tagged w/ Alberto Contador
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Tour de France champion Alberto Contador insists the thought of having seven-time winner Lance Armstrong as his main rival in this year's race is not keeping him awake at night. The Spaniard, Tour champion in 2007 and 2009 and Tour of Italy and Spain winner in 2008, believes he will have more than the American to deal with.
Contador overcame tensions within Astana, the team Armstrong joined last year to make his comeback to the sport, to win the 2009 edition thanks to crushing performances in the mountains and final time trial. Armstrong battled to finish third, and then promptly announced the creation of a new team, RadioShack, that he hopes to lead to victory in 2010.
Although an outright Contador v Armstrong clash is mouth-watering, the Spaniard said he believes it may not be the only one on the horizon. At Astana's team presentation here Saturday, Contador said he believed there could be up to 10 real challengers for the race's prestigious yellow jersey.
"Of course Lance will be one of my rivals this year but I'm more relaxed," said the 27-year-old, who finished last year's race over four minutes ahead of Luxembourg's Andy Schleck. "I'm not the only big favorite. There's a group of around eight to 10 riders who could throw their hat in for a victory at the Tour."
Armstrong, third at 5:24 last July, boosted his chances of an eighth Tour win by taking the bulk of last year's Astana team with him to RadioShack, including American Levi Leipheimer and German Andreas Kloden.
Although an almost unrivalled climber and a strong time trialist, the big question supporters of Contador will want to ask is whether his team, which now includes disgraced Kazakh star Alexandre Vinokourov, are up to the job.
Vinokourov returned to cycling last year following a two-year ban for doping. He and the entire Astana team, when it was under different management, were thrown off the 2007 Tour de France. Vinokourov said there was only one objective on the team's mind: "The aim is to win the Tour de France for Astana and show that, with Alberto Contador, we are the best team in the world," he said. "I think that with his talent and my experience, I can count on him to succeed.
"Former Tour winner Oscar Pereiro, who was on the brink of retirement before he joined Astana with five other Spaniards, said there is no doubt who they will be racing for. “When Alberto is in this team, all riders work for Alberto, this team is Alberto... and others," Pereiro, the 2006 Tour de France winner, joked to journalists.
"He's the best rider of the world and for the other riders, it's a motivation." From a total of 27 riders Astana counts 13 Kazakhs, seven Spaniards, three Italians, two Australians, as well as one Ukrainian and a Slovenian.
Contador has one year left on his contract with the team, which he unsuccessfully tried to leave after his second Tour triumph. For now, he is giving nothing away about possible future destinations. "It's only January. There's a big possibility that I will stay longer with Astana. But there are other possibilities," he said.Tour de France champion Alberto Contador insists the thought of having seven-time... more
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Apparently, there's no love lost between the two (though it would've been almost impossible not to notice during the course of the Tour):
"My relationship with Lance is non-existent. Even if he is a great champion, I have never had admiration for him and I never will," the 26-year-old Spaniard told reporters.
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That's funny, because in interviews from 2007 and before, he's often quoted as saying how much he admired and looked up to Lance, especially after he had spent time recovering from his brain aneurysm reading Lance's book for inspiration.
He may be the best climber right now, and he may peaking in his time trials, but without the uber-team of Popo, Haimar, Kloden, Rast, Leipheimer and Armstrong, I doubt that Alberto wil be repeating next year -- especially if he has to contend with Vinokourov and his return to the team. Add to Armstrong train George Hincapie and there'll be little hope, if any, for Alberto no matter who he's got as domestiques. What do you think?Apparently, there's no love lost between the two (though it would've been... more
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Lance Armstrong will join the Astana team when he makes his much-anticipated return to cycling, according to a Kazakh cycling federation offical.
"On Wednesday Armstrong will announce his decision to join our team," said Kazakhstan's cycling federation deputy president Nikolai Proskurin.
The seven-time Tour de France winner will begin his comeback at the Tour Down Under in Australia in January.
The 37-year-old Texan will reveal further details of his comeback schedule at a news conference in New York.
But Tour Down Under director Mike Turtur has already said that Armstrong has confirmed his entry for the six-day race around South Australia, centring on Adelaide, starting on 20 January.
The Kazakh-financed Astana team, now based in Switzerland, suffered two high-profile doping scandals in 2007 and were barred from this year's Tour de France despite a substantial overhaul in team management.
Kazakh rider Alexandre Vinokourov, the old Astana team leader, tested positive for blood doping after winning a time-trial stage of the 2007 Tour, and was subsequently sacked and banned for a year.
Astana is now run by Armstrong's friend and former sporting director Johan Bruyneel, who helped the American win all his seven Tours.
Bruyneel has suggested that he would find it almost impossible not to include a fit-again Armstrong in his team.
But current team leader Alberto Contador, the 2007 Tour de France winner who recently became only the fifth rider in history to win all of cycling's three major Tours when he won the Tour of Spain, has already hinted Armstrong's presence could cause conflict.
"I've earned the right to be the leader of a team without having to fight for my place," Contador told AS newspaper.
"And with Armstrong, some difficult situations could arise in which the team would put him first and that would hurt me."
But Proskurin believes the two will work together in a new line-up.
"Currently there's certain tension in the team but I hope we are capable of keeping the situation under control," Proskurin added.
"Armstrong will not be the only star, he will be one of the team's leaders.
Lance Armstrong will join the Astana team when he makes his much-anticipated return to... more
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Tour de France winner Alberto Contador and Michael Rasmussen are not welcome to race at this month's Hamburg Cyclassics, organisers have said. (BBC)Tour de France winner Alberto Contador and Michael Rasmussen are not welcome to race... more
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4 years ago
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