Mar 16, 2009 0
Alberto Contador tried to take back the overall after a disaterous day in the mountains where he lost his overall lead to former teammate Luis Leon Sanchez. In the final stage 8 Contador battles valiantly to reclaim the top spot. Follow the final few kms.
Mar 14, 2009 0
Alberto Contador bonked in the final few kilometers of Stage 7 at Paris Nice as Louis Leon Sanchez launched a well timed attack. Sanchez took over the lead from Contador.
Mar 10, 2009 0
Rabobank really split apart the peloton in the rainy conditions. Alberto Contador found himself alone and behind the second group at one point. He finished one minute down.
Oct 23, 2008 0
Lance Armstrong was not at the Tour presentation, but he did give his reactions to the 2009 Tour route today.
First off, Lance likes the innovative route of the 2009 course that starts in Monaco with a 15km hilly TT and visits Barcelona and Girona, Spain.
“The route of the 2009 Tour de France strikes me as innovative and very interesting,” Armstrong said.
“From its start in Monte Carlo with a 15k time trial, to the reinstatement of the team time trial, to stages in my old hometown of Girona all the way to another visit to my old friend the Ventoux, I could not have hoped for a different Tour.”
That is well and good, but what about the red meat? Will Lance ride in the 2009 Tour and if so will he support Contador or will he demand to be numero uno?
“As to the leadership of the Astana team in 2009, it’s illogical to pre-select a leader for any race in October of the previous year,” Armstrong said.
“I have been around long enough to know that cycling is a team sport and I am fully committed to supporting the strongest rider in any race, whether that’s me, Alberto Contador, Levi Leipheimer, or Andreas Kloden.
Hmm, he is not saying he will ride in support of Contador, but he is not saying he won’t. But this statement clearly leaves the reigns of leadership wide open. Lance Armstrong has been around in cycling log enough to know that his Tour teams basically revolved around supporting Lance Armstrong’s road to victory. The USPS/Discovery Channel team had a clear number one rider and there really was no number two option. Look at the 2006 Tour when Discovery rode like a headless chicken.
There is not much doubt that Contador is the best stage racer in the world at this moment. But, Astana could be playing coy and trying to use its strength to “protect” Contador. Team CSC looked like they were supporting Frank Schleck for overall victory until Sastre attacked in the mountains with the help of the Schleck brothers constant marking of their rivals.
So, this will be an interesting development to watch. Is Astana being coy about Contador? Will Contador wish to spread his wings and go to another team where he is a clear leader? Or will Contador end up playing super domestique to an 8th Armstrong Tour win? This will be a fun year.
Oct 22, 2008 2
The 2009 Tour de France route was unveiled today in Paris. Notibly absent was Lance Armstrong who is Twittering from Austin and developing a radical new TT position. The Tour contenders in Paris including Alberto Contador and Cadel Evans liked the course.
The first stage is a 15km hilly TT in Monaco. The Team Time Trial is back on Stage Four. Ventoux on Stage 20. If the race is tight coming into the final stage it would provide for an epic finish. However, the course looks very grueling and could be well decided by then.
Only 55km of Individual TTs with a 38km Team Time Trial. The race looks to favor someone of defending champion Carlos Sastre’s ability. Not explosive in the TT, but a good enough climber. Sastre’s new Cervelo team has some horsepower with Thor Hushovd for the Team Time Trial, but it remains to be seen how his team will match up with Alberto Contador and the powerful Astana squad.
Team Saxobank may have a chance to bring Andy Schleck into contention since the shorter TT options may be forgiving to the young rider.
Everyone is waiting to see what Lance Armstrong does in July. Johan Bruyneel said that chances of a Lance return to France are 50/50.
Here is the list of stages.
Stages for the 2009 Tour de France
Stage 1 – July 4 – Monaco – Monaco, 15km (individual time-trial)
Stage 2 – July 5 – Monaco – Brignoles, 182km
Stage 3 – July 6 – Marseille – La Grande-Motte, 196km
Stage 4 – July 7 – Montpellier, 38km (team time-trial)
Stage 5 – July 8 – Le Cap d’Agde – Perpignan, 197km
Stage 6 – July 9 – Girona (Spain) – Barcelona (Spain), 175km
Stage 7 – July 10 – Barcelona – Andorra 224km
Stage 8 – July 11 – Andorra-la-Vieille – Saint-Girons, 176km
Stage 9 – July 12 – Saint Gaudens – Tarbes, 160km
● – July 13 – Rest day at Limoges
Stage 10 – July 14 – Limoges – Issoudun, 193km
Stage 11 – July 15 – Vatan – Saint Fargeau, 192km
Stage 12 – July 16 – Tonnerre – Vittel, 200km
Stage 13 – July 17 – Vittel – Colmar, 200km
Stage 14 – July 18 – Colmar – Besanon, 199km
Stage 15 – July 19 – Pontarlier – Verbier (Suisse), 207km
● – July 20 – Rest day at Verbier
Stage 16 – July 21 - Martigny (Switzerland) – Bourg-Saint Maurice, 160km
Stage 17 – July 22 – Bourg-Saint Maurice – Le Grand Bornand, 169km
Stage 18 – July 23 – Annecy – Annecy, 40km (individual time-trial)
Stage 19 – July 24 – Bourgoin-Jallieu – Aubenas, 195km
Stage 20 – July 25 – Montélimar – Mont Ventoux, 167km
Stage 21 – July 26 – Montereau-Fault-Yonne – Paris Champs Elysées, 160km
10 flat stages.
