"My idol would be Tadej Pogacar" - Alberto Contador talks idol, Juan Ayuso and 2024 Tour de France
Cycling
Alberto Contador has been riding around Portugal these days promoting the bicycle brand of which he is co-founder, Aurum. He's given an interview where he reveals who his idol in the sport is.
In conversation with TopCycling, the "Pistolero" took a look back at the 2023 World Tour peloton, talked about the current state of cycling in Spain, didn't shy away from talking about a dream and who his idol would be if he were a kid today.
"This has been a year dominated by Jumbo-Visma, I don't think anyone doubts that. A team that wins three Grand Tours doesn't do it by chance. It's something that's achieved through hard work, commitment and the utmost dedication," he began.
"In the Vuelta there was a bit of what we now call modern cycling. A team has two leaders at the start and a third one comes along unexpectedly. I can understand what must have been going through the minds of Primoz Roglic and Jonas Vingeggard. Especially Roglic, who prepared for months, had a tremendous diet, he wanted to make history and win his fourth Vuelta a Espana. Jonas Vingeggard wanted to do the double, Tour and Vuelta. However, Sepp Kuss was leading the race and at a certain point the team forced them not to attack the lead, because the cycling fans felt a dislike for what they were doing to him, attacking him. The team's popularity was bad because of what they were doing to Kuss."
"The Tour is the Tour. Vingeggard was stronger. Pogacar got there from an injury and also because he didn't prepare for the Tour properly. I think that in the future, and when I say the future I mean 2024, Pogacar has already told me that he's going to focus his preparation on the Tour de France. And that's a good thing. But it's the cycling fans who love to see the best riders on the road who will lose out. With Pogacar concentrating on the Tour, there will be many races he won't be racing, as he has done in recent years. Maybe he'll do a Flanders and one or two other races, but don't expect to see him in many races, that's for sure."
On the departure of the winner of the Giro d'Italia, Roglic, Contador says: "He went to Bora because they still have at least two more years at the highest level ahead of them and he hasn't given up on his dream, the Tour de France. At Jumbo it would have been impossible."
And what analysis can you make of Spanish cycling? "In Spain we have Carlos Rodriguez, who finished 4th in the Tour de France, Enric Mas and Juan Ayuso who give us guarantees. They give us certain guarantees that we'll be able to fight for podiums in Grand Tours, so I think we can only say that we're happy. You see, Italy and France, countries with very strong cycling traditions, don't have any riders capable or able to win a Grand Tour or even take podiums."
"Ayuso is one of those cyclists who only thinks about winning, he thinks like a champion and he recently made it clear that he wants to do the Tour de France in 2024. I like riders like that, with the ambition to win. He's raced two Vueltas and now he wants a bigger challenge. But for him to be able to take on this challenge, he'll have to be very physically fit and, above all, bear in mind that it's extremely important to know the route well."
It was already a long conversation, but there were still some curiosities that we needed to uncover. Contador's great dream was one of them. "To win three Grand Tours in the same year," he said. "After my excellent year in 2014, I thought... next year. I'm going to try. I won the Tour of Italy in 2015 but I ended up devastated. Astana had a very strong team and I wore myself out a lot, when I got to the Tour de France I wasn't well and I gave up the dream," he said. "If I'd had a great team, all I'd have had to do was concentrate on working on the ITTs and the mountain finishes, I wouldn't have had to start 40 or 50 km from the finish line, I could have taken it easy until the end. If that had happened, I might have had a chance."
Asked to name a cyclist who would be his idol if he were a kid today, Alberto doesn't hesitate: "Pogacar. My idol would be Tadej Pogacar. What an incredible racer. He's one of a kind. He can win any race he takes part in, whether it's a Classic, Grand Tour or modest race. There's no other rider in the world who can do it."
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Article written by Carlos Silva.
