Basque Country prizes

He looks as bout as Spanish as Sherpa Tensing or Bridgette Neilson.

classic1 said:

He looks as bout as Spanish as Sherpa Tensing or Bridgette Neilson.

Brigitte Neilson may have bigger nuts though.

LMAO!...didn't one of the team already say the High Road kit looked like a clown suit??

It could be worse. They could be forced to wear the Urban Sombrero.

Bro Deal said:

It could be worse. They could be forced to wear the Urban Sombrero.

or magenta pink cycling jerseys.........

... or lime green Liquigas jerseys with multiple arrows pointing towards their zizi... 😄

Well, I wonder what Contador will be getting now that he's won the over all race. A really really big hat?

I know there was a big hill in the TT but still... beating Evans and Dekker? Didn't see that one coming.

Eldrack said:

Well, I wonder what Contador will be getting now that he's won the over all race. A really really big hat?

I know there was a big hill in the TT but still... beating Evans and Dekker? Didn't see that one coming.

He must be gorging on the vitamins that he had originally saved for TdF.

Eldrack said:

Well, I wonder what Contador will be getting now that he's won the over all race. A really really big hat?

I know there was a big hill in the TT but still... beating Evans and Dekker? Didn't see that one coming.

nope, no surprise at all in defense of Contador.

He won the Spanish national tt u23 championship at 18. Saiz signed him on the spot. He has always had an ability in the chrono far exceeding Valverde, whose strength was primarily based on his oxygen capacity and doping regimen. If doped to the 9's, Valverde could tt well in Spain.

Both Contador and Valverde are distinguished prologue riders, better than Evans.

Contador has yet to develop the strength in the long tts, like the Tour de France.

But Eldrack, you do Contador disservice but saying it was a surprise. Nothing of the sort. That is the perfect tt for Contador, save a pure mtn tt. Right distance, some major climbing percentage.

That is why Contador and Evans are natural GC riders. Both can climb and tt. And I think both would excell if everyone was clean because of those inherent characteristics. Ofcourse, Casar and Moncoutie are two who can climb and tt, but a few rungs below them, why? Feel free to speculate.

Contador needs to be able to extend his attacking threshold, to his power at threshold, because he cannot make those attacks stick yet. Evans still needs to be stronger in the high mtns, or dope more. Contador's tting will progress. I dont know if Evans can really get stronger in the mtns unfortunately for him. Maybe he will do what Landis did, rolled the dice on a heavy medical program.

hawkeye87 said:

I figured he would win the ITT after the superhuman prologue he did in the Castilla de Leon against Lil' Levi.

He's now the complete rider. Just read the Astana forums and they're completely convinced.

He was a decent time trialist but nailing riders who are known to be amongst the best is difficult to believe.

He probably is more on form then they are given that Cadel is planning for the TdF. Although, I would bet Alberto would still target it on the hopes that minds will change.

no, Contador was more than a decent timetrialist. He was a very good timetrialist, and about the best of his age group. Dekker/Brajkovic/Nibali. Someone tell me those guys are not on serious gear also.

Actually, Contador is 2 years older than the others, but still. I am trying to pull a rider of his age (25) out of the ether. Schlek is turning 23. I dont know.

thunder said:

no, Contador was more than a decent timetrialist. He was a very good timetrialist, and about the best of his age group. Dekker/Brajkovic/Nibali. Someone tell me those guys are not on serious gear also.

Actually, Contador is 2 years older than the others, but still. I am trying to pull a rider of his age (25) out of the ether. Schlek is turning 23. I dont know.

:eek: I did not delete my post quickly enough. Quite the rapid response Thunder. :-D

thunder said:

nope, no surprise at all in defense of Contador.

He won the Spanish national tt u23 championship at 18. Saiz signed him on the spot. He has always had an ability in the chrono far exceeding Valverde, whose strength was primarily based on his oxygen capacity and doping regimen. If doped to the 9's, Valverde could tt well in Spain.