7 mountain stages
1 medium mountain stage.
2 individual time-trial stages.
1 team time-trial stage.
Sep 23, 2008 0
Lance Armstrong plans on announcing his plans for 2009 over the next two days. First at the Clinton Global Initiative and next at Interbike.
Lance Armstrong will hold a pair of press conferences in the next two days — the first on Wednesday in New York and the second on Thursday at the Interbike trade show in las Vegas, Nevada.
In New York, Armstrong will discuss his Global Cancer Initiative. At Interbike, he will detail plans for his 2009 return to professional cycling, including his team, a partial schedule and development program.
If his plans do include riding for the ASTANA team then recent Vuelta winner Alberto Contador will be looking for a new team. Contador’s stock is high now that he acheived the rare feat of winning all three Grand Tours and has various offers from teams to jump ship. Contador may be feeling the frustration from missing out on the Tour de France and then having to play second fiddle to Armstrong in 2009 as he attempts his comeback. Add to this the non-help from Levi Leipheimer who almost upended his Vuelta win and you have a hot commodity looking for a new ride.
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Sep 21, 2008 0
REUTERS/Felix Ordonez
Look out Lance, Astana has a multiple Grand Tour winner on the roster. Alberto Contador became one of five people to ever win all three Grand Tours. Contador won the Giro and Vuelta this year after missing out on defending his Tour de France title in July due to some odd reasoning by the A.S.O. Contador’s win was a sealed in the previous weekend with the fearsome stage finish at the steepest climb of the L’Angrilu. Contador blasted away most of the major contenders including a tiring Carlos Sastre who was mentally tired from a Tour de France win and a long season. The toughest competition came from Astana teammate Levi Leipheimer who lit up the penultimate stage TT with a win, and chopped down Contadors lead.
Sep 10, 2008 0
Alberto Contador would support having Lance join the Astana team.
Spaniard Contador said: “It’s good news for cycling. We would be delighted to welcome him with open arms at Astana.
“It’s news that awakes your attention and will create a lot of interest.”
The Contador relationship would be heabily scrutinized since the Astana team was not really hurting for a Stage Race leader. Contador won the Tour de France in 2007 and would have been a major contender for 2008 is the Astana Team was invited to the Tour by the ASO. So Contador will not be able to come into the Tour in 2009 as a clear team leader now that he has to share responsibilities with Armstrong. But, Contador and the rest of the team know that the addition of Lance Armstrong makes the team a formidable force for 2009.
Bruyneel played down the prospect of conflict between Armstrong and Contador if the American joined.
“If Lance were not at a good enough level to win the Tour, knowing him as well as I do, I’m sure he would be happy to help Alberto do that,” he claimed.
Contador, 25, currently racing in the Tour of Spain, admitted: “If both of us want to win the Tour then, yes, that will create some complications, but now is not the time to think about that.”
At least Contador is young where he won’t feel like he is wasting a chance at another Tour win. But this will be the relationship to watch in 2009.
May 30, 2008 0
AP Photo/Alessandro Trovati
It’s down to four seconds between the reigning Tour de France champion and the young “Cobra” Ricco going into an epic weekend that features a brutal mountain stage and final time trial in Milan. This Giro could be one of the closest in memory after a week that featured a brutal uphill time trial.
Riccardo Ricco unleashed his frustrations at Emmanuele Sella and Domenico Pozzovivo when he saw that he missed the Maglia Rosa by only four seconds. Sella and Pozzovivo were defending their GC places and by that effort helped Contador pace back in. Ricco likes to talk and wear his heart on his sleeve which endears him to many Italian cycling fans. The fire is fun to watch especially when so many other cyclist tend to watch what they say and speak in metered tones.
Ricco and DiLuca attacked Contador and now look to be in contention. The next stage features some brutal climbs up the Gavia Pass and the Mortirolo. The problem is that these climbs may not be decisive enough since they are far from the finish.
Ricco and DiLuca need some more time between themselves and Contador for the final TT which favors Contador.
Feb 28, 2008 4
It’s born. The new site letalbertoride.com is live today after reading a couple of blog posts from Bike Snob NYC, Interbike Times and Cyclelicio.us. Levi gets a nice site and a whole campaign to get him to ride the Tour de France, but Alberto Contador is the defending champ, and he gets a poorly designed site from some Spainish guys with bad english translations. This isn’t right. So I registered the domain which was surprisingly available and setup the site this afternoon. Go sign the petition and we’ll see what happens.
