After his victory at Paris-Nice, Alberto Contador reschedules his calendar for the next two months. He believes it would be good sense to take it easy during the earlier part of the season.

“I’ve had very good results in my first two races this year,” Contador commented. “My preparation is well underway – ahead of schedule, in fact – so we decided to change our plans, to put less wear on me and my team.”

Contador found the Paris-Nice race stressful on both mental and physical levels. This led to his decision not to join at the Volta a Catalunya on March 2-28 and the Vuelta al País Vasco on April 5-10.

However, Contador will definitely ride in the Criterium International because he feels the race suits his form and personality. He will also race at the Vuelta a Castilla y León on April 14-18, the Fleche Wallonne on April 21 and Liège-Bastogne-Liège on April 25.

The Criterium will also be an opportunity for Contador to assess his capability and form against Lance Armstrong, his former teammate. The new schedule will allow him to race at two major spring classics and at the Vuelta a Castilla y León.

“The Vuelta a Castilla y León is a race I’ve always loved and this year – because of a change in dates – I also get the opportunity to go to the classics. I’m excited to ride there because there is so much history. I’m not sure how I will do, there will be riders with a lot more skill and classics experience than I have.”, said Contador.

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Team Astana presented its lineup for the 2010 season last Saturday at the Hofburg Redoutensaal in Vienna, Austria, with two-time Tour de France winner Alberto Contador as the undeniable star of the show.


Contador, however, denied that he is the favorite to wear the yellow jersey for this year’s Tour de France, although he did admit that winning his third title of the said event is his main goal for this season.


The Spanish rider looked focused, happy, and physically fit for the season as he posed for photographs with his Astana teammates during the presentation. When asked about Lance Armstrong, his former teammate last season, Contador replied that the American rider is also one of the favorites, and will be a close rival. He seemed happy, though, that the Texan is no longer part of his squad.


Team Astana had a multi-talented squad of riders last year, with Lance Armstrong and Alberto Contador in their lineup, plus Grand Tour stars Levi Leipheimer and Andreas Kloeden. The team had an outstanding 2009 Tour, but constantly had to juggle financial problems during the entire season, plus having to contend with the tension between their two stars, Armstrong and Contador.


This time, the team focus is solely on Contador. His Spanish and Kazakh teammates have publicly expressed their support for their star, saying that they are ready to back him up 100% in the Tour de France.


Contador is also expected to be pleased by the arrival of Giuseppi Martinelli as the new team director. Martinelli comes from “the Italian school”, as team manager Yvon Sanquier puts it, “where the team is united behind one single leader.”

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22 teams will be seeing action in the upcoming 2010 Paris-Nice, which will begin on March 7 in Montfort l’Amaury and end one week later on March 14 in Nice.


Alberto Contador will have a chance to redeem himself as Team Astana is one of the invited teams scheduled to compete. Contador, a two-time Tour de France champion, has been harboring bitter memories of his last year’s Paris-Nice performance, when he reportedly ‘bonked’ during a critical stage and lost the overall lead which he had grabbed in earlier stages. Luis Leon Sanchez ended up as the winner.


Sylvain Chavanel is expected to race for Team Quick Step. He won stage 3 last year and finished 2nd overall, so he poses a powerful challenge to anyone looking for the title this year.


Teams Milram and Footon-Servetto will not be joining the event, however, since both teams failed the automatic qualifications for selection, as set by the organizer.


Another rider we won’t be seeing is World Champion Cadel Evans. L’Equipe reports that Cadel Evans did not even apply for the race, which may be the reason why Team BMC was also left off the invitation list. The team is in training camp at the moment, but with a star lineup that includes Alessandro Ballan and George Hincapie, its chances of being invited to several other events for this year are in excellent shape.
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Two-time Tour de France winner Alberto Contador is ready for the 2010 season, and says that he’s stronger than he was last year. “I see the power in my computer, and I see also (the power) of the last year, and this year is better,” he said. He also spoke about his change of bikes, from Trek to Specialized: “The main differences that I’ve noticed are that it (S-Works Tarmac SL3) seems like a much stiffer bike — so much so, that it can take a couple of days to get used to it.” He also says that he’s motivated by the competition for this year, and his first race will be Portugal’s Tour of the Algarve. “I think, in July, I will have a strong team to back me in the Tour de France,” he said optimistically.

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Two-time Tour de France champion Alberto Contador has announced today that he will be starting his 2010 season with Portugal’s Tour de Algarve in February. “Last year I liked the race and I think it’s ideal to start the season. After that, I’ll go to the Paris-Nice (beginning of March) where we’ll be mainly looking to work on a team level, concentrating on tactics and coordination. In 2009 I won at Algarve, but this year I’m going to take it relatively easy, although I always like to be good at racing and I want to start,” says Contador, who won the Tour de Algarve last year too. He said that he also wants to participate in the Tour of Catalonia in March and the Tour of the Basque Country in April. He’s got a plate full of stage races for this year, but one-day races are not his focus as of yet. “I’m leaving the door open on the classics, we’ll decide on that later,” he said.

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The ongoing personal conflict between seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong and two-time Tour winner Alberto Contador does not seem to be slowing down at all. In fact, it seems to be getting worse, as Contador apparently spread lies throughout the Spanish media. Armstrong thinks that the fame has gone to Contador’s head: “If you have just won the Tour for the second time and you are the king of Spain, it is normal that all stories are all right. His career has barely begun. Let us talk again in about fifteen years.” And of the rumors going around the media: “So many dirty things, unbelievable. Complete bulls***, pieces of slime, fat lies.” About the time trial tires rumor: “First, this is not true. Secondly, it is easy to prove. You only have to grab the phone and call the bicycle manufacturer Trek. I understand that the Spanish media stands up for their hero, but it was so untrue what was printed. Come on, at the end of the day as a journalist, you f**king do proclaim the truth.” He also mentions the fact that “eight of the nine riders who rode the Tour, have gone away. To another team. Even his roommate.” Armstrong’s final judgment of the Spaniard: “I am impressed by the athlete but it stops there for me.”[...]

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Johan Bruyneel recently addressed claims made by two-time Tour de France winner Alberto Contador, saying that he didn’t receive the “technical support” he needed during last year’s Tour. He said earlier this month that he had to go to a bike shop to buy the time trial tires that he wanted for the 2009 Tour. Bruyneel, in an online chat at El Mundo, said that the statements were not at all true. “The members of the team, and above all, the leaders of the team, all had the same material. The truth is I am not sure where this information came from. I can guarantee you that they all had the same material,” he said.

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