Lance vs. Alberto 2010
What A Difference A Year Makes
The 2010 TdF route was announced last week and, ou est la! It largely involves a long, hard bike ride around France. Yes it has different features and towns and mountain passes, and yes it lacks a Team Time Trial and Mont Ventoux and so on, but if you step away from all the plusses and minuses, what’s clear is that winning next year’s Tour won’t be about the route. Nor will it be about the bicycles or the other gear, because all the teams who get invited have the finest gadgets on the market. So the question that remains, is whether it will be about who brings the best team, or who brings the best rider.
Let’s step back and look at Lance’s 7 consecutive wins. Arguably he came each year with a great support team, and in a few years he had the absolutely indisputably best squad to serve his goals. And that’s what they were there for. The strategy was simple: It was all for one, not one for all. The fact that in seven years on only one occasion did a teammate of Lance’s win a single stage, shows clear evidence of that. Anyway, it worked, and there’s nothing wrong or insidious about such a strategy. Anyone who belly-aches about it has to be suffering from overwhelming pangs of jealousy.
But then a funny thing happened.
Just as Lance left the sport to chase around marathons and female celebrities, young Alberto Contador made his own spectacular debut by winning any and every major Tour he bothered to show up for. He won the TdF and Giro the first time he’d entered either of them. Then he won the Vuelta Espana to complete the hat trick. His name and palmares starting climbing the record books faster than he rides uphill.
But then an even funnier thing happened.
Apparently Lance figured out there was no way he would catch the fastest people in the marathons, or maybe he got tired of so easily conquering starlettes, but for reasons we may never fully appreciate he decided he wanted to race bicycles again. And, will ironies never cease, he plops himself down as the new head or co-head or presumed-head or honorary head or whatever, of the very squad that would otherwise be lead by Alberto Contador.
Now, we’ve written with unique laser-focused insight (for example, read this beauty or this one) about the interesting chemistry that played out as a result of conjoining these two very strong but polar opposite athletes and mixing them thoroughly with a batch of other very strong athletes, AKA the Astana Squad of 2009. What the public saw was latent energy. It was like watching a nuclear reactor. You don’t see much more than clouds of white steam poring out the roof, but it scares you anyway. What went on within the team, was probably not so unlike the inside of said reactor, with uranium rods (AKA, Lance) throwing off atoms so powerful they’re capable of producing temperatures found on the surface of the sun, and lead rods (AKA, Contador) absorbing such energy, more or less, but undoubtedly getting fried in the doing.
Forgetting all the fission taking place inside hotels and onboard the team bus, their interactions on the race course were even more interesting. Lance quickly showed that he remains amazing fast on the bike, and even faster at sending out caustic Tweets about the shortcomings of his teammate. Not once did he do so about other riders on the Astana squad, or riders on other squads. In fact, he spoke to the press during the race about how people inside the peloton seemed to be playing more nicely with him than they did prior to his hiatus from the sport. Oh yes, he was a veritable love machine toward 189 of the 190 starting riders, himself included.
But of course there was no love in store for Alberto Contador.
Now, many, or lets just say every, rider that has faced Lance’s focused scorn over the past decade, has found a way to promptly implode. He gives them “The Look,” and they dutifully start riding for second place. It’s been that simple. And that’s because Lance is a master at sports psychology and playing mind-games that would make a waterboarding CIA interrogator claim “not fair!”
But somehow Lance couldn’t figure out how to crack the shell of this so-called mama’s boy named Contador. When harsh words and harsher looks failed, Lance divided the Astana squad into two parts: those that would faithfully support Lance’s efforts to win, and those that wanted to find work outside the sport of cycling. So young Alberto found himself sitting alone, while Lance and his gang of hangers-on heaped scorn and derision toward him.
Most of us would have wilted under this barrage. Most of us would have begged to bow at the knee of Lance and be allowed to serve his majesty. Most of us would have gotten in line, zipped our lips, and done as told. What Alberto Contador said in response, he said with this legs.
