Contador