rousseau

Does he have one?

With five Grand Tours to his name (not really jumping the gun with 2010, am I?), including wins of all three, he's surely already one of the greatest cyclists of all time. But I've heard talk that he wants to concentrate on the Tour de France like Lance Armstrong did. Is this true?

If it's a stupid question, tell me. Is it really beyond the realm of possibility to ride two or even three of the Grand Tours in the same year and perform at a high level? What I'd like to know is, why doesn't Contador at least ride the Vuelta each year? I get the impression that the Italian riders care more about the Giro than the Spaniards do about the Vuelta. Is this an apt characterization?

Why doesn't Contador become more "cannibalistic"? Why not win more Grand Tours? After all, if one of the knocks against Armstrong was that he only concentrated on the Tour de France, then wouldn't riding more than just the one Grand Tour be a way of cementing your legacy, something which a five-time winner must surely already be thinking about?

Just curious.

DiabloScott

I suspect riders are less interested in their legacy than in their net worth. TdF is a bigger portfolio enhancer than Giro or Vuelta.

USAZorro

Look where it's gotten Armstrong financially. Not sure you really need to look much farther than that.

OrionKhan

Hard to say what Contador plans. Even to rise to the level of the greatest Spanish rider, Big Mig, AC would have to win 5 TdF's and a couple of Giros. IIRC, Indurain did the Giro/TdF double two years in a row. 4 grand tour victories in two years, that's a helluva run.

rousseau

Funny thing about Indurain: he never won the Vuelta, and gave up on it in the 1990s. What's up with that? I mean, if the Tour is obviously the most prestigious stage race, then why not do it "fresh" and then take your chances in the Vuelta in September instead of risking overextending yourself in July by riding the Giro in May?

Then again, maybe it's true what they say about Spaniards in the "autonomous communities" not feeling so patriotic toward Madrid. Indurain was Basque first, and Spanish a distant second, I gather. Maybe it's only football that will unite Spain into more of a coherent whole?

merlinextraligh

Without googling it, who won the last 5 Veulta's?

Who won the last 5 TDF's. Most cycling fans would get the latter correct. How many outside Spain would get the latter?

San Rensho 

To enter into the pantheon of truly the greatest cyclists, Contador has to win at more than just the Tour de France. Eddy Mercks, for example, on two occasions won both the tour and the Giro or the tour and the Vuelta in one year, and consistently won several of the spring classics in the years that he won the tour. The other yardstick that the greatest are measured by is the hour record.

He would do well not to try to emulate Lance Armstrong, who, don't get me wrong, is a fantastic athlete, but the fact that he is a one trick pony that essentially only tried to win the tour disqualifies him from really been considered the greatest cyclist ever.

Keith99

Eddy won the Tour and the Giro in hte same year 3 times, the Giro and the Vuelta once. Of the three years he won only one Major Tour 2 were when he won all 3 Jerseys in the Giro in 68 and the Tour in 69.
In his 7 year Major Tour winning run there was only one year where he 'only' won yellow in the TDF. But while an 'off' year for major Tours it was a year where he also won the Worlds.

EDIT: Oops my bad Eddy did not only win Yellow in 71, he also won Green.

kleinboogie

Not sure what his plan is but it's fully engaged. He has an amazing career ahead.

rogwilco

I think the double still is possible for a rider of Contador's calibre. If I were him I'd go for the Giro&Vuelta, the longer tme in beween should make it the easiest double, or not?

I really hope he doesn't just focus on the TdF.

Keith99

How many can name 5 Vuelta winners period! If you exclude riders with a link to the TDF I'm not sure I can get a single one.

I can get Lance teammates, I can get Tour/Vuelta and Giro/Vuelta Doubles . I can get 'The Eternal Second' who did win the Vuelta to give France a sweep of the Major Tours one year. I can get Toni Romminger who swept all three Jerseys in the Vuelta but never was able to beat Mig in the Tour.

But I can not get a single Vuelta winner as just a Vuelta winer.

Keith99

I think the Giro/Tour could prove tempting. (or even better the Triple crown).

Either of those bring up comparisons to Eddy and since he is Spanish Mig.