Both Contador and Valverde are distinguished prologue riders, better than Evans.

Contador has yet to develop the strength in the long tts, like the Tour de France.

But Eldrack, you do Contador disservice but saying it was a surprise. Nothing of the sort. That is the perfect tt for Contador, save a pure mtn tt. Right distance, some major climbing percentage.

That is why Contador and Evans are natural GC riders. Both can climb and tt. And I think both would excell if everyone was clean because of those inherent characteristics. Ofcourse, Casar and Moncoutie are two who can climb and tt, but a few rungs below them, why? Feel free to speculate.

Contador needs to be able to extend his attacking threshold, to his power at threshold, because he cannot make those attacks stick yet. Evans still needs to be stronger in the high mtns, or dope more. Contador's tting will progress. I dont know if Evans can really get stronger in the mtns unfortunately for him. Maybe he will do what Landis did, rolled the dice on a heavy medical program.

He's a decent TTist, no doubt about that. But Evans knocked him for over a minute in both longs TTs at the TdF last year. Other than that I can't remember when they last came head to head. Obviously this ones shorter at half an hour in length rather than just over an hour but in terms of physicals demands the same systems are used (see training/power forums for lengthy discussions on this).

Contador was 21 seconds ahead at 4km done (i.e at the end of the steep bit of the hill), same at the top of the hill (plus or minus a second) but what suprised me was he was able to keep that advantage on a downhill which surely should have favoured the heavier more powerful rider (Cadel). And Cadel definitely isn't a bad descender.

That's why I was surprised, however injustly that may have been. I guess Contador has peaked for this event as it is one of the few Astana haven't been banned from.

I assume you mean not invited instead of banned?

Yeah, my bad.

Lausanne ITT, 2006 Tour de Romandie:

1 Cadel Evans (Aus) Davitamon-Lotto 26.19.87 (46.485 km/h)
2 Leif Hoste (Bel) Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team 0.22
3 Bobby Julich (USA) Team CSC 0.38
4 Andrey Kashechkin (Kaz) Liberty Seguros-Würth Team 0.44
5 Serguei Gonchar (Ukr) T-Mobile Team 0.49
6 Jorg Jaksche (Ger) Liberty Seguros-Würth Team 0.50
7 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Liberty Seguros-Würth Team 0.51
8 Christophe Moreau (Fra) AG2R Prevoyance

CN report here: http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2006/apr06/romandie06/?id=results/romandie065

But some things do stand in Contador's favour: very steep section at the start of the Pais Vasco TT, Evans' crash yesterday (anyone know how much that might have affected him?), as well as an inevitable progression in Contador's ability. Re: other stuff, who can say?

As for Evans not being a bad descender... I'd say that a tricky descent is one area his GC rivals probably could pick time up from him. For a MTBer, he doesn't shine in that area.

Cunego did a good ride. With the recent change in the TdF, Cunego's chances are improving.

Bro Deal said:

Cunego did a good ride. With the recent change in the TdF, Cunego's chances are improving.

I wonder if he is a top 50 UCI target. He's gotta be right? Anyone who could be a leader for a major team has got to be one of the targetted riders for testing... 😕

Crankyfeet said:

I wonder if he is a top 50 UCI target. He's gotta be right? Anyone who could be a leader for a major team has got to be one of the targetted riders for testing... 😕

He is being heavily targeted for testing. Remember in December he was put through tests on two consecutive days by the Italian Federation, and there was a minor scandal in that the testers showed up at the hotel and Cunego was not there. It turned out he had gone out to dinner with his fan club about 15km away and had about 100 witnesses so the Italian Federation backed down, tested him at midnight and tested him again the next day (the logic being a lot of people dope immediately after their out of season tests)...

He also is one of the guys with the naturally high hematocrit - his normal levels are well beyond 50% IIRC.

Or does he subscribe to the school of any advertising is good advertising?