By now, most in the cycling world have witnessed at Paris-Nice what seemed impossible just a few days ago. Alberto Contador, after dominating performances in the opening Paris-Nice time trial and stage six summit finish, inexplicably exploded on during stage seven, losing over two minutes to fellow Spaniard and now overall winner Luis Loen Sanchez. Contador, ever classy, placed the blame on himself, saying that he forgot to eat during the stage, and was left empty down the stretch. But was there more to the picture than Contador's eating mishap?
By all accounts, the Astana cycling team is the best stage racing team in the world. They rarely enter a stage race without winning it, and with Alberto Contador as the team leader, the Astana team had won their last five stage races that the Spaniard started. At Paris-Nice though, something seemed a bit off for the Astana juggernaut.
At the Tour of California, the Astana team was nothing less than dominant, delivering Levi Leipheimer to victory with hardly a challenge throughout the nine day event. Levi had top-flight support at his beckon call, and was able to take his third straight AToC in grand fashion. The Santa Rosa native was slated to ride Paris-nice in support of Contador, but when it was revealed he had a cracked scalpula, he was left off the team. Ditto for Chris Horner, who was nursing a knee injury suffered during his work at the Tour of California.
Contador's team was not a terrible one, but it also can't be said that he was given the "A" line up for Paris-Nice. Haimer Zubeldia, the well known Basque climber, was making his season debut for Astana at Paris-Nice, so his form was questionable. Yaroslav Popovych, after a dismal 2008, was coming back to Astana to try to regain his form, and the rest of the team was comprised largely of riders that won't even be considered for the Tour de France squad.
The first sign of the Astana team's overall weakness came on stage 3, when Contador and his team were caught out by an aggressive Rabobank attack. Contador ended up losing over a minute on the day, and also the yellow leader's jersey to Quick Step's Sylvain Chavanel. After the stage Contador kept his cool, and explained that he thought he would have chances in the coming days to take the jersey back. And true to his word, the very next day Contador attacked Chavanel, taking back about 30 seconds, before taking the yellow jersey back on the stage 6 summit finish with another strong individual effort.
During the first six stages, due to Contador's strong individual riding, it went unnoticed that the rest of the Astana team were nowhere to be found when Contador needed support. During the long, flat periods of the race, Contador was left to fend for himself, which surely sapped his energy. By stage 7, his body must have been worn down, and after multiple attacks by his rivals, Contador could hold no more. Contador may well have forgotten to eat on the stage, but the fact remains that he was completely isolated during many of the stages. None of his teammates were around to pace him back when he began losing time on stage 7, and so the question must be asked: Did Astana management purposefully send an inferior team to France hoping Contador would appear weaker than he is?
And there are other questions as well. For instance, where was team manager Johan Bruyneel? The Belgian made sure that he was in California to support the team there, why was he not in France to direct a more inferior line up? Where was "Che Chu" Rubiera, super-domestique and valuable rouler? And last but not least, where was Armstrong? The Texan has stated multiple times that he wants to get as much racing in as he can ahead of his bigger season objectives, yet he skipped out on a race he has used in the past to tune up for the Tour. Never one to be quiet though, Armstrong used his Twitter channel to explain what happened to Contador: "Unfortunate day for Alberto. Amazing talent but still a lot to learn."
Johan Bruyneel has made no secret of the fact that he has been invigorated by Armstrong's return, and what he calls the "us against the world" mentality that Armstrong brings with him. The Astana team manager has also already stated that the "strongest" rider will be the captain at the Tour de France. Being that Contador was unable to take the win at Paris-Nice, could this be used against him come July as a reason that he should not be considered the leader of the team? And when July finally comes, who is more likely to have more allies on the Astana team, Contador or Armstrong?
All of this is a shame for a man who has fast become a legend of the sport. Contador deserves to be the king of any team he is on, not an afterthought. During the summer, the Spaniard had talked about going to a different team. Come July, he may end up wishing he had followed through on his threat.
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5 comments:
There are good points that you raise and one that I touched on myself in a posting I made a couple of days back:
"Toward the end of the stage multiple attacks wore Contador down to the point where he could react no more. Where were his team mates to protect and support him? The answer is nowhere."
However, when it comes to the Tour Astana will be at full strength and I still can't see past Contador stamping his dominance on the team to the point where 'The Team' has no choice but to work for Contador over Armstrong.
Lets also consider that Armstrong has never riden the Giro before so has chosen to miss out on Paris-Nice in favour of of an alternative training schedule in the lead up to the Italian Grand tour. That may also apply to the 1st choice domestiques that will no doubt accompany Armstrong at the Giro in May.
A lesson learned for every member of the Astana team. The leader has got to be protected, tucked in and kept eating and drinking. Even superhuman Alberto Contador can't attack solo all day one day and then answer a flurry of attacks the next. A lack of experience on Alberto's part? Maybe, but it's a team sport and a team failure. From the leader to the DS to the domestiques.
It'll be a totally different game when Astana comes to play with 3 or more threats to the GC. If Astana were to send Levi up the road, Alberto and Lance would stay tucked in and nourished. They would force Saxo to work to bring him back and then launch an assault on the peloton with Horner, Kloden and Chechu. And if Saxo, Caisse, and Garmin let Levi go and he took the malliot juane and time on the GC . . . well game over.
2007, 2008 JB was comparing Alberto to Lance. But to me he looked like a fresh young kid. But Saturday @ Paris Nice, the camera panned away as he was climbing Little Ventoux and he looked so much like Lance in his prime. Well, I can hardly wait to see the team dynamics at Castilla y Leon.
"the cyclist who wins is not always the most heroic. Sometimes it is the domestiques, who pull for long hours or impressively fast over the climbs, demolishing the peloton, . . ." Michael Barry
If I were the owner of Team Astana I would have Johan Bruneel yanked into my office to explain what happened. If I'm putting big money out to sponsor a team and it's stars I would expect better than how the Paris-Nice team performed. Alberto's team was all but non-existant on many of the stages. Whoever the team manager was for their squad should be taking responsibility for the lack of team support and reminding Alberto to eat & drink properly.
Astana showed up to a knife fight with a gun and still managed to lose.....Unacceptable !!!!!
It was shocking to see Contador all alone through Paris-Nice. Especially after witnessing Astana's ToC flawlessly coordinated team performance.
And that was a pretty low comment from Armstrong especially since he skipped out on the race and Contador had no support from his 'team'. I'm an Armstrong fan but I hope Contador kicks his butt in the Tour.
No conspiracy. I say: (1) Contador was only semi-motivated--he said he's got "good morale" after finishind P-Nice in 4th. I.e. he wanted to win, but not badly. His real aim is the Tour de France. (2) Bruyneel helped, with Lance, develop the SuperBowl mentality of cycling: it's nice to win a little race (i.e. the Dauphine), but only the Grand Tours really matter. The rest are basically training rides, when you've got a tour contender in your hand.
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