Contador Whiner Thread
- Thread starter sanjuro
- Start date
Haha....at least he didn't do the stupid gun on the podium
http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/cgi/gallerypicget.asp?pic=http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/photos/races09/tdf09/tdf09st21-pistol.jpg
1st: Alberto "Pistolero" Contador
2nd: Andy "I Need a F*cking Cheeseburger" Schleck
3rd: Lance "Ballstrong" Armstrong
Not having a retarded nickname: Priceless
2nd: Andy "I Need a F*cking Cheeseburger" Schleck
3rd: Lance "Ballstrong" Armstrong
Not having a retarded nickname: Priceless
Last edited:
Fool came up with a better one - Ballstrong.
OMFG! He has a damn hat!! What is wrong with this guy? Next he'll be at a press conference with a pin of the pistol on his suit
Shoot, I thought Lancy-poo had been taking advice from Evans, considering the "drivel" he posts on Twitter (not to mention the public criticism of AC during the race). Real classy. At least AC was honest, and said some positive things about Lance's riding.
Can someone ask Armstrong how it was a bad thing that his team mate, who was clearly a stronger rider throughout the race, took 20 seconds on everyone at Arcalis? So the team strategy was to not try to win the race?
Can someone ask Armstrong how it was a bad thing that his team mate, who was clearly a stronger rider throughout the race, took 20 seconds on everyone at Arcalis? So the team strategy was to not try to win the race?
I thought the team strategy was to try for 1,2, and 3 podium positions? How was shooting ahead of everyone (including his own teammates), helping to put them on the podium with him? 
I think the idea might have been that they didn't want to have the lead so early and have to defend it. Let someone else take it, make them defend it and worry about it and them and save the real fireworks for the later stages. Personally, I liked AC's approach. More excitement for me.
He was leading by example...he showed them how fast they should be goingI thought the team strategy was to try for 1,2, and 3 podium positions? How was shooting ahead of everyone (including his own teammates), helping to put them on the podium with him?
Is not like Contador didn't have a reason to be paranoid. He witnessed the initimate Johan-Lance relationship everyday. LA probably worked the head game angle as much as possible to gain an advantage over Contador. Once out on the road Contador let his pedals do the talking ......i think Lance even played up the good teammate role for vanity sake.
Contador was put into a ****ty situation. He was told he had to prove he was the leader. Of course all this is going on a team with super sketchy sponsors that most riders and staff want to get away from, Lance shows up with the ability to offer them a contract on his RS team for their loyalty. The team may have supported Contador by fetching him bottles but their loyalty was with Armstrong. Contador did a good job of keeping his mouth shut before and during the race, with his dominating victory he really doesn't need say anything more.
It's hard from some to understand that being on a team with that much firepower can be a crap situation, but it's true. Contador has shown that he is pretty much the best rider on the planet right now and he deserves a team dedicated 100% to him. He thought he would get that with Astana, even with Kloden and Levi on the team. But then Captain Lance decided to un-retire and complicate things further. I think Contador did and said some stupid things during the race but he certainly left no doubts on the road.
Ordinarily being the best rider should automatically mean you get to be team leader. But we're talking about Lance. Given his prior results, his ego, his connections with the team, his stated charitable motivation, and his ability to draw media, people, and sponsor dollars, the ordinary rules don't really apply. He'll be up there again next year but he doesn't have to be the best to lead a team.
How was finishing in a group with brothers Schleck, Evans, Wiggo, the Mench, Sastre, Armstrong, Nibali, and the rest of the outside GC contenders going to help put team mates on the podium?I thought the team strategy was to try for 1,2, and 3 podium positions? How was shooting ahead of everyone (including his own teammates), helping to put them on the podium with him?
Considering all he did was move himself up to 2 seconds in front of Lance, it seemed rather odd that Lance and Johan felt the need to publicly criticize AC... should have been an internal discussion. From what I recall--could be mistaken, but don't think so--the team strategy at the outset was stated as having someone win the race. Who it would be was to be determined by who the strongest rider. Getting multiple people on the podium was a distinct possibility and would be a bonus, but everyone agreed that grabbing the top spot was the priority, and any other considerations were secondary.
BTW, I think Nibali might be "the new Falcon" after his descent into Le Grand-Bornand.
If I was Contador I would have made sure my team wasn't 1,2,3. Team loyalty certainly wasn't with Contador. If Astana had a lock on all the podium spots what was to prevent them from screwing contador over and letting the podium re-shuffle so Lance could win? Having someone else in 2nd made Astana make sure AC got the win. It would have been easy for them to leave AC blowing in the wind or make him get his own food/bottles forcing him to lose some time.
I see where Alberto was coming from, he wanted to win, period. But remember, Astana was left out of the tour last year and I'm sure Johan was pretty sore about that, it would have been a hell of a statement to put 3 Astanas on the podium the very next tour. It also would have produced a lot of money for the team and it's riders and (correct me if I'm wrong) would have made history.
Wow, Kazakhstan came through with a huge offer...that he then rejects 
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/contador-refuses-astana-offer
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/contador-refuses-astana-offer
If its in a news its the truth. I personally get all my news from TMZ.
nice offer from Astana. wish i could turn down a $4 mil net contract. with the economy the way it is i don't think he made a bad decision. who knows who's going to be the director, Vino returning could pose problems, plus.... didn't Astana have a small problem with paying their riders and the rest of their ProTour contract? he may not get that size of an offer elsewhere, but it's probably a good bet that at least he'll get paid on time.
I'm guessing Astana offering you millions of dollars would be much like me offering you millions of dollars.
I strongly suspect that the "cash issues" that Astana was having was due to Vino pulling some strings behind the scenes.
Four million euros is a LOT of money, but at that level, I think he'd probably much rather take 2 or 3 million for a team that will have him as the undisputed leader, and is strong enough to take him to more Tour wins. Astana wouldn't be that team because A. Vino would want something and B. the team is going to be gutted after this year.
My money is on Garmin or Caisse, although Garmin is probably the stronger Grand Tour team, and there wouldn't be issues with Valverde and doping, etc.
The reported figures probably include incentive/bonuses for winning the Tour. Still, he stands to make a lot more than that if he actually wins a few more, so I wouldn't be surprised to see him take less cash to go to a team he thinks will be committed to him. Where's Manolo Saiz anyway?
Probably helping MLB athletes with their "medications"