Contador - I Will Never Admire Armstrong



Its been a while since I've checked out the forums. I see things haven't changed much. It surprises me how people get so emotional and pigheaded about LA and think they know what he is all about.

Whether people want to admit it or not LA has huge respect within the current and retired peloton. In my opinion during the Tour LA kept the conflict between himself and Contador (when interviewed by journalists) quite professional but was frank about the situation. Now that the Tour is over Contador has been in my opinion quite un-professional in his comments towards Lance and I think you can imply the rest of the team all the way up to Bruyneel. I think he, Contador, is going to pay a price for that within the peloton. It will be interesting to see who Armstrong is able to pull together into the new RadioShack team and what team AC will end up on. I think this will tell the story of who has more respect. Also if there is a TTT next year, AC could be in trouble.

Maybe you guys missed the article where Prudhomme credits Armstrong for creating an exciting tour. He had some interesting things to say in praising Armstrong. On the 'vs' coverage in the US Bob Stapleton was on several times and went out of his way to praise Armstrong. You should also go to Twitter and look up some of the current and former cycling figures and check out the comments made about LA in general and the LA / AC situation.

I don't know whether LA went to the team dinner/party after the end of the tour or not, I know he skipped the one on the previous night to be with backers of his new RadioShack team. I can tell you though who he was having red wine with in a very private setting in the wee hours of the morning after the Tour. That man was none other than Eddy Merckx.

No respect indeed.
 
limerickman said:
What a load of Bollocks.

With respect.

This country has a long history in this sport and it had huge fanbase long before the uniballer said he'd appear here.

In fact Armstrongs announcement to appear at the Tour of Ireland, has had zero effect.

Quite the contrary in fact.
The tour has been reduced from five days to three days.

So you're talking rubbish.

I don't think anyone is making claims that Ireland is not going to show up without Armstrong, just that Armstrong's participation will bring added attraction and benefit to the race. The Tour organizers were quite happy about the announcement back in February:
Irish Examiner - 2009/02/24: Armstrong’s boost for Tour of Ireland

And if you go to the tour's home page their headlining Armstrong and Cavendish:
The Tour of Ireland

Then there's the cancer summit in Dublin following the Tour.

I wouldn't call all of this a 'zero effect'
 
Gunderson wields far too much power for one man in the pro peloton. It's clear to me that he could be likened to a mafia boss in that the underlings must pay homage to him to some degree otherwise they will be sorry...

His political power over who says or does what is scary - case in point is the entire Versus telecast and the announcers therein. They were literally Gunderson hypemen for the entire tour - you know some really bigwig at Versus' parent station put down the law that Gunderson is to be portrayed in the best possible manner at all times. At all times during the telecast we knew where the yellow, polka dot, green, white, and Astana (aka Lance Gunderson) jerseys were situated. Incredible! Total propaganda b.s...And the interviews of other riders when questioned about Gunderson - does ANYONE, other than Alberto Contador, say ANYTHING that could be remotely construed as negative about Gunderson? You better believe they dare not, as they know the Strongarm of the man himself will come and slap him back into place...scary, and sad at the same time...

Lastly, "all money ain't good money"...you should be able to figure that out...
 
tonyzackery said:
Gunderson wields far too much power for one man in the pro peloton. It's clear to me that he could be likened to a mafia boss in that the underlings must pay homage to him to some degree otherwise they will be sorry...

His political power over who says or does what is scary - case in point is the entire Versus telecast and the announcers therein. They were literally Gunderson hypemen for the entire tour - you know some really bigwig at Versus' parent station put down the law that Gunderson is to be portrayed in the best possible manner at all times. At all times during the telecast we knew where the yellow, polka dot, green, white, and Astana (aka Lance Gunderson) jerseys were situated. Incredible! Total propaganda b.s...And the interviews of other riders when questioned about Gunderson - does ANYONE, other than Alberto Contador, say ANYTHING that could be remotely construed as negative about Gunderson? You better believe they dare not, as they know the Strongarm of the man himself will come and slap him back into place...scary, and sad at the same time...

Lastly, "all money ain't good money"...you should be able to figure that out...

While I think too much negative attention is focused on Lance for the wrong reasons, I have to agree with your thoughts on the tour coverage. I can understand that since his comeback they were somewhat bound to keep up with how he was doing.. but it did indeed seem a little over the top.
 
davidbod said:
Maybe you guys missed the article where Prudhomme credits Armstrong for creating an exciting tour.

