Despite his defeat to Chris Froome at the Vuelta a Andalucia, Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) has declared himself pleased with his early season condition and confirmed that he will stick to his planned race programme as he builds towards an attempt at the Giro d’Italia-Tour de France double.
Contador dropped Froome to win atop the Alto de Hazallanas on Friday but then conceded his overall lead on the following day’s summit finish at Allanadas, ultimately losing out by two seconds.
“The truth is that I’m very pleased with the result in terms of position because for me it was unexpected,” Contador told Biciciclismo . “And regarding my condition, I’m right where I want to be.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Contador will ride just two more races before the Giro, Tirreno-Adriatico (March 11-17) and the Volta a Catalunya (March 23-29), meaning that he will go 40 days without racing ahead of the Grande Partenza in Sanremo on May 9. He admitted that the route of Paris-Nice was more to his liking than Tirreno-Adriatico, but confirmed that he will return to Italy to defend his title.
“Paris-Nice suits me much better but we made a plan from the beginning with Tirreno and we will continue with it,” Contador said. “This year Tirreno is perhaps less suitable for me, the mountains aren’t as hard and riding for victory will be more complicated. And the Volta a Catalunya has no time trial and I don’t think the summit finishes are too demanding. But they will be the races that give me the speed I can’t get from training alone.”
The 40 days between the Volta a Catalunya and the Giro, Contador said, will begin with a short rest period before a lengthy training camp with the bulk of the team that will support him in Italy. He envisages a similar timetable for the 33-day lay-off between the Giro and Tour. In the event that he manages to pull off the Giro-Tour double, Contador downplayed the prospect of adding the Vuelta a España to his programme in an attempt to become the first rider in history to win all three Grand Tours in one season.
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest News http://ift.tt/1BlhxZ5
No comments:
Post a Comment