With speculation over where Tour de France champion Alberto Contador will ride in 2011 continuing, the suspension yesterday of Caisse d’Epargne Alejandro Valverde may have made things a whole lot simpler. With Contador’s contract with Astana finishing at the end of the year, the vacant spot on the Spanish team left by Valverde might well be a perfect fit.
Contador has long been linked to a deal with Fernando Alonso, the Ferrari Formula 1 driver, who has repeatedly said that he would like to build a team around his friend. Further speculation has hypothesised that the team’s main sponsor could be Spanish banking group Santander, one of the sponsors of Alonso’s Ferrari team.
With Caisse d’Epargne, the French bank, due to end its sponsorship of the team at the end of this year, there could be a ready-made team for Santander to step in to. The question always remained about exactly how Contador and Valverde could be accommodated, both in terms of the race calendar and budget.
Both riders build their seasons around the Grand Tours, but also both chase the smaller stage races like Paris-Nice and the Tour de Romandie. Were both riders on the same team together a potential conflict could occur as they chased the same targets. They have said in the past they would be happy to ride together, but with Valverde now out of the picture for two years this issue has gone away.
Alonso was among the thousands of spectators at the Giro d’Italia’s stage 16 mountain time trial to the Plan de Corones; he was on the podium to present the pink jersey to race leader David Arroyo of Caisse d’Epargne (pictured).
There is of course the possibility that Contador may stay where he is, on the Kazakh-sponsored Astana team. After a highly successful start to the season, including overall victories in the Volta ao Algarve, Paris-Nice and the Vuelta a Castilla y León, he has declared himself highly satisfied with the team. The main target for his season though will obviously be the Tour de France, and the team’s performance there will likely be what ultimately makes his mind up.
Astana struggled a little in support of Alexandre Vinokourov in the recent Giro d’Italia, although much of this may be attributed to the poor weather in much of the race. The other issue could be Vinokourov himself; having finished fifth in the race, the Kazakh figurehead of the team may find himself unable to resist riding for himself, and against Contador, in July despite publicly proclaiming his support for the Spaniard.
Should this happen, the Spaniard will be out of the door quicker than he climbed to Verbier last year.
Riding for whom, and on what?
There is also the question of what the team might ride with Contador on board. It was a personal deal signed with Specialized that led to the Astana team riding the American marque this season. The contract between Specialized and Contador was reportedly just for one year, but if he wins the Tour this year, and looks like doing it again in 2011, the Americans will be eager to hang on to him.
The team has ridden Pinarello bikes since it was formed in the 1980’s as Reynolds though; winning the Tour once with Pedro Delgado and five times with Miguel Indurain. It is doubtful that the Italian company would want to step aside from a team with another potential Tour winner.
A potential third name could enter the fray, through its connection with Ferrari. Colnago has produced a “CF”, or “Colnago for Ferrari” version for a number of years. The CF-7 is a special edition of the company’s top-of-the-line EPS and it’s possible, if not actually very likely, that Alonso might bring it with him. This would also be something unlikely to impress Pinarello though as the two companies are great rivals.