Tour de France - Contador should outshine Lance
Eurosport - Mon, 29 Jun 10:20:00 2009
Lance Armstrong's return to the race he dominated for seven years should not stop team-mate Alberto Contador from stamping his authority on a Tour de France more scrutinised than ever before.
Spaniard Contador, winner in 2007, will lead the Astana team but with deluxe domestiques like Armstrong and Tour podium finishers Levi Leipheimer and Andreas Kloeden, his margin for error is extremely slim.
The Armstrong v Contador rivalry is reminiscent of that between Bernard Hinault and American Greg LeMond, who won the 1986 race despite repeated attacks from his French team-mate.
Although Astana manager Johan Bruyneel made clear Contador would be the leader and Armstrong his lieutenant, the seven-times champion is likely to try his luck early in the race to turn the hierarchy upside down.
"I would love to be a little mouse and see how it goes within Astana," Tour director Christian Prudhomme told Reuters.
"Contador will have only a week, and actually two stages, to show he is the boss in his own team."
The opening 15.5km time trial in Monaco on Saturday should give an indication of the favourites' form on a course tailor-made for climber Contador with its 7.5km ascent to the Cote de Beausoleil in the first part.
Contador, one of only five riders with victories in all three Grand Tours, is also expected to make a move in the seventh stage which finishes with an out-of-category climb to Arcalis.
Should he still be in contention at that time, Armstrong, back on the bike after three and a half years in retirement, is convinced he can cause an upset.
"I feel strong, I feel strong enough to win," he told French radio Europe 1. "It will be close - three to one."
But Contador has shown he has no rival when the slopes get really steep and he has dramatically improved against the clock as he proved by winning the Spanish time trial title last week.
The ascent in the penultimate stage to the Mont Ventoux, where Armstrong has often struggled, will be his last master card.
"I'm a much stronger rider all round," the 26-year-old told Reuters.
Contador will also have rivals outside his team.
There is Silence-Lotto's Australian Cadel Evans, runner-up the past two years, although the main threat is likely to come from Saxo Bank and the Schleck brothers, Andy and Frank, who have a very strong team at their disposal.
Champion Carlos Sastre, who left Saxo Bank for Cervelo, cannot be counted out, having shown great form in the Giro, where he snatched two mountain stages.
Giro champion Denis Menchov of Russia will be another contender although Marco Pantani in 1998 was the last man to clinch a Giro/Tour double.
Contador, however, will not have to deal with compatriot Alejandro Valverde, who has been left out of the Caisse d'Epargne team over his alleged involvement in a blood doping scandal in 2006.
Anti-doping authorities have warned they will be merciless after the last three Tour editions were tainted by drugs scandals.
"The Tour de France will be the most tested event in the history of sports," said International Cycling Union head Pat McQuaid.
The UCI and the French Anti-Doping Agency will work together to carry out more than 500 tests throughout the race.
Fifty of the 180 riders will be tested more because they are either top contenders or their biological passport data has raised suspicions in the UCI, McQuaid said earlier this month.
Tour de France stage 1 LIVE from 2.30pm on Saturday 4th July on British Eurosport (Sky 410 / Virgin Media 521); Also available on your PC via the Eurosport Player - click on the link under the picture to subscribe
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Comment 3 - 22 of 22
I really hope that Armstrong does not try to spoil the chances of contador this tour. For someone who is always talking about 'repect' itm would be nice to see Armstrong riding FOR Contador in the mountains, I rather suspect though that the lure of more publicity will encourage him to encourage Leipheimer to ride for him rather than trying to get contador on the podium - and let's not wite off Kloden, he has the class to outshine Armstrong and Leipheimer.
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@Liz S Dont forget Contador 2005 is luckely stay alive, he had also big injury on the brain. Contador is a better rider on the moment of Armstrong i that you know self. I'm a fan of Lance dont get me wrong, i was watching he's all wins, but now the best rider is Contador.
Contador would win 2nd TDF this year, if he was in TDF08, now he was defending title, and Sastre never won TDF
a few thoughts:
1 - contador was "gifted" the tour - well, ok, i can see this point of view kinda. but second place still required immense amounts of work, and watching levi and contador chase down rasmussen on mountains was a BUNCH of work. if he was deserving of second place, and he was, then he's deserving of first if the first place rider is removed through no effort of his own. it's not his fault rasmussen was removed or lied about where he was. plus, i don't hear ANYBODY complaining about menchov getting a vuelta win after heras was removed, btw (nor do i think most know about it). so the rules don't change just because we compare with lance all of a sudden.
2 - lance better than contador - why bother with this debate? lance was a TDF specialist, absolutely. was lance a better TDF rider? yes/maybe/no/doesn't matter. contador has time to prove/disprove this. only time will tell. one should note though, that given that most of us agree that merckx was the greatest of all time, and he did more than win tours de france, one has to grant that maybe contador has a greater chance in the future of being one of the all around greats since he's got more grand tours under his belt already. lance will always be a tour de france rider specifically - not taking anything away from him because it's one hell of an accomplishment to win 7, but that's what he is.
i dunno, just seems like people need to step back a bit. if you're a lance fan, great. fine. but dont' be such a fan that you can't listen to anything else. lance was a great rider, but eventually someone WILL take his place. contador is as close as we've come to that, particularly since he's becoming better at the time trial. even if contador wins 5 more TdF, you can prally always claim that lance was the TdF king. just keep in mind that there are larger titles than that, and contador has a shot at that title if he continues the success and doesn
bobcha78, for 3 years Armstrong was battling for his life with cancer, so you can't really compare his age with Contadors in terms of early success. LA was a TDF specialist, that's all he wanted to win. Contador has the making to be one of the best all round riders if he does well in this year's Tour.
