Alberto Contador (Tinkoff) is set to start the Vuelta a España in Ourense in a confident mood and is keen to overcome the disappointment from the Tour de France when he was forced out of the race after crashing heavily. “I think I’m well, but the good thing is that I am keen to go on the bike, which is important,” he confirmed.

Contador raced at the Clasica San Sebastian and the Vuelta a Burgos in preparation for the Vuelta. “I haven’t had many tests to see how I am, practically only in Burgos. From there I focused on recovering from the effort and doing some quality training, but that race is very different from the Vuelta, in terms of days of competition and the level of its line-up.”

Those races marked the end of a long period of recovery since he withdrew from the Tour de France. He said it was “a time that was particularly difficult until I started competing, since the Tour was my number one goal of the year and it started on the wrong foot and finished by retiring. That really comes often back to my head and is hard to beat psychologically.”

“On the other hand, physically it has also been difficult because at first I could not train and that forced me to look a lot after my nutrition, taking into consideration how hard it is to immediately change your mindset when you come from a period of racing.”

The Tour is in the past though, and the Spaniard is now just focused on the forthcoming challenge. “Certainly, my goal at the Vuelta is to fight for victory,” he says. “That’s the idea with which I am going to Galicia, we will then see if we can achieve it, because I will have to face very strong opponents with powerful squads.”

“We will have to take it day-by-day and I just hope I’m a little bit luckier to enjoy the race and the fans. At the Vuelta, the affection of the public has always been amazing and reliving that is something I look forward to. Furthermore, this will be my last Grand Tour with Tinkoff and I would like to finish it in the best way.”

Photo: Tinkoff/Vuelta a Burgos
Photo: Tinkoff/Vuelta a Burgos

On this year’s race course, Contador thinks it is “a typical Vuelta parcours, with many short and explosive finishes, without any previous mountain passes, a little bit like the Classics, which will be made complicated because you might have a bad day or rivals that are more explosive. They will be difficult to manage, but overall I like the course because it is designed to bring forward the show and it is important that people engage in the race.”

Contador has also said that he relishes the chance of racing against some of the biggest names and describes it as “a great motivation. The level is very high, because in the end, each year the favourites of the Tour are in the Vuelta and that makes me happy. This marquee line-up will raise great expectations.”

The full Tinkoff line-up has yet to be announced and Contador says: “We will have a Tinkoff squad, very balanced between youth and experience, with many riders that already know what it means to race at the Vuelta a España. There are very good riders for the team time trial and the climbs, but the best part is that they are all very motivated to race at the Vuelta and that’s fundamental.”

The 71st Vuelta a España gets underway with a team time trial on Saturday.

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