Lining out tomorrow in his first race since winning the Vuelta a España, Alberto Contador has – as he often does – played down his chances and nominated another competitor as the favourite. The Spaniard has said that many riders will be in the hunt, and that last year’s winner stands out clearly as the one to beat.
“I think we should always think about that,” he said, when asked if he believed that he can take a medal, “but I am also aware that there are great specialists. I know it's hard, but if you do not think about this goal [of a medal – ed.], it is impossible to achieve it.
“There is much talk that Wiggins and Cancellara are not here, but they are others, like Tony Martin, Kessiakoff, Phinney, van Garderen or Chavanel. There are many favourites, but above all is Tony Martin. I'm there in a group to fight for the medals.”
Contador rode the course today with the other Spanish TT entrant, Jonathan Castroviejo. He also checked out the parcours yesterday and then later studied it again by car. He’s got a decent estimation of it by this point, and sees things that he likes about it.
“It has some hills that should be good for me, because you have to change the pace and drop out of the big ring. These are areas benefit me over the specialists,” he said. “The wind will be from the front and will be necessary to use high power. When the road goes up, it is better for me than the flat, but it is a good parcours for powerful riders like Tony Martin.”
Contador comes into the race with three tough weeks of the Vuelta in his legs, and admits that he has found it difficult to recover from that effort. He said that things went as planned after the race and that he rested a lot to recover from the intense demands that he experienced there, but that it still took time to come round. Fortunately, he felt good when training today.
There is however another issue. “I rode the time trial bike twice this week, but since the stage of Pontevedra [stage 11 on August 29th – ed.], I didn’t ride it and the body suffers from being in the [time trial] position.
“Until tomorrow I will not know how my form is. Basically since the Vuelta I just rested and now we have to see how I respond in competition. For me it's unknown how I will go in a solo time trial, without being in a stage race. I did it a few times in my career, and is completely different,” he said.