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WILL EL PISTELERO DANCE AGAIN? - PART 2

PART 2

The fractured tibia suffered in the 2014 Tour De France is the latest in what has become a long-list of setbacks that have prevented Alberto Contador from having double digit Grand Tour victories.  When eventually his hip ceases to hop on the pro bike tour, there is no doubt that Contador will be looked at as one of the top 5 cyclists of all time, but without the numerous setbacks El Pistelero may have danced on to be regarded as the best Grand Tour cyclist ever.

The soft-spoken Spaniard’s reaction to the variety of knocks he has received throughout his career that gives us the best answer to the question of what can we expect of El Pistelero in 2015.  Will he bounce back from his recent setback? 

In 2004, prior to dancing his way to any of his Grand Tour victories, Contador crashed at the Vuelta a Asturias and eventually had to undergo a risky surgery to remove a blood clot, which has left him with a scar that runs from one ear to the other over the top of his head.  Despite the serious nature of the injury and surgery, Contador began training again at the end of 2004 and danced his way to victory eight months later during the 5^th stage of the 2005 Tour Down Under.

In 2006, after winning stages at the Tour de Romandie and Tour de Suisse, Contador was prevented from starting the Tour de France after he was implicated along with several teammates in the Operacion Puerto doping case.  He would later be cleared, but would miss the chance to ride that year’s Tour de France.  A year later in 2007, he would comeback from this setback to dance his way to both the young rider jersey and the Tour de France general classification yellow jersey, winning his first Grand Tour title.

In 2008, Contador would be denied the opportunity to defend his Tour de France title after the new team he had joined were banned for previous doping infractions, not related to Contador in anyway.  Not being able to defend his first Grand Tour title, Contador responded by dancing his way to Grand Tour title numbers 2 & 3, thereby becoming the youngest cyclist ever to have won all three Grand Tours, by winning both the 2008 Giro d’Italia and Vuelta Espana.

In 2009, Contador was able to ride the Tour de France, but despite his historic achievements, he began the race with an enemy within his own team, who appeared not interested in him winning the race.  Lance Armstrong and Johan Bruyneel, his teammate and team manager, appeared as his main rivals during that Tour de France, with Armstrong riding away and several teammates abandoning Contador during crosswinds.  The team would totally abandoning him at the final Individual Time Trial by providing no car to him at the hotel and leaving him to find his own way to the start.  During all of the internal shenanigans of the 2009 Tour De France, Contador would leave his dancing on the bike to do the talking as he moved on to Grand Tour victory number 4.

2010, would see Contador both win Grand Tour title number 5, but also lose the support of public opinion (during the infamous Chaingate incident) while also testing controversially testing positive for clenbutoral.  The controversy of the positive test lay in the minuscule level of the positive.  Contador claimed contaminated meat, Internet opinions ventured contaminated transport of samples.  In the end the, Court of Arbitration for Sport would rule that contaminated supplements was the most likely cause of the positive test and though Contador again bounced back to win the 2011 Giro d’Italia in dominating style (Grand Tour title number 6) he was stripped of numbers 5 & 6 by CAS due to him not citing that his clenbutoral positive was caused by contaminated supplements.

The Contador positive becomes placed in further controversy by the fact that no cyclist’s blood level had ever previously been tested to such minuscule levels and by the fact that only a handful of labs in the world could find the minuscule positive while the legalities of the sport places an obligation on athletes to test and know what they are putting into their bodies.

In 2012, Contador famously got back to his much loved mountain dancing hall and won the Vuelta Espana in probably the most dramatic fashion seen in generations.  (Grand Tour title number 7)

Contador dancing up Alpe D' Huez in 2013
The first year since 2007 that he didn't win
a \Grand Tour

For the first time since his winning of Grand Tour title number 1, Contador would head to the 2013 Tour de France without any setbacks other than his own dancing form.  The seemingly peaceful and relatively incident free approach to the 2013 Tour De France ended with Contador not winning a Grand Tour in calendar year for the only time since 2007. 

As with all dancers, Contador operates best with music.  

Up until 2013, the music of Contador’s career had been that of an individual struggling against constantly insurmountable and continuous obstacles. When there were no obstacles, the music which Contador had danced (on his bike) to since the beginnings of his career changed and he suffered the worst calendar year performance since 2007.

And so just as with the often misunderstood artist Eminem whose best music appears to be when he rages out at personal obstacles placed before him, the similar misunderstood Spaniard biking champion performances over the years show that knockdowns and obstacles do not define him.  Rather the fact that he performs, bounces back after being knocked down, spit on and booed off podiums, illustrate that this particular cycling champion has earned the title of champion the hard way. 

There will be a time, just as with Eminem and the side-kick in Desperado that Contador will no longer be able to overcome the most fatal of knockdowns, that of time.  But until the sun sets on his illustrious career, it can be expected for the music to continue along with El Pistelero’s famous dancing style.  Indeed recent Tour de France crash, though tragic, should perhaps be viewed not as a final knockout, but rather as a keying of the music to which Contador has ridden his entire career. 

In 2015, he’ll strap in and we’ll know for sure…  

WILL EL PISTELERO DANCE AGAIN - PART 1

CHAMPIONS ARE MEASURED NOT BY HOW MANY TIMES THEY ARE KNOCKED DOWN, BUT BY HOW MANY TIMES THEY GET UP...

In the late 90’s and into the new millennium these words were best embodied by the musical genius Eminem as he sang his way to mega-stardom despite all the obstacles that had been placed before him.  Despite how many times he was “chewed up, spit-on or booed off stage..”

This mantra has similarly become synonymous with sportsmen who, through their performances in their respective arenas, allow fans and spectators to visually witness just how true champs get knocked down and get straight back up. 

In a similar vein, during Quentin Tarantino’s cult classic “Desperado” starring Antonio Bandares as a former musician on a carrying a guitar suitcase, filled with seemingly and endless array of ammunition, while on a path of vengeance, there is a side-story scene where a young buck enters a fighting pit in an attempt to prove himself to the criminal boss.  In the fighting scene that ensues, the youngster is pitted against a tattooed veteran who promptly proceeds to break the ankle of his young upstart opponent, with the criminal boss casually stating, “Well he’ll never dance again..”

In the movie scene, the youngster ends up proving himself by defeating his opponent despite his broken ankle.  Getting up, despite being knocked down.

When watching this year’s Tour de France, seeing Alberto Contador (pictured left) crash out, attempt to ride back on and later withdraw, with it later being discovered that he had fractured his tibia, it immediately sprung to mind that not only was the Spaniard's chances to add to his Grand Tour collection in 2014 over, but also the injury could potentially be one that sees El Pistelero not be able to resume his indomitable and champion winning dance-on-the-bike riding style.  For moments, maybe milliseconds even the most ardent Contador supporters would be forgiven if they wondered whether the Spaniard would be able to get up from the latest knockdown in his up-and-down career, or if this was the knock-out blow that not even a champion could get up from.

But El Pistelero has not earned his champion pedigree by standing atop podiums in pink, red and yellow jerseys.  No, the championship pedigree of Alberto Contador and fanatical support that he receives has been hard earned through his consistent comebacks against an array of knockdowns that would have been fatal to many others.

Yes at the age of 31, Contador is no spring chicken with his generation of cyclists nearing the twilight of their respective careers and a new generation emerging before our eyes.  Was 2014 therefore the last opportunity for Contador to have danced his way to a Grand Tour victory?  Is the latest blow, the final one for El Pistelero?  At first glance, it would appear possible. But throughout Contador’s career, first glance impressions have often later been proven to be inaccurate.