Contador Out To Excite Home Fans In Tour of Spain
by Denholm Barnetson
MADRID, Aug 29, 2008 (AFP) - Spain’s Alberto Contador will be aiming for a
unique treble when the third of the year’s Grand Tours gets underway in his
home country on Saturday.
But two of his compatriots — Tour de France winner Carlos Sastre and
double Liege-Bastogne-Liege victor Alejandro Valverde — may be the ones to
spoil the party.
Having already taken the Tour de France in 2007, Contador won the Giro
d’Italia in June, becoming the first non-Italian to do so since 1996.
The 25-year-old was unable to defend his French title this year because his
Astana side were not invited by the race organizers due to a series of
high-profile drugs scandals involving team members before his arrival.
But that may now work to his advantage in the Tour of Spain, as he has had
more time to recover and may have that extra bit of stamina to outlast his
chief rivals who competed in France.
Added to that, he has strong team to support him, particularly American
Levi Leipheimer, a bronze medalist in Beijing, and Germany’s Andres Kloeden –
both of whom also missed the Tour de France.
Any of the three are capable of winning the Tour of Spain, which begins in
the southern city of Granada on Saturday and concludes in Madrid on September
21.
But Contador is hot favorite to take the title in front of his home fans,
and join cycling legends Jacques Anquetil and Bernard Hinault of France,
Belgium’s Eddy Merckx and Italy’s Felice Gimondi among those who have won all
three races.
“I am better prepared than I was for the Tour of Italy. Mentally, but
technically as well,” he said recently.
“It would be an historic victory,” Contador said in the AS newspaper
Wednesday. “I realise that people are excited about that possibility and that
they are talking about me as if I’ve already won the Vuelta. But, well, they
are not the ones who have to push the pedals.”
“Cycling today is at such a high level. You only have to look at how the
Tour (de France) turned out,” he said.
Contador himself rates Sastre and Valverde as his main rivals, along with
Italian Damiano Cunego, who sensationally won the Giro in 2004 at the age of
22.
Sastre was the unexpected winner of the Tour de France in July, but many
believe only the absence of the powerful Astana team made that possible.
Valverde’s experience in winning the tough Belgian classic of
Liege-Bastogne-Liege for the second time earlier this year has also singled
him out as a strong contender.
Other names worth mentioning are Dutchman Robert Gesink, a natural climber
who at 22 is viewed as one of the most exciting young prospects around, and
Ukrainian Yaroslav Popovych.
The race will feature 21 stages, including four mountain summit finishes.
Stages seven and eight have been deliberately scheduled on the weekend, of
September 7 and 8, and the 13th and 14th stages will light up the screens the
following weekend in a bid to win back a dwindling television audience.
It is on Saturday, September 13 that the peloton will make an apprehensive
return to the formidable Angliru climb in the Asturias mountain range.
Its return after a five-year absence is likely to send shivers down the
spines of the non-climbers in the peloton, while providing much-needed drama
for viewers and supporters.
The Tour of Spain also comes as cycling faces increasing credibility
problems due to a number of drugs scandals. Five riders in the Tour de France
tested positive, including Spanish duo Manuel Beltran, of Liquigas, and
Barloworld rider Moises Duenas.
And it was a Spanish cyclist, Maria Isobel Moreno, who became the first
athlete to fail a drugs test at the Beijing Olympics.
File Photo by: CorVos Pro
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