Tips for Contador on how to be a classy cyclist



limerickman said:
On ES, Harmon asked Sean Kelly his view and he thought AC shouldn't have attacked.

The unwritten rule is that, if your opponent develops a mechanical problem, you don't attack.
+1
Heat of the moment, split second to decide, wrong decision. At least AC had the class to apologise.
 
mitosis said:
+1
Heat of the moment, split second to decide, wrong decision. At least AC had the class to apologise.


had AC had any real class which he does not, he would have waited and not had anything to apologize for.
 
Bastiani said:
Are you also upset because he dropped lance last year? Your hatred over Contador blinds you into stupidity.

90 IQ is an average score, the guy is a cyclist not an engineer. And if he is so dumb, where do you leave Shleck... the guy KNOWS he will get raped in the ITT, and if he can do so much as you all seem to claim, why the hell was he just chilling with the 31sec lead he had?


Preach on Brother...
 
roadhouse said:
i don't hate Contador, i could care less for him as a human being and as a cyclist though and yes, i'm perturbed a bit at his hatred of Lance and company who employed him solely for one purpose, to put Lance in first last year.

Schleck is a funny item on the menu but i'd bet that his team director had plans for that 31 second lead. oh yeah, drop Contador without your chain falling off and if it does, hope and pray Contador shows some decency but that was too much to ask, huh?


Dude are you blind?

Look, I too wished that AC had waited for AS, however you have to look at things from a neutral position. There is no way that AC knew that AS was having mechanical problems when he passed AS. With that said, I amn sure he heard about it shortly after, thru his team radio. The question is, was he supposed to stop at that point? Even if he was 20 secs ahead?
 
swampy1970 said:
Schleck should be condemned for being a whiney double standard *****.

Schleck was down and the entire peloton waited... Remember the stage to Spa? Funny how the Saxo boys shut that stage down when they had no chance of realing in the guys in the break and their top guys crashed saying it was "too dangerous for everyone" yet they had no problem whatsoever in attacking and putting down the hammer when lots of other folks, including the yellow jersey, suffered mechanical problems the day after on the cobbles when Saxo, this time, were on the front.

Karma. Sometimes it can be a real *****.

Hmmm, I never saw it from that perspective, but you might be correct, it might be "karma in full swing"
 
Yonni said:
5. He didn't realise that it was anything more than missing a gear when he rode past. By the time he knew the damage was done (by the others in riding away as well as by him).


Exactly how I see it.
Yonni said:
Lets hope we have many years of close rivalry between these two. Closer than Armstrong & Ulrich. No one doubts that Lance was classy and gave us some great Tour memories but he wasn't perfect either (not to mention arrogant as hell!).

Agree!

I too was a fan of LA, to some extent, as I couldn't deal with his arrogance; and what happened last year on Astana was a lil too much...
 
limerickman said:
Rumour has it that AC and Schleck might well race for the same team next season!


I hope not, that would kill one of the greatest rivalry of this decade, beside we don't need another 2009 team astana drama.
 
AC could have ridden up to "everyone else"(Menchov&Sanchez) and slow the pace, just as Tyler Hamiliton did on Luz Ardiden in 2003 when LA and Iban Mayo went down.

Yonni said:
I'm a Contador fan as well as a Schleck fan and my initial reaction was that he was out of order. With hindsight though he was justified:

1. Everyone else rode away and he couldn't afford to leave them.
2. This goes both ways (see Spa stage).
3. Public apology on Youtube.
4. Personal apology on the stage today.
5. He didn't realise that it was anything more than missing a gear when he rode past. By the time he knew the damage was done (by the others in riding away as well as by him).

Lets hope we have many years of close rivalry between these two. Closer than Armstrong & Ulrich. No one doubts that Lance was classy and gave us some great Tour memories but he wasn't perfect either (not to mention arrogant as hell!).
 
roadhouse said:
i don't hate Contador, i could care less for him as a human being and as a cyclist though and yes, i'm perturbed a bit at his hatred of Lance and company who employed him solely for one purpose, to put Lance in first last year.

You are so wrong in this. Contador was the defending champion and was not "employed to put Lance in first". No one in their right mind would have done that given the poor preparation Lance had in the early season. By his own admission he wasn't properly prepared. Chapeau to him for still making the podium BTW. Contador had a contract that told him he was team leader. He was the form rider. He rode number 21. Bruyneel announced days before the tour that Contador was definitely the team leader. They obviously were hoping that Lance still had it but as far as Contador was concerned he was team leader. All the team press releases also stated this.

So how do you think he stabbed them in the back?
 
