Despite silver medal yesterday, says he’ll have to wait until race starts to know how he’s going
Third in Friday’s time trial and second in yesterday’s road race, Alberto Contador heads away from the Spanish national championships saying that he is still not certain of his condition prior to the start of the Tour next Saturday.
The Spaniard finished just behind Jose Joaquim Rojas (Movistar) in the road race, and was able to test his legs on the ascent of Alto del Desierto de Las Palmas. He complained of tiredness in the weeks after his win in the Giro d’Italia, and suggests that it’s too soon to know if he is fully recovered.
“It was not a very hard climb, although it has been hot and we have done 210 kilometers which is also hard,” he stated. “But my performance and fitness had to be seen in the Tour. I have to wait, it is still unknown. Especially since the Giro I have just rested and again until the start of the Tour I’ll do the same.”
While Contador did the Giro before, winning it in 2008, he has not done it and the Tour in the same season. It’s the first time he will attempt two Grand Tours so close together, and so it remains to be seen how he will fare in July.
That said, Contador has a history of playing down his chances before big races, and so his competitors will take his declarations with a pinch of salt for now.
Rojas was the only rider able to hold Contador on the climb, and that proved to be the basis for his victory. The Tour winner said that he wasn’t obsessed about dropping all his rivals.
“Honestly, I did my own race. I was looking my Watts, and I have seen Rojas in Switzerland. I knew he was going very well and was very strong. It was not an obsession for me to go alone, because there was a long way after the climb to reach the finish by myself.”
The Tour starts next Saturday with a road stage from the Passage du Gois. There is no prologue this year, giving the contenders a little time to settle in.