Lance rode dazzlingly, and earned his way back onto the podium, which we wouldn’t have bet on. It was just too big of an ask after too long of a sabbatical. But he did it and we salute him. Nevertheless, no matter how hard he rode, Alberto Contador rode harder. Contador won in the mountains and he won in the individual time trials — both parts of the race that Lance dominated in his heyday. As tellingly, Contador beat Lance without the support of the Astana squad, which cowered behind Lance. Lance Tweeted about Contador such silly things as, “there’s no I in team,” to which we scoff because that’s all there ever was at Postal/Discovery, and he scoffed about apparent tactical blunders by his teammate — but Contador proved that he could sustain himself against Lance’s legs, Lance’s mouth, and Lance’s Astana-clad goons.
Now We Look Forward to The 2010 Tour
Even before the 2009 race was concluded, Lance started licking his wounds and plotting the next battle. His first move was to announce that he and his goons would start a new squad and virtually everybody at Astana would be invited in. However, suffice it to say that Spanish will not be spoken on the team bus, and anyone who can read Espanol would have noted on the invitation that they weren’t invited.
On the face of it, that leaves Alberto almost singlehandedly riding in 2010 against Lance and Astana. As we described above, there would be nothing particularly new about that arrangement. And while Alberto’s situation at Astana, a team that is only vaguely defined at this time, is less than ideal, it is almost certain he’ll arrive in France in July with a much friendlier and more supportive squad than he had around him in 2009.
As such, Alberto uniquely brings the mental toughness to win the Tour again, notwithstanding all the rocks and bombs Sir Lance may cast his way. It should be an extraordinary event and a wonderful battle to watch, and we’re already looking forward to July 2010.
Please post your comments below.
Categories: Hub, Races, System6, Team Astana, Tour de France, Tour de Vuelta, Tour of Italy, team radioshack, tour of spain
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This One’s For The Dopers
As one of the faithful fans getting up before the sun rose to watch the tour live, I can definitely say that is not what happened.
Your dislike of Lance Armstrong, not slightly disguised by your sarcastic compliments has completely distorted reality. The only controversial incident that Lance was a part of was the when Columbia ( Columbia ! ) split the field and Lance was lucky enough to happen to have made the front split. The directory of Astana has said that when the time gap was dropping and it appeared the split was going to be caught, they put Popovish and Zubeldia working to help the split. This may not have made Contador happy but that is normal race stratey when one of your leaders is in the break and I believe JB thought that Contador was so strong that he was going to win the tour easily despite the 40 seconds he was giving Lance.
( and that is what happened by over 4 minutes )
The rest of the TDF, Lance and Astana rode in the service of Contador. When the opportunity presented itself Lance bridged up to Contador and offered his wheel for him to follow. Their were not many of those moments but not because Kloden and Armstrong were not supporting Contador. It was just that Contador was so strong that after the elite group was away he attacked Andy Shleck leaving Armstrong and Kloden and everyone else behind ).
The rest of the Astana team spent 3 weeks chasing down breaks and establishing a high temp so that Contador could beat his rivals. That is what happened and someone should take your pencil away for writing fiction and selling at as something else.
Al, dear friend and fellow TdF fanatic,
We don’t blame you for sharing the populist view of Sir Lance. It’s hard not be swept up by his charisma and force of presence. And once you have been, it’s hard to find fault in anything he does or says.
As to your suggestion that we dislike Lance, we’d say you’re actually partially right. On the one hand, you could hardly find anyone else who believes more strongly that Lance has been great for the sport and is an admirable role model for young and old athletes alike. And we have more than a couple Livestrong garments just to show that we’re anything but Anti-Lance.
On the other hand, we’re disappointed when it appears that he stoops to bullying, politics, and such myopic and petty contrivances as dishing on his teammates via Twitter. We’d expect that behavior perhaps within a juniors squad, but the fact is that adolescents disproportionately disdain Twitter as a tool for lonely narcissists. For once, they seem to be on to something we adults haven’t yet wrapped our minds around.
