Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) is seemingly without rival at this Giro d’Italia, to such an extent that during his rest day press conference in Giustino on Monday, he was asked how his 24-year-old self might have attempted to overhaul such a sizeable deficit in the final week of racing.
“Es complicado,” Contador grinned. “It’s complicated. At the end of the Giro we can speak about it again.” The subtext to the question, of course, is that Fabio Aru (Astana) carries fading home hopes in second place overall, but with an advantage of some 2:35 over the youngster, Contador is almost in a race of his own.
Certainly, Contador did not anticipate that he would be in such a dominant position with six stages and the toughest mountains of the race still to come. Prior to the Giro, he had anticipated that the race would only truly begin with the stage 14 time trial to Valdobbiadene. Instead, with Richie Porte (Sky) already removed from contention, the Spaniard placed a significant down payment on final overall victory in Prosecco country.
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“I didn’t imagine I’d have an advantage like this at this point in the race,” he admitted. “It’s true that I was thinking that this last week would be my opportunity to take the maglia rosa. Right now I’m happy with my position, it’s better than I’d hoped for. But there’s still a long way to go.”
Contador spent the rest day at the Olympic Royal Hotel, which has hosted Juventus for their pre-season training camps in summers past, and he met with reporters on Monday afternoon in a basement conference room decorated with murals of Michel Platini and Zbigniew Boniek. Their European Cup-winning team of 1985 had the tendency to rack up big home wins in their ties, and then grimly defend that advantage in the second leg.
If anything, Contador faces into home territory now as the Giro enters the high mountains – and visits his adopted city of Lugano to boot – but like Giovanni Trappatoni’s squad of 30 years ago, caution will be his byword as he closes out the race. Garlanding his seemingly impending triumph with a stage victory is a luxury rather than an obligation, particularly as he has another pressing fixture, the Tour de France, still to come in July.
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