Last Cycling Post of the Season
So Contador won the Vuelta. For those of you not paying attention to my previous half-dozen posts on the topic, this means that he is the youngest person to win all three Grand Tours and the person to have done it the fastest. Now there's the whole business of the Vuelta now being in September when it used to be in the spring, so comparing him the other guys is a little bit like comparing apples and oranges, but still there's no denying that it was impressive.
The big take-away from this is that he knows how to train and peak at the right time. You get a lot of riders who have some really great performance at one of the grand tours and then after that they're always in the mix, but they never quite equal that first breakout performance. Having to win to big races in the same year is better proof of that, IMHO, than just about anything else he could have done. So he's a real contender and he knows it. And now that the Vuelta is done he's finally saying what he really thinks about the whole Armstrong return.
He says that he's considering switching to another team if Armstrong returns, and really who could blame him. I certainly get the feeling that Armstrong didn't give a second's thought to how this decision would impact the other people on Astana. However later in the article when he talks about Leipheimer that's less forgivable. I mean he won the Vuelta what else does he want? He claims that someone who was helping him shouldn't have been so close in time. What that says to me is that Leipheimer could of won but didn't precisely because he was subordinating his desires for the good of Contador and the team... Contador certainly lost a few points in my book for that one. I guess it will all be settled 10 months from now in the mountains of France.
As far as this being the last cycling post of the season. Armstrong is giving a few press conferences in the next couple of days, but if you want to know what he says, it's Armstrong for crying out loud, I'm sure you'll be able to find out...
It's not about the bike it's about the ego
The big take-away from this is that he knows how to train and peak at the right time. You get a lot of riders who have some really great performance at one of the grand tours and then after that they're always in the mix, but they never quite equal that first breakout performance. Having to win to big races in the same year is better proof of that, IMHO, than just about anything else he could have done. So he's a real contender and he knows it. And now that the Vuelta is done he's finally saying what he really thinks about the whole Armstrong return.
He says that he's considering switching to another team if Armstrong returns, and really who could blame him. I certainly get the feeling that Armstrong didn't give a second's thought to how this decision would impact the other people on Astana. However later in the article when he talks about Leipheimer that's less forgivable. I mean he won the Vuelta what else does he want? He claims that someone who was helping him shouldn't have been so close in time. What that says to me is that Leipheimer could of won but didn't precisely because he was subordinating his desires for the good of Contador and the team... Contador certainly lost a few points in my book for that one. I guess it will all be settled 10 months from now in the mountains of France.
As far as this being the last cycling post of the season. Armstrong is giving a few press conferences in the next couple of days, but if you want to know what he says, it's Armstrong for crying out loud, I'm sure you'll be able to find out...
It's not about the bike it's about the ego
posted by DireKobold at 3:18 PM
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