As for Lance riding in service of Contador, or anyone else, that, dear friend, falls somewhere between a wishful airy tale and outright delusion. Lance rides for one man only.
As a final note, we’d like to go on the record and say that few things we could have imagined would have stacked up as exciting as Lance vs. Alberto in 2009. Sure, it may have sucked for Alberto, but it made the 09 Tour a wonderful event for us fans. For 2010, there’s the distinct risk that having them on opposing teams will actually prove somewhat less captivating — but if either Lance or Alberto weren’t going to be there next year, it’d be a much, much less interesting race.
In any case, we’ll watch every stage, both live in the early morning hours, and on tape delay later in the day, and inevitably we’ll buy the DVDs to spin to during those dreaded indoor trainer sessions.
Thanks for commenting, and we’ll see you out there.
System6, thanks for your reply and don’t forget the Enhanced/Extended coverage replay in prime time !
I’ve heard that tweeter criticism before but you tell me, didn’t Contador come out right after he won the Tour by a very comfortable margin, and say that he had never had respect/admiration for Armstrong and that he never would ?
Wasn’t it after that comment that Lance went on the tweeter attack ? I might have had a few words to say after that. How about you ?
I think we admire Lance because he went to Europe and he beat everyone for 7 years, the young ones, the old ones, the boy-scouts and the non-boy-scouts. He beat them on their home court in grueling 3 week races over huge mountains and torturous races.
We also like him because he works tirelessly, bring support and huge financial donations to sick people with cancer.
The Peloton has had many arrogant Patrons but none of them have done one-hundredth the work for needy people that Lance has.
Apply whatever motive you want to that but the next day Lance Armstrong will get up, get on another plane, go to another city and pull harder for his ( all our ) charity than anyone else.
I’ve heard that tweeter criticism before but you tell me, didn’t Contador come out right after he won the Tour by a very comfortable margin, and say that he had never had respect/admiration for Armstrong and that he never would ?
-> I read that also. I think both guys are great for the sport, and neither of them is perfect. For AC, I think he’s doing a pretty good job of keeping his gob shut most of the time — especially for a young guy who could be awfully sanctimonious about how he beat Lance, won the Tour, etc.. However, I sort of expect more from Lance because he’s so media-savvy and has done a stellar job of “managing the message” and avoiding looking petty. Tweeting your gripes, no matter when or why you do it, isn’t fitting for the grand champion he is and always will be.
Wasn’t it after that comment that Lance went on the tweeter attack ? I might have had a few words to say after that. How about you ?
-> Before/after, whatever. Johan should rescind Lance’s twitter priveleges during the race and the world would be a better place.
I think we admire Lance because he went to Europe and he beat everyone for 7 years, the young ones, the old ones, the boy-scouts and the non-boy-scouts. He beat them on their home court in grueling 3 week races over huge mountains and torturous races.
We also like him because he works tirelessly, bring support and huge financial donations to sick people with cancer.
-> Agree.
The Peloton has had many arrogant Patrons but none of them have done one-hundredth the work for needy people that Lance has.
Apply whatever motive you want to that but the next day Lance Armstrong will get up, get on another plane, go to another city and pull harder for his ( all our ) charity than anyone else.
-> You said it well.
System6:
Best sum up of ‘09 TdF I have read. I agree, if anyone thinks Lance rode for Aberto , they don’t really understand racing outside of US TV coverage. Lance won his tours with every weapon at his disposal: mostly legs, lawyers, mind games, money, etc. Awesome. Focused. Inspiring. But when he uses it all and is third, we see him as a little more human, and his twitter stuff and new team just look like sour grapes. There is no I in team, Lance says, but there was always one big I in discovery/Postal.
And isn’t it just Hinault/Lemond only big screen 3D. Same old same old. Now the big egos are on different teams, and oh boy, what a tour this is going to be.