No, the rest of us are smart enough to detect bullsh!t when we smell it. This was the worst Tour in living memory. That Prudhomme is trying to put a positive spin on the Bore de France is understandable. What do you expect him to say? "The Tour sucked. Sorry. Next year we'll try to design a route suitable for real racers instead of over the hill egomaniacs."?

Your major failure here is not realizing that when Prudhome said that the Tour was exciting that he was obviously lying, which makes everything else he says suspect.
 
You have to love how Armstrong and his hommies spent months bad mouthing Contador, challenging his leadership of the team, and generally being dicks. Now that Contador speaks a little, they suddenly play the team card and are outraged that he is dissing the team. Sorry, Gump, Contador was not dissing the team. He was dissing you. And it is some well earned diss to boot.
 
davidbod said:
Its been a while since I've checked out the forums. I see things haven't changed much. It surprises me how people get so emotional and pigheaded about LA and think they know what he is all about.

Whether people want to admit it or not LA has huge respect within the current and retired peloton. In my opinion during the Tour LA kept the conflict between himself and Contador (when interviewed by journalists) quite professional but was frank about the situation. Now that the Tour is over Contador has been in my opinion quite un-professional in his comments towards Lance and I think you can imply the rest of the team all the way up to Bruyneel. I think he, Contador, is going to pay a price for that within the peloton. It will be interesting to see who Armstrong is able to pull together into the new RadioShack team and what team AC will end up on. I think this will tell the story of who has more respect. Also if there is a TTT next year, AC could be in trouble.

Maybe you guys missed the article where Prudhomme credits Armstrong for creating an exciting tour. He had some interesting things to say in praising Armstrong. On the 'vs' coverage in the US Bob Stapleton was on several times and went out of his way to praise Armstrong. You should also go to Twitter and look up some of the current and former cycling figures and check out the comments made about LA in general and the LA / AC situation.

I don't know whether LA went to the team dinner/party after the end of the tour or not, I know he skipped the one on the previous night to be with backers of his new RadioShack team. I can tell you though who he was having red wine with in a very private setting in the wee hours of the morning after the Tour. That man was none other than Eddy Merckx.

No respect indeed.

Yeah, you're a f*cking twit. Welcome to cycling, recent American convert. Now go the hell back to football and baseball.
 
jimmypop said:
Yeah, you're a f*cking twit. Welcome to cycling, recent American convert. Now go the hell back to football and baseball.

This isn't a very well thought out response, it would be preferable if you didn't resort to unprovoked personal attacks.
 
davidbod said:
I don't think anyone is making claims that Ireland is not going to show up without Armstrong, just that Armstrong's participation will bring added attraction and benefit to the race. The Tour organizers were quite happy about the announcement back in February:
Irish Examiner - 2009/02/24: Armstrong’s boost for Tour of Ireland

And if you go to the tour's home page their headlining Armstrong and Cavendish:
The Tour of Ireland

Then there's the cancer summit in Dublin following the Tour.

I wouldn't call all of this a 'zero effect'

The point that was being made was that Armstrongs appearance at the ToI would be an added attraction.
His appearance will have zero effect on the race.

If his appearance was an added attraction, more sponsors would be clamouring to be associated with the race.
In fact there has been no interest shown by sponsors to get involved in the race - even after LA's announcement to appear.
(and I am privy to the commercial aspects and sporting aspects of this race, to give an informed comment).

The race has been shortened in 2009 to a three day race, from the 2008 5 day race version.
= zero effect.

Incidentally I do remember you posting here a couple of years ago.
 
The many questions about what Armstrong does for the tour may remain in question but there is absolutely no question that he is the champion of inspiring debates in this forum and I expect will remain so for a while.
I think some of you guys are like me and going through "tour withdrawal".
 
Here is my opinion as a Spaniard about this exchange between LA and AC.

I think AC shouln't have lowered himself and say that about Lance Armstrong. Indurain for example would have never got into the arena like that. He was a gentleman in everyway and I think Contador should look up to Miguel .

However, LA is no saint either, and I think he got what he deserved. He wanted the young Alberto to work for him but the undomitable Spaniard had other plans.

