pretty driven.

Was just about to say the same mself, it's easy to be magnanimous in victory and all that...

rockmount

Gotta get me some of dem fancy goin' up hill gears !! Dey sound just the ticket ... but how do they work ??

... like ffs, whatever next, brakes fer comin' back down dem hills again not too fast ??

dennisn

frenchfighter wrote:

This guy is going to be a towering Great.

[/quote]

Ah yes, love is a wonderful thing. I wish you both much happiness.

Arkibal

L'Equipe, October 14, 2009

Alberto Contador regrets not knowing anything about his future but is not afraid of Armstrong or the Schleck brothers.

Invited by Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), Alberto Contador and his brother Fran arrived very early yesterday morning from Madrid, 24 hours before the Tour 2010 presentation, which is taking place this morning in the Paris Palais des Congrès. The Tour 2009 winner then went round to the Senate (Palais du Luxembourg) where he had a lunch date with the senators, before granting us a relaxed interview in the Concorde Lafayette hotel lounge.

Two-and-a-half months after your Tour victory, your future is still not settled. Does this situation exasperate you?

I’ve learned to not lose my temper anymore. In spite of a situation which seems to be stuck in a rut and never moving in the right direction, I’m trying to handle that calmly. Having to rush all over the place recently to meet several obligations has kept me from having to think about the problem all the time. But obviously, we’re now arriving at a point in the season where I’d really like my situation to be settled. It doesn’t matter if it’s with Astana or with another team, but that should be clarified as soon as possible.

For the winner of the three big tours and of the last Tour de France to not know what his future holds is rather unusual, isn’t it?

The whole season has been unusual. Armstrong’s comeback this year upset lot of things on the team. Everything became very difficult to manage, whereas it could’ve been handled in a much simpler way. Then, there’ve been the departures of Armstrong and Johan Bruyneel to another team for next season. There again, that created waves which are still rocking the boat inside Astana today. In spite of this huge commotion, I’ve always managed to stay focused.

You’ve clearly shown your wish to leave Astana, whereas there is still one year of your contract to ride. Is that still what you want?

The problem is that I’m waiting for a serious plan from the people behind Astana. But we still don’t know, or no longer know, who’ll run the team next season or even if its future in cycling is in question or not. If tomorrow everything is settled, and I’m presented with a serious plan with a team capable of supporting me for the Tour, I’ll have no problem in honoring my remaining year of contract. But I’ll also have to analyze all the possibilities.

Have you contacted the Kazakhs to tell them your needs for who you want as team mates, or suggested a manager capable of running the team?

No, quite simply because the whole future of the team is not clear. Under these conditions, how can I go forward and express my requirements? Today, if I believe what I hear, even Johan Bruyneel is not certain that he can leave the team. It’s up to the Kazakhs to appoint a manager, a real one, and on a permanent basis, so that we can quickly get down to business. But they should stop putting forward a name one day, and then another name the next day. In the end, it’s not serious.

It is supposed that you have had contacts with Caisse d’Epargne, Garmin, or even Quick Step. Were these different approaches really serious?

I think that in each case there was a real desire on the part of the teams which contacted me. All the angles have been carefully examined. But there’s this one year of contract which still ties me to Astana, and I realized that there was no point in trying to force the issue. I don’t think I’d have won if there had been a fight.

Other riders still under contract with Astana nevertheless seem to have been allowed to leave.

It’s true for some of them, but there are others for whom nothing is finalized yet, in spite of what’s been written. In my case, I’ve been told that my departure was not negotiable once Astana had decided to carry on next year. And after all, it has to be said that the ones who’re leaving are not really indispensable for the team.

One thing is sure today: Armstrong will no longer be at your side. Are you relieved?

It suits me fine. Not being on the same team as Lance next year removes a thorn from my side. Now he’ll have a team totally committed to his cause. In all honesty, I could not see myself re-living another season like the one I have just experienced again, and above, all ride another Tour de France under the same conditions.

But he already has a team today, even if some things still remain to be settled, whereas you are still in the dark. Aren’t you starting with a real handicap?

I’d be lying if I said that the current situation concerning a competitive team for the next Tour doesn’t bother me. You can’t win the Tour on your own. There are always moments when you need your teammates to support you. That’s precisely the plan that Astana is still unable to establish for 2010 and which remains my biggest worry today.

Nothing was easy for you in 2009...

The whole season was complicated. The Tour was a daily hassle, but not on the road. And right now nothing is clear concerning the future of Astana. So, you’re right, lots of things have bothered me and are still bothering me.

Do you think that Armstrong will be your main rival for the next Tour?

He’ll certainly be there with the aim of winning, just as he came this year with that objective. But Andy Schleck is much more on my mind than Armstrong. Lance will nevertheless be in the group of favourites. I respect everybody but I’m afraid of no one.

You’ve certainly heard some things about the Tour 2010 circuit. One hears of tough stages in the Pyrenees, cobblestone sections, or a long ITT on the penultimate day. What do you think of that?

I’ve also heard that the departure will be from Rotterdam (laughs). Yes, I’ve also heard of an arrival on top of the Tourmalet, then of another stage with the Tourmalet again, and other high summits. As long as there are mountain, I’m in my element. I’ve heard of a 50-kilometer ITT near Bordeaux. It’s maybe 10 kilometers too much for me, but we’ll adapt. As for the cobblestones, it’s true that it’s not my cup of tea. For sure, it will be spectacular, but the important thing will be to stay focused that day and not to fall.

Do you think you will get the Velo d’Or (Golden Bike award) from Velo Magazine this year?

I hope so. It’s an award that I really appreciate and I’m proud of having won it last year. But everything depends on the votes, and there are riders like Cavendish, Cancellara or Evans who also had a great year.

__________________

Nothing arrogant, but respectful.
Something a certain Tex "has lots to learn." Restated.

cudos to
http://www.albertocontadornotebook.info/

blazing_saddles

Someone has been reading somebody's notebook.

RichN95.

jim one wrote:

Back with the f1 comparison I would say Alonso is a good example of this. The young kid, taking on the great Schumacher, and beating him. But as soon as there was another new guy on the block, who was also in the same team he totally lost it in his will to win. The question is though who is the young talent to take on Contador in a few years??

It's a shame, F1-wise, that we didn't take the analogy further, to the old legend coming back to his old teammates after a few years of retirement.

Arkibal

Blazing Saddles wrote:

Someone has been reading somebody's notebook.

Eh??? I put the link where I read it, AC's notebook. :?:

moray_gub

Arkibal wrote:

Nothing arrogant, but respectful.
Something a certain Tex "has lots to learn." Restated.

/

I really dont think Lance has to learn anything that we tell him to.

frenchfighter

Thanks for the posting that Arkibal.