The Tinkoff team expects Alberto Contador to face a number of attacks on stage 2 of the Tour de France with an uphill finish in Cherbourg coming just a day after the Spaniard crashed.
Contador fell during the opening stage of the Tour and although the impact was hard he escaped with only cuts and bruises to his right side, with his shoulder worst affected.
“He didn’t have a great night but that’s obvious if you’ve had skin taken off you like that,” Tinkoff directeur sportif Steven de Jongh told Cyclingnews at the start of stage 2.
ADVERTISEMENT
“It’s unfortunate but if you’ve seen the crash then I think we can be happy in one sense because it could have been a lot worse. He didn’t break anything.”
The Tinkoff team will look to nurse their race leader through Sunday’s stage to Cherbourg but with rain forecast and the tough uphill finale – including the Côte de La Glacerie – de Jongh is expecting the team to come under pressure.
“I’m counting on Alberto’s rivals putting him under pressure. That’s what I would do if I was a rival. Today we just hope for the best and hope that he can be there for the final. It would be very unfortunate if he lost time. The way he’s feeling, he won’t attack and we’ll see how he goes. It was a hard impact but there’s no chance of Alberto stopping. Last year in the Giro when he dislocated his shoulder I was really worried but I’m confident he can be okay now.”
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest News http://ift.tt/29cpiE2
No comments:
Post a Comment