Article written by Carlos Silva
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- No, it didn't. It has been debunked by the team that there was anything wrong with his feeding. Pogacar went too early and paid the price.maaiikeen31-12-2024
- Strong team around Jonas and pray each day that Tadej forgets to eat in the decisive stages (col du Granon). It also happened this year, stage 11 when Jonas won the sprint (incredible! Tadej was empty).
maria2024202430-12-2024 - Not quite yet I’d say but she could reach and surpass. You probably forgot Vos’ 2 track WC titles that outweigh the total and it has to be said more of PFPs MTB titles are a bit far fetched than Vos but yes they are comparable. It’s strange that with her consistent participation in xc she’s never ever managed to win even one race, Marie Schreiber can at least retire with that achievement ;-)Mistermaumau30-12-2024
- He may be known as “The goat” but I can’t realistically consider him a top ten candidate taking together all forms of cycling. Vos had 28 UCI WC wins, Absalon 33, Schurter 34, MVDP 41 and counting. As far as world championships they are all ahead too Longo, MVDP, PFP, Merckx, de Vlaeminck, TP and at least a half dozen others from long ago are surely higher up, or what criteria are you privileging other than a nickname?Mistermaumau30-12-2024
- and yeah, i’m a ridiculous blowhard for writing THAT MUCH. seriously, f me…OCexile30-12-2024
- this has diverged from being a per se cycling discussion, but that’s cool with me. so i live in the united states. for background, i grew up in southern california, educated at UC Irvine and UC Berkeley, and except for chunks of a 22 year Navy career i’ve lived here most of my life. there are things about this country, the way its social, political, and economic institutions function that IN MY OPINION fail considerably in comparison to other developed democracies. BUT, one thing that i think the US does excel in is that we have an extraordinarily high level of freedom of speech. now, that certainly opens the door for the alex joneses of the world to weaponize/monetize speech in utterly disgusting ways that do actual damage. it also gives freedom to politicians to say that the press is corrupt and should be jailed, like in russia, iran, or venezuela. these are DANGEROUS uses of freedom of speech. but as much as that freedom may imperil the well being of individuals and ideas — like the idea of liberty itself — it’s that freedom that has, over time, marked the SLOW movement toward greater equality and well being. this extreme level of free speech is certainly the primary fundamental right in the united states that has functioned, over time, to actively drive social progress. i mean, quack quack quack, right? the kind of speech that MOST needs protection is UNPOPULAR SPEECH. we KNOW this. but if you can only engage in unpopular speech IN PRIVATE, as you suggested, and be BARRED from a public platform to share those unpopular ideas, then your freedom to speak means very little and the whole project of social change and social progress grinds to a halt. “YES, you can talk about all races being equal to your friends, but you can’t publish any articles making that argument.” “YES, you can say that homosexuality isn’t a dangerous perversion that must be legislated against so long as you ONLY say it to your friends, but you can’t say it on a radio show.” so the problem is, if there’s going to be prior restraint of speech, the only person I’M gonna trust to decide who can say what before they say it is ME. if somebody wants to let me and my friends make all those decisions, then i’m IN. i’d expect a little pushback on that idea though. alex jones would probably like that job, too. lance would love that kind of power i bet. sooooo…. maybe it’s better to just leave things like they are. it’s ugly and messy and people get hurt, but once you SURRENDER that nearly unlimited freedom you’ll never get it back. and yes, society has drawn lines: still can’t threaten to blow up a mosque or share child pornography, etc. — that’s a pretty good idea. but erring on the side of freedom rather than censorship has been critical in preserving valuable free speech rather than seeing it slowly winnowed and legislated away. so yeah, there WILL be another alex jones, neonazis get to deny the holocaust, and lance gets to talk about cycling all he wants. and if you don’t like the source or the content then YOU are free to rail against it, or just not listen. as always, totally appreciate and respect YOUR perspective, brother. and i do get where you’re coming from. there are individuals in the US who have (or are about to have) the biggest platform there is who say things that drive me mad because i find them so dangerous and misleading, but the american version of democracy, with all its notable failings, has survived by preserving freedom of speech in the face of these types, not by limiting it.OCexile30-12-2024
- There is a cyclist, recently retired who raced as a Junior in 1997, and is known as 'The Goat'. Downhill legend, Greg Minnaar......wipperman9530-12-2024
- The road bias of this site shows up as PFP isn't mentioned - who is as successful as Vos, and from memory has more World titles.wipperman9530-12-2024
- his wife was surprisingly accurateabstractengineer30-12-2024
- Its the wrong thing to do the Vuelta after getting exhausted in the TDF. This is going to reduce his career potentialabstractengineer30-12-2024