Giro/Vuelta makes no sense. It is not a great double and he has alerady done it. Only 2 other riders have. That seems good, until one realizes Eddy did it as a consolation of sorts (as did AC) and few canb name the 3rd rider who did it.

rogwilco

Ah, right, I remembered incorrectly. I thought he won Giro and Vuelta in seperate years.

DXchulo

https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...-Contador-wins

I hope he tries to win all 3 GTs in one year. Damn near impossible, but the reward would be so high. The problem is that none of the guys who did both the Giro and the Tour this year looked very good. Given that Schleck is improving, what happens if Schleck focuses 100% on the Tour and Alberto already has a hard Giro in the books?

Before the Tour they were saying Alberto is riding the Giro next year. I hope he doesn't change his mind.

DiabloScott

I'm not sure I understand the criteria, but the first one I thought of was Heras (three times <four if you count the doping bust> and the first was before he was a Lance teammate). Heras pretty much made the Vuelta his goal and he owned it. There's also Zulle, Valverde, Vino, Menchov (twice but...), and Olano.

I'm a bigger Vuelta fan than most people probably.


I don't think so... the reward would be insubstantial.

rogwilco

Maybe the financial reward would be insubstantial, but he would instantly be on every "best cyclist ever" list, maybe even on top. Not even Eddy Merckx achieved that.

DiabloScott

So the reward would be for the fans, and not for him. Exactly my point.

valtayy

I have been visiting the forums for a while but never registered. I saw your post and I finally got a reason to do it

Induráin is not Basque. He is from Navarre (a different autonomous community)
I can tell you (I'm from Spain) that Induráin is considered by everybody here like one of our best sportsman that Spain has ever had.

And one more thing... Don't believe everything that you hear in the media. If you come to Spain you will see that here not everybody from Basque country or from Catalonia wants the independence!! Most people
don't care about those things and they consider themselves Basque/Catalan and Spaniards (Like myself. I'm Andalusian and Spaniard)
It's really some political parties and other groups the ones that really make all lot of noise. FC Barcelona's ex-president was heavily criticized about this because of his nationalist ideas. He must realize that most Barcelona
fans are not nationalists.

rogwilco

Maybe so. But on the other hand, isn't that basically all there is to compete for for someone like him at this point? According to rumors, Astana has offered Contador a $5 million/year contract - how much more can you want?
And I think Contador is the kind of athlete who cares very much what the fans think of him, I think he wants to be liked and admired.

DiabloScott

The relationship between the Basque Country and Navarra is a little more complex than that, but it's true, Indurain did not consider himself Basque and he stayed away from Basque politics. Many Basques of course consider him one of their own though.

SeleccionVasconga&.jpg

Welcome Valtayy - please stay and contribute.

Keith99

Merckx is on any best cyclist ever list, and at the top of any honest list. Only Coppi fans have a sound argument.

Nothing AC can do will convince the Lance fanboys that he is better than Lance.

rogwilco

Yes, of course, I phrased that badly. What I meant was that not even Merckx won all three grand tour in a single year, so if Contador did manage to do that he'd be a contender too, or at least he'd be mentioned in the same breath as Merckx.

DiabloScott

Not until he wins all 5 Monuments and the rainbow jersey a couple times.

EM wasn't the greatest ever because of his Grand Tour results; he was the greatest ever because of his results at GTs AND the most prestigous, competitive one day races.

guadzilla

Given the advances in training over the past couple of decades, I dont think it is possible for any single cyclist to win all 3 GTs - or even 2 consecutive GTs anymore.

Keith99

Ok. I'll buy that. Threads with mutliple topics can be confusing. But let me go back a ways.

Before 1949 it was thought to be impossible for a cyclist to win the Tour and the Giro in the same year. Back then the Vuelta was a major Tour only in thesense of length, not importance. Then in 1949 Fausto Coppi did it. Oh wait he not only won both the Tour and Giro he also won the KOM (the only other Jersey) in both.

To this day no onther rider has won multiple (major) Jerseys in both the Tour and Giro in the same year, even though there are now 3 with the points being added. Only Merckx has won multiple jersies in 2 tours in the same year (Giro/ Vuelta).

Coppi already had the Hour record.

Did this put him at the top of everyones list? Nope it didn't even get him to the top of everyones list for active Italian riders and left him third all time for just Italy on some lists.