@Tamerair No body is jealous for Armstrong's 7TDF wins, that everybody needs to respect, but he never won Giro and Vuelta and that is only minus for him. Second minus is he is 38years old and he's top level form is gone in 2005 (that year is monstery strong on TDF).
@Liz S Armstrong is one of the best riders ever, but i think Contador is stroger rider on climbs, but he is going to be in a few years the best TT rider on the world, he is won TDF in 24years, Armstrong had 28 years when he won 1st TDF, 4 years Contador is early won TDF, one year is lose 2008 for not going on TDF. Contador is a stronger rider then Armstrong this year, fair
And Contador won Giro08 with a 6 days preparations, who's done that in cycling?
He is still young rider, and i agree with words of @l1chadwilliams, ''This will be Contadors time to show if he is great or just good''. 28 july will seen what would happend
And Armstrong doesn't have much to prove, he has done what no one did in history of the tour, Cantador will never break Armstrong's record, that's a fact. Schleck brothers will be preventing that ever happening, Andy Schleck will win a tour sooner or later and there are others also coming soon, we might never see anyone ever again winning 7 consecutive TDF, so stop being jealous zealot and show some respect for this athlete LA.
People keep talking as if Contador is some great TT specialist when a year ago the guy was lucky if he got a top 20. We have yet to see the young buck be seriously challenged and turn himself inside out in TT and Mountains with good results in the same Grand Tour. This will be Contadors time to show if he is great or just good.
Rasmunssen was winning , but it was gifted the Cantador
I suggest tmartine (10), did not watch the 7 TDFs Lance Armstrong won. He was head and shoulders better than what Contador is today. Fair enough Contador is probably strong than LA now, but there is no way he would have beat him in his prime. I think it is a pretty open race and I am very excited at the prospect of 3 wks of daily cycling coverage!!
tmartine, saying that LA in his prime would not have a chance against Contador is a very couragious statement to say the least.
there are three things, i think, that would possibly hold contador back from a TDF win:
1 - he just isn't in the shape for it (not likely)
2 - someone puts in a performance heretofore undreamed of by everyone else, including whoever that person would be.
3 - his team ruins it for him. flashback to the giro, where levi had horner and popo stuck to lance no matter what was going on. 12 minutes back? didn't matter, two riders assigned to lance.... this is not good here, and if contador loses teammates to lance duty there could be trouble. hopefully johann will be brighter about this than in the giro....
schlecks are great, but inability to time-trial *typically* kills your chances, and even they don't climb like alberto.
cadel did show aggression this year, but not sure that attitude will stick and even if it did, his team is simply not strong enough to hold off saxo-bank/astana.
menchov sure looked good in the giro, and didn't really have to work that hard. so he'll have some left in the tank, but TWO grand tours back-to-back? who's got the legs for THAT?
lance is old, showed well in the giro but also showed he's not back to grand tour winning form (please don't flap at me cuz i said it. you saw the giro too....).
i dunno...just seems like it's alberto's to lose.
Astana is going to win Team trial in 4th stage, then Astana would give yellow jersey, then in the stage 15 would attack for yellow jersey (Contador) and last 6 stage would defend jersey. It's too early if Contador strike's in first week, to tell everybody in team that he is a fisrt rider. He is the first rider of Astana in every ways, except if fall and broke collarbone.
One thing is very important, Astana must win TDF for sponsores, and best way for that is Contador not Armstrong, not Levi (both got his chance in Giro09 and nothing), Contador only could win TDF from Astana, and his only rivals is Evans and Schlecks Brothers, Sastre, VandeVelde and others not guys from Astana
@ zorangrubic85 - Armstrong used to get his "training plans" from hematologist Michele Ferrari... a guy who is quoted as saying that EPO is as dangerous as orange juice...
the way Contadore is TT'ng i honestly, don't think anyone has a chance against him.. no one! not even LA in his prime much less the old worn out version we have today.
Contador will make Amstrong pay for Spain exit in the Conferderations Football Cup at the hands of the US team.
Rasmunssen Contador a.k.a. dr. Puerto patient
capo_pdg - Given there is a significant body to evidence to suggest that Jan was riddled with all manner of doping products and freshly-spun/transfused blood during that period, you could well be right. Likewise, I think Bjarne Riis's big chainring attack at Hautacam in 1996 would be a pretty tricky one to peg back, but not sure either of these realities are worth celebrating. Not to mention that in 2002-2003, Jan himself was being subjected to his yearly @#$%-kicking around the roads of France by a certain Texan.
Please spare a thought for a guy who came 2nd place on 4 occasions in the TdF and was banned just 2 days before the start of his best chance to win in 2006, after his nemesis (Armstrong) had retired.
'
Mighty sad day, Jan Ullrich. Wouldn't have happened to Poulidor.
'
Hope ASO don't pull any such stunts this time round.
Vuelta is the only race where Contador dominated so far(he won Tour by default after Rasmunssen was kicked out,and his performance at Giro 2008,albeit good, was far from domination).
I think that if there was a race between,let's say,Ulrich from 2002-3 and Contador from 2007-8,Jan would kick his @#$%.
I think they will be both very good until the 3 week.There we will see who is the leader and who not.
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