Next year the Tour is going to be the hell of a war. LA is stubborn and now with this little war with Contador he won't retire until he wins the 8th Tour. But I don't think he will win the race again. Every year Lance is older and his performance will be worst, no matter how much he trains, he is 38 years old!!!!!!!!

By the way, one guy that I'm sure has enyoyed LA defeat is Jan Ullrich. He said: "Now Lance is suffering the same I suffered"
 
sopas said:
Here is my opinion as a Spaniard about this exchange between LA and AC.

I think AC shouln't have lowered himself and say that about Lance Armstrong. Indurain for example would have never got into the arena like that. He was a gentleman in everyway and I think Contador should look up to Miguel .

However, LA is no saint either, and I think he got what he deserved. He wanted the young Alberto to work for him but the undomitable Spaniard had other plans.

Next year the Tour is going to be the hell of a war. LA is stubborn and now with this little war with Contador he won't retire until he wins the 8th Tour. But I don't think he will win the race again. Every year Lance is older and his performance will be worst, no matter how much he trains, he is 38 years old!!!!!!!!

By the way, one guy that I'm sure has enyoyed LA defeat is Jan Ullrich. He said: "Now Lance is suffering the same I suffered"

8th tour?? No way. The dude wasn't but 4th best on his own team in the first TT. Contador could have attacked on Vonteux (sp?) and made the gap worse.
 
sopas said:
Here is my opinion as a Spaniard about this exchange between LA and AC.

I think AC shouln't have lowered himself and say that about Lance Armstrong. Indurain for example would have never got into the arena like that. He was a gentleman in everyway and I think Contador should look up to Miguel .

However, LA is no saint either, and I think he got what he deserved. He wanted the young Alberto to work for him but the undomitable Spaniard had other plans.

Next year the Tour is going to be the hell of a war. LA is stubborn and now with this little war with Contador he won't retire until he wins the 8th Tour. But I don't think he will win the race again. Every year Lance is older and his performance will be worst, no matter how much he trains, he is 38 years old!!!!!!!!

By the way, one guy that I'm sure has enyoyed LA defeat is Jan Ullrich. He said: "Now Lance is suffering the same I suffered"

I think you are partially correct about Jan but I also know that it is very difficult for him to watch his old friends and adversaries race while he is denied.
I think he is more content that Armstrong may share a similar perspective rather than taking pure joy from his defeat.
 
Bro Deal said:
You have to love how Armstrong and his hommies spent months bad mouthing Contador, challenging his leadership of the team, and generally being dicks. Now that Contador speaks a little, they suddenly play the team card and are outraged that he is dissing the team. Sorry, Gump, Contador was not dissing the team. He was dissing you. And it is some well earned diss to boot.

This is a great comment and excellent point. AC clearly did not trust Johan, and was right not to trust him. LA had Levi in Aspen twit-videoing every day. The VS group was sickening. I wonder what Jim Rome thinks about this? LA: "I'm coming back but to win the Giro; no interest in winning the tour"... "uhh... I've changed my mind, I do want to win the tour; to hell with Alberto" Jim Rome would have a field day with LA.
 
jhuskey said:
I think you are partially correct about Jan but I also know that it is very difficult for him to watch his old friends and adversaries race while he is denied.
I think he is more content that Armstrong may share a similar perspective rather than taking pure joy from his defeat.
Yes, I agree. Jan is a good guy and I don't think he will wish anything bad to anyone, not even LA. But, surely he must be happy to see AC win instead of LA.
Lance caused enourmous frustantion in Jan especially in 2001. I think I remember Godefront saying somethink like: Armstrong is humilliating my rider (Jan), That's not necessary!! Well now we have AC "humilliating" Lance!!!!!
 
limerickman said:
Is Guimard doing media work these days?
Apparently, no. It's stupid because his tactical knowledge is great and he has enough culture to do a great job.
 
jimmypop said:
Yeah, you're a f*cking twit. Welcome to cycling, recent American convert. Now go the hell back to football and baseball.

lol, maybe it escapes you that I've been a member of this forum since 2003 and have nearly twice as many posts as you have. You can see how old I am from my posts, and I've been an avid active cyclist since my late teens, well before Greg LeMond won his first Tour.

I take your comment as the sum of your intellectual prowess in response to mine.
 

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