Bruyneel talking shite

donrhummy

Aren't we in EXACTLY the same situation as Bruyneel and Armstrong were in 1999?! Lance wasn't a huge star then and certainly wasn't expected to win the TDF and the previous year's winner was kicked out and a few others were also not competing. Why didn't the someone point that out and ask him what's different?

kennf

It would be fun to see that alpha male try to ride Flanders or P-R.

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RdBiker

Was it boring to watch Eddy Merckx dominate cycling in his time or was it boring to watch Erik Zable win all those green jerseys in the Tour de France? Some people would say yes. But then if asked should they have been banned from racing just to make it more interesting I don't think anyone would say yes. I personally think that cycling superstars make races more interesting and I was for example really dissapointed to see Basso get banned and not able to ride the '06 Tour.

My point here is that even though there are many many good reasons to ban Contador from racing I don't understand why he should be banned for being too good He could be banned for that if it was proven that he got too good by using doping, but since no one has any concrete evidence against him it would be unfair to ban him and let the likes of Valverde and Di Luca ride (and actually the whole peloton if you ask me)

And besides, Contador isn't IMHO that great a rider. Yes he can "dominate" a few early season stage races racing against riders who aren't going to peak for months. And yes he won a Tour where the real threats were shut out of the race or crashed and lost their minds (Chicken, Vinokourov, Kloden). This year he would've been a big favourite but I would be really suprised if the defending champion, who hasn't even reached his full potential, wouldn't be (I've read that stage race specialists reach their full potential at ~30)

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TheDarkLord

As far as I can see, nobody has asked for him to be banned for being too good. We're saying that races are boring when dominated by a single rider from early on in a race, and people (in this thread that is) have objected to him being referred to as an "alpha male" in cycling, and people have said that they are not gonna miss him in the Tour or other races. I for one am glad that JB products are not there in the Tour as they (a) tend to show superhuman capabilities and (b) are unrepentant about doping. You can probably say the same about much of the peloton, but these traits are enhanced in JB products. Contador especially pisses me off with his jabs at Kloeden - when you are juiced as much as if not more than your teammate, the least you can do is STFU instead of trash talking him.

thecyclist

I don't think anyone said he should be banned for being too good.

Only that Bruyneel is wrong when he claims the TDF will be boring without Contador, when the opposite will likely be the case.

micron

Today's stage was same old same old for Discatana - let a break go with team in blue riding tempo front of peloton, Dirty Bertie attacks 1 km from top of climb, uses the race cars to draft for as long as possible, catches remaining rider from break, forces him to do all the work by sitting on his wheel then drops him when he's cooked. Peloton makes a half hearted attempt to chase and closes to a few seconds as Bertie performs his ridiculous 'Spanish Cowboy' celebration.

BTW this isn't culled from cyclingnews, this is what I watched with my own eyes and it was the dullest day's racing I've seen all season. Contador
should be winning these sorts of races FFS, but they're little more than warm ups for the main feast of the Giro/Tour - I'm sure Yates/Bruyneel will have the fan boys believing they're the equal, nay far better, than the GTs. But the 'alpha male of cycling'? And some kind of amazing attacking rider - when he takes off 10 kms into an all day mountain stage like Coppi or Merckx then I might buy it but for now he is simply carbon copy Armstrong and about as exciting an attacking rider as, well, a not at all exciting 'attacking' rider

RdBiker

Yes you're right that nobody asked for him to be banned, but that would really be the only possible solution I could think of to stop him make races boring. If he won't be riding the Tour this year he'll be riding it next year or the one after that. If Astana still exists this time next year ASO will be under heavy pressure to grant them participation to their races. And there's of course the possibility to switch teams.
I don't actually like Contador myself either (don't really know why - I just have something against him), but I don't find dominant riders boring. I hadn't heard of him talking trash about Kloden but if he has then he really is an idiot.

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poulidor

They are not banned because they are too good , they are just not invited because they are too stupid and have not understood that doping became not tolerated since 2005. When your doping is so visible you are out of the system.

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Powerful Pete

Having said all this, I wonder what would happen if we were to see Contador on another team without the Astana gang able to ride up the Tourmalet or the Izoard at 45kp/h.

And have Hincapie be nominated as the next great TdF slayer by some of our now long-gone forum contributors...

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TheDarkLord

That doesn't help improve my image of Contador. He is a real jackass to use someone like that (regarding the text in bold). Why is he doing this, and why isn't this shameful behavior not indicated in the cycling news sites? Are they too "charmed" by the Spanish cowboy??

Aquamarinos

Because if you actually followed the race that was NOT how it happened...
Get the facts straight before posting, or at least read the race recaps, micron.

What was this Contador talking trash about Klöden? Very interesting! Please give more info on that one. If that really happened then I'll never watch Contador again.

TheDarkLord

Sorry, don't remember the details. I do recall that someone posted about it in this forum about it a few months back (around the time of Bruyneel distancing himself from Kloeden).

TheDarkLord

So, what is the real story? Was he working with the other dude, or was the other dude an Astana domestique?

Aquamarinos

The other dude attacked on the last climb and got a 20 sec gap to the thin peloton. Contador didn't have any team mates left and he jumped from the peloton in the very end of the last climb, caught the dude and rode away on the downhill. The dude got back at him on the flat part, couldn't work with Contador when the finish was getting slightly uphill, and that's about it. The chasing peloton with the big names didn't work well together, looked like they were waiting for their team mates to get back and do the chasing.
There are many race recaps out there, apparently micron needs glasses...

I'm very interested to hear more about the Contador/Klöden talk, would be great if you could find something on it! Thanks!