Contador weathers storm and sails into clearer waters
Heading into last week’s rest day Tinkoff-Saxo’s Alberto Contador held a meagre three seconds over Fabio Aru (Astana) in the race for pink, with Richie Porte (Team Sky) and Aru’s teammate, Mikel Landa, both within a minute of the race lead. An injured shoulder, questions over his team’s strength and Aru’s eagerness and ability to attack, all put Contador under siege but he’s answered every question with all the assuredness of a rider who’s Grand Tour win tally stretches onto two hands. It feels like an age has passed since Aru’s fireworks in the first week.
Perhaps Contador’s greatest ally over the last week has been his ability to manage. Of course Porte, Rigoberto Urán and even Aru have all wilted to varying degrees but the Spaniard’s dexterity to dissect his opponents strengths and weaknesses, before turning each of them to his advantage has been immeasurably impressive.
On stage 15 he picked up time at an intermediate time bonus and had Astana floundering as a result. You could almost sense Astana’s heads dropping one by one as they looked forlornly at Contador’s latest play. It was just a couple seconds but it had the desired effect of reminding Aru’s men that only one man would determine this race’s final outcome.
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When it came to the final climb Contador then juggled stage winning hopes with the pragmatism of a man who knows how to defend a lead and by the finish line he’d conceded the stage to Landa but had proved to Aru that his own challenge was quickly fading.
All of this came after the individual time trial, arguably Contador’s finest race against the clock since his career began. There’s still a week to go, and another twist of fate could change everything but at this rate Tinkoff-Saxo will be heading to the Tour de France with their first objective complete.
Aru and Astana all at sea despite numerical advantage
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