Some things change only to stay the same, as the saying goes. And in the case of Alberto Contador and the Tour de France, even as the years go by, the Spaniard remains strongly - but by no means entirely - focused on winning cycling’s biggest race.
In some ways that is logical, given that Contador is widely considered the best Grand Tour specialist of his generation. But he is now 34 and only four riders in Tour de France history have managed to win the race at that age or older. Cadel Evans, also at 34, was the last in 2011.
For Contador, though, statistics about age do not bother him. On the contrary, he tells Cyclingnews during an exclusive interview, “If they say growing older makes winning the Tour more difficult, that just motivates me even more to do it.
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“That kind of data only scratches the surface of the whole question of winning,” Contador explains. “What matters at this point of time in the season is the results I get from my tests, seeing that I’ve got the kinds of numbers that show I can still win it. The rest is secondary, statistics on age are out there, but I’m not going to pay them any attention.”
When it comes to France and July, then, for Contador, it’s a case of ‘plus ça change.’ And in other ways, 2017 remains business as usual, too, with Contador keen to point out that he will not only be focusing on the Tour de France.
“The Tour is the centre of it all, but if it was all about the Tour, that would be pretty boring, wouldn’t it?” he says with a smile. “There are races in the first half of the season that matter a lot to me and which I’m going to push really hard in as well.”
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