Yonni said:
You are so wrong in this. Contador was the defending champion and was not "employed to put Lance in first". No one in their right mind would have done that given the poor preparation Lance had in the early season. By his own admission he wasn't properly prepared. Chapeau to him for still making the podium BTW. Contador had a contract that told him he was team leader. He was the form rider. He rode number 21. Bruyneel announced days before the tour that Contador was definitely the team leader. They obviously were hoping that Lance still had it but as far as Contador was concerned he was team leader. All the team press releases also stated this.

So how do you think he stabbed them in the back?

you are right, i was wrong but in my defense, i hadn't paid any attention to the three tours Lance was on vacation from and i hadn't known that Contador was the defending title holder from the previous year and i hadn't known that 21 was the leader's number. makes sense, Lance was 21 this year albeit when he was defending title he was wearing number 1.

anywho, the words by Contador and his actions, disobeying team orders which probably would've put Lance in front at the time and something Bruykneel , no matter what he said days before the race, was wanting to happen as well, something i was personally wanting to see but in hindsight can say wouldn't be what a team leader wanting to win would want to have happen, is what gets me.

"My relationship with Lance Armstrong is non-existent. Even if he is a great champion, I have never had admiration for him and I never will," the 26-year-old Spaniard admitted.

yeah, blow me Contador.
 
roadhouse said:
you are right, i hadn't known that 21 was the leader's number. makes sense, Lance was 21 this year albeit when he was defending title he was wearing number 1.

Any number ending in 1 designates the Team leader not defending champ. I was wrong there too - Sastre was the defending champ in 2008 which is why Contador was 21 instead of 1.
 
Yonni said:
Any number ending in 1 designates the Team leader not defending champ. I was wrong there too - Sastre was the defending champ in 2008 which is why Contador was 21 instead of 1.


huh, makes sense. i've learned something new, two things actually, Sastre winning the '08 Tour and the number system. thanks.
 
Yonni said:
Any number ending in 1 designates the Team leader not defending champ. I was wrong there too - Sastre was the defending champ in 2008 which is why Contador was 21 instead of 1.

Sastre won in 2008 so he would have been defending champion in 2009.
Contador didn't race 2008 because Astana was not invited.
 
limerickman said:
On ES, Harmon asked Sean Kelly his view and he thought AC shouldn't have attacked.

The unwritten rule is that, if your opponent develops a mechanical problem, you don't attack.

Really? So how come when Roche punctured in Paris Nice in 1987 on the final stage, when leading, no one waited for him and Kelly just kept on going and got the win? Sean developed Alzi, Alz.. Alzheim..Leipheimers.. wait, what was that again? Who?

Ironically, this piece of cycling history is brought to you by Frank and Andy at frankandandyschleck.com - ok, it's not actually run by Frank and Andy but there's some good reading about the 'old days'

Frank and Andy Schleck-Sean Kelly Part 1

In 1987 Kelly won Paris-Nice on the very last day after Roche who was wearing the Leader’s jersey got a puncture in the finale of the stage and fell many places down the general classification

also on Frank and Andys page:

He returned to Ireland and won the Nissan Classic again. His second win in the Nissan Classic came after a duel with Canadian Steve Bauer who took the yellow jersey after Kelly crashed numerous times. Kelly went into the final stage 3 seconds behind Bauer on the general classification and took the jersey when he finished third on the stage and won bonus seconds.

I guess Bauer wasn't interested in waiting either...

Seems like a common event for such a hollier than thou rule that should never be broken. I guess it should never be broken unless it suits you and there's money involved... :p
 
roadhouse said:
you are right, i was wrong but in my defense, i hadn't paid any attention to the three tours Lance was on vacation from and i hadn't known that Contador was the defending title holder from the previous year and i hadn't known that 21 was the leader's number. makes sense, Lance was 21 this year albeit when he was defending title he was wearing number 1.

anywho, the words by Contador and his actions, disobeying team orders which probably would've put Lance in front at the time and something Bruykneel , no matter what he said days before the race, was wanting to happen as well, something i was personally wanting to see but in hindsight can say wouldn't be what a team leader wanting to win would want to have happen, is what gets me.

"My relationship with Lance Armstrong is non-existent. Even if he is a great champion, I have never had admiration for him and I never will," the 26-year-old Spaniard admitted.

yeah, blow me Contador.

Are you serious?!!? :rolleyes:
 
Let's leave Lance out of this. Vino, too, because everybody knows Contador helped block for Vino's win on 13.

Schleck's chain drop was amateurish and his own responsibility and he should not have made a big deal of it. Contador's continuing his counterattack was most tacky, and his words in the post-race interview on Versus betrayed his conscience. He knew he did something dumb and made it worse by trying to cover it up. He's obviously rattled, that Schleck can't be shaken.
 

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