bicycle.net -- cycling news, product reviews, original essays, podcasts & video :: Tour of California 2009

MADRID, Oct 29, 2008 (AFP) - Spaniard Alberto Contador, winner of last year’s tours of Italy and Spain, has confirmed that he will not take part in the Italian race next year in order to concentrate on preparing for the Tour de France.

“I will not participate in the Giro. Last year I did, but I had more trouble recovering late in the season,” he told Internet site cyclingnews.com, adding he may also miss the Spanish race.

“I will race after the Tour and then decide if I’ll participate in the Vuelta or not. But the one goal I will sacrifice 100 percent for is the Tour,”
the 25-year-old said.

Contador, who is considered a climbing specialist, had earlier said on his official web site (www.albertocontador.com) that he would like to focus next year on one race - the Tour.

In an interview published Wednesday in daily Spanish newspaper El Mundo, he rejected the idea that the next Tour, whose penultimate stage ends on Mont Ventoux, in southern France was made for him.

“That is very daring. It’s a hard race…where many things can happen. I do like the final in Ventoux,” the winner of the 2007 Tour said.

When Contador won the Spanish Vuelta last month he became only the fifth rider in history, and the first ever Spaniard, to win all three of cycling’s three-week Tours.