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Alberto Contador

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Alberto Contador
Personal information
Full nameAlberto Contador Velasco
Height1.76 m (5 ft 9+1⁄2 in)
Weight62 kg (137 lb)
Team information
Current teamAstana
DisciplineRoad
RoleRider
Rider typeAll-around
Major wins
Tour de France (2007), 1 stage
Youth classification (2007)

Giro d'Italia (2008)
Vuelta a España (2008), 2 stages

Combined classification (2008)
Paris-Nice (2007)
Setmana Catalana (2005)
Vuelta al País Vasco (2008)
Vuelta a Castilla y León (2007, 2008)

Alberto Contador Velasco (born 6 December 1982 in Pinto, Madrid) is a Spanish professional road bicycle racer for UCI ProTeam Team Astana. He's the winner of the 2007 Tour de France with the Discovery Channel team and of the 2008 Giro d'Italia and 2008 Vuelta a España with Astana, being the fifth racer in history, and the first Spaniard, to win all three Grand Tours of road cycling, among legends Jacques Anquetil (1963), Felice Gimondi (1968), Eddy Merckx (1973) and Bernard Hinault in (1980). While he competes for the overall titles, he is considered a climbing specialist. Contador lives in his hometown Pinto.[1]

Career

Early years

Contador turned professional in 2003 for ONCE-Eroski. In his first year as a professional he won the eighth stage (ITT) of Tour de Pologne. During the first stage of the 2004 Vuelta a Asturias he started to feel unwell, and after 40 kilometers he fell and went into convulsions. He had been suffering from headaches for several days beforehand and was diagnosed with a cerebral cavernoma, a congenital vascular disorder, for which he underwent risky surgery and a long road to recovery to get back on his bike.[2] Contador started to train again at the end of 2004 and eight months after the surgery he won the fifth stage of 2005 Tour Down Under.[3] He went on to win the third stage and the overall classification of the Setmana Catalana, thus winning his first stage race as a professional. He also won an individual time trial during Vuelta al País Vasco, where he finished third, and the fourth stage of Tour de Romandie, where he finished fourth. In his first appearance in Tour de France, he finished 31st overall and third in the young rider classification.

In 2006 he won stages at Tour de Romandie and Tour de Suisse in preparation for Tour de France. Prior to the start of the race he was involved in the Operación Puerto doping case by the Spanish authorities and wasn't able to start. He was later cleared by the UCI. [4] Contador returned to racing in Vuelta a Burgos but he crashed after finishing fifth in stage 4, when he was riding back down to the team bus and he briefly lost consciousness.[5]

2007 season

Contador wearing the yellow jersey during the 19th stage of 2007 Tour de France.

Contador was without a professional contract until mid-January 2007, when he signed with Discovery Channel under a cloud of suspicion due to the Operación Puerto doping case.[6]

Contador's first major professional victory came with the 2007 Paris-Nice, which he won in dramatic fashion on the race's final stage. Discovery effectively wore down the remnants of the race leader, Davide Rebellin's, Gerolsteiner team, allowing Contador to launch an authoritative attack on the final climb. With Rebellin leading the chase, Contador held off his competitors in the final kilometers, winning him this prestigious race.

In the 2007 Tour de France, he won the 14th stage at the mountaintop finish of Plateau-de-Beille, and was second in the general classification to Michael Rasmussen. Upon Rasmussen's removal from the race after stage 17, Contador assumed the overall lead and the yellow jersey. In stage 19, a time trial, he managed to keep hold of the yellow jersey by a margin of only twenty-three seconds over challenger Cadel Evans and went on to win his first Tour de France, the first win for the Discovery Channel team since Lance Armstrong's victory in 2005.

After the announcement of the future termination of team Discovery Channel, Contador announced on October 23 2007 that he would move to Astana for 2008. [7]

2008 season

Contador wearing the maglia rosa during the 21th stage of 2008 Giro d'Italia.

On February 13, 2008, the organizer of the Tour de France announced that Astana would not be invited to any of their events in 2008.[8] Consequently, Contador was unable to defend his 2007 Paris-Nice and 2007 Tour de France victories. Unable to defend his Paris-Nice victory, he then went on to win his second Vuelta a Castilla y León and the Vuelta al País Vasco by winning the opening stage and the final individual time trial. His next scheduled race and objective was the Dauphiné Libéré but his team received a last minute invitation to the 2008 Giro d'Italia one week prior to the start of the race. Contador was allegedly on the beach when he was told he was going to ride the Giro.[9] Johan Bruyneel alluded to this on Belgian television by saying: "I'm not going to repeat the words I could hear him shout over the phone, but let's just say it wasn't pretty".

Contador wearing the golden jersey during the 20th stage of 2008 Vuelta a España.

Despite the lack of preparation, he finished second in the first individual time trial and took the maglia rosa after the 15th stage up to Passo Fedaia. Alberto Contador was proclaimed winner of the Giro the 1st June 2008 in Milan. He became the first non-Italian to win the Giro d'Italia since Pavel Tonkov in 1996 and also the second Spanish rider ever to win the Giro after Miguel Indurain won it in 1992 and in 1993. He later emphasized the importance of this win by saying that "taking part in the Giro and winning it was a really big achievement, bigger than if I'd had a second victory in the Tour de France".[10]

At the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, Contador competed in the road race and the individual road time trial. He did not finish in the road race, in which 53 of the 143 starters did not complete the course in particularly hot and humid conditions. He placed fourth in the individual time trial, 8 seconds behind his Astana teammate Levi Leipheimer.

Contador entered the 2008 Vuelta a España as the main candidate to win. His biggest challenger was likely to be compatriot Carlos Sastre, who had won the Tour de France just a month before.[10] Contador won Stage 13 by attacking on the fabled Angliru and this resulted in him capturing the Golden jersey as the leader of the race. He extended his lead by winning Stage 14 to Fuentes de Invierno and maintained his lead in subsequent flat stages and the final time trial. In the final standings, Contador finished 46 seconds ahead of teammate Levi Leipheimer and more than four minutes ahead of Carlos Sastre.[11] The win made him the fifth cyclist to win all three Grand Tours, after Jacques Anquetil, Felice Gimondi, Eddy Merckx, and Bernard Hinault. In the process he also claimed the following records: first Spaniard, youngest (age 25), and shortest amount of time (14 months). He also becomes only the third cyclist to complete the Giro/Vuelta double joining Eddy Merckx (1973) and Giovanni Battaglin (1981).

Doping allegations

Contador was kept out of the 2006 Tour de France due to alleged connections with the Operación Puerto doping case. However, he and four other members of his team at the time, Astana-Würth, were eventually cleared of all charges on July 26, 2006 by the Spanish courts and later two out of the five (including Contador) were cleared by the UCI.[12] Each received a written document signed by Manuel Sánchez Martín, secretary for the Spanish court, stating that "there are not any type of charges against them nor have there been adopted any type of legal action against them."[13]

In 2006 a document from the summary of the investigation (documento 31) was released. In it Contador initials (A.C.) were associated with a hand-written note next to his name saying, "Nada o igual a J.J." (Spanish for "Nothing or like J.J."). JJ were the initials of Jörg Jaksche, who later admitted to be guilty of blood doping prepared by the Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes in 2005.[14][15]

Alberto Contador was questioned in December 2006 by the magistrate in charge of the Puerto file. The rider declared to Judge Antonio Serrano that he did not know Eufemanio Fuentes personally.[16] According to Le Monde, he refused then to undergo a DNA test that would have judged whether or not he had any link to the blood bags that were found in the investigation.[17]

On July 28 2007 the French daily Le Monde, citing what it claimed was an investigation file it had access to, stated that Contador's name appeared in several documents found during Operación Puerto.[18] According to some sources, Contador's name is mentioned on a list of then-Liberty Seguros teammates that appear on a document later to identified as a list of training schedules for members of the team. A second reference includes initials of riders’ name that appeared on another training document (e.g. A.C. for Alberto Contador), although neither of those two references could be linked to doping practices.[19]

On July 30 2007 German doping expert Werner Franke accused Contador of having taken drugs in the past and being prescribed a doping regimen by Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes, who was connected with Operación Puerto.[20][21] He passed his evidence on to the German authorities on July 31, 2007.[22] Contador denied the accusations, saying "I was in the wrong team at the wrong time and somehow my name got among the documents."[22] On August 10, Alberto Contador publicly declared he's a clean rider in face of suspicions about his alleged links to the Operación Puerto blood-doping ring. "I have never doped and I have never participated in an act of doping," said Contador, reading from his prepared statement. "I won the Tour clean. It’s impossible for me to understand the attacks made against me, questioning my integrity as a sportsman, from people who don’t know me but feel they can make such judgments. My commitment against doping is total and I will always be willing to cooperate." Contador was joined by Discovery Channel team manager Johan Bruyneel, Spanish sports minister Jaime Lissavetzky and members of his family.[23]

Major achievements

Alberto Contador in 2004 Liberty Seguros cycling team
2003 – ONCE-Eroski
2004 – Liberty Seguros
2005 – Liberty Seguros-Würth Cycling Team
2006 – Astana-Würth Team
2007 – Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team
2008 – Team Astana

Grand Tour Results (3 victories)

2005 2006 2007 2008
Tour de France
General classification 31 - 1 -
Mountains classification 90+ - 2 -
Points classification 122 - 10 -
Youth clasification 3 - 1
Stages won 0 - 1 -
Giro d'Italia
General classification - - - 1
Mountains classification - - - 22
Points classification - - - 8
Youth clasification - - -
Stages won - - - 0
Vuelta a España
General classification - - - 1
Mountains classification - - - 3
Points classification - - - 2
Combination clasification - - - 1
Stages won - - - 2


References

  1. ^ Contador Is Thankful, cyclingnews.com, July 31, 2007
  2. ^ Alberto www.cyclingfans.com - Contador Tour de France Notebook:9
  3. ^ www.cyclingfans.com - Alberto Contador Tour de France Notebook:11
  4. ^ www.cyclingnews.com Latest Cycling News for August 17, 2006
  5. ^ Contador crashes
  6. ^ Contador signs with Discovery Channel
  7. ^ "Contador confirms with Astana". VeloNews.com. 2007-10-23. Retrieved 2007-10-23. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  8. ^ Haake, Bjorn (2008-02-13). "Alberto Contador may not be able to defend Tour de France title". Cyclingnews.com. Retrieved 2008-02-13. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  9. ^ http://www.velonews.com/article/76007
  10. ^ a b "Vuelta a Espana - Contador plays down favourite tag". uk.eurosport.yahoo.com. 2008-08-29. Retrieved 2008-09-21. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  11. ^ "Stage 21 - September 21: San Sebastián de los Reyes - Madrid, 102.2km". cyclingnews.com. 2008-09-21. Retrieved 2008-09-21. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  12. ^ Rob Drap (August 17, 2006). "Former Liberty five: 2/5 cleared". cyclingnews.com. Retrieved 2008-07-02. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  13. ^ Andrew Hood, Astana 5' cleared by Spanish courts, VeloNews, July 26, 2006
  14. ^ Rob Drap (July 28, 2007). "Now the man they hoped would save the Tour faces a new inquiry into doping allegations". DailyMail.co.uk. Retrieved 2008-05-30. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  15. ^ Juan Gutiérrez (July 27, 2007). "El Tour califica a Contador de líder "limpio" y "creíble" [[:Template:Es icon]]". As.com. Retrieved 2008-05-30. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); URL–wikilink conflict (help)
  16. ^ "First witnesses testify in Operación Puerto". cyclingnews.com. December 6, 2006. Retrieved 2008-05-30. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  17. ^ "An Interview with Alberto Contador, July 29, 2007". cyclingnews.com. July 29, 2007. Retrieved 2008-05-30. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  18. ^ "Alberto Contador, maillot jaune miraculé de l'"opération Puerto" [[:Template:Fr icon]]". Le Monde. July 28, 2007. Retrieved 2008-05-30. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); URL–wikilink conflict (help)
  19. ^ Andrew Hood (July 26, 2007). "On the list, off the list - Alberto Contador and Operación Puerto". VeloNews. Retrieved 2008-05-30. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  20. ^ "German drugs expert points finger at Contador". Sydney Morning Herald. July 31, 2007. Retrieved 2007-07-31. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  21. ^ ""Das größte Ding aller Zeiten"(The greatest thing of all times)" (in German). ZDF. July 30, 2007. Retrieved 2007-07-30. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  22. ^ a b "Expert claims Contador doped". iol.co.za. 2007-08-01. Retrieved 2007-08-01. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  23. ^ "Contador: 'I have never doped'". VeloNews. 2007-08-10. Retrieved 2007-08-10. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Alberto Contador.
Sporting positions
Preceded by Winner of the Tour de France
2007 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Winner of the Giro d'Italia
2008 		Succeeded by
TBD
Preceded by Winner of the Vuelta a España
2008 		Succeeded by
TBD
Awards
Preceded by Vélo d'Or
2007 		Succeeded by
TBD

{{{1}}} (AST)


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