Alberto Contador is about to start a new chapter in his cycling career as he departs the folding Tinkoff team for Trek-Segafredo in 2017. Il Lombardia and the Abu Dhabi Tour mark the end of his time with the Russian outfit, where he has been through its various guises since 2011.
Contador’s final season with the team has been a mixed bag with a superb start to the year contrasted by the misfortune of the Tour de France and the Vuelta a Espana. He was forced to abandon the Tour and recently finished fourth at the Vuelta after losing time in the first week.
A week after the Vuelta closed its doors, Cyclingnews sat down with Contador in a restaurant in Ponti de Legno, Italy the evening before a ride with fans up the Passo di Gavia. The Spaniard was in a relaxed mood as he looked back on his season, his time with the Tinkoff team, and his relationship with Oleg Tinkov. Contador also discussed his future with Trek, whether or not he still has a Tour de France victory in him and how long he can keep going.
ADVERTISEMENT
Cyclingnews: It’s a week since the Vuelta a Espana finished and you’ve had time to think about your result, what are your feelings about how the race went?
Alberto Contador: Now, I feel better, I feel good. It’s true that it wasn’t a very good Vuelta. I didn’t achieve my goal, because the only goal that I had was to take victory, it was not a question of the podium. From the first day, it was a bad race. The race was really against me but I wanted to continue right up to the finish. My body paid the price for the crash but, finally, I am happy, because I enjoyed the race a lot with the fans. I wasn’t so happy with the result but cycling is like this and at times things don’t go how you want.
CN: We saw you break up the race on stage 15, what was going through your mind on that day?
Oleg Tinkov and closing a chapter with Tinkoff
The 2017 season and beyond
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest Interviews and Features http://ift.tt/2daLeWj
No comments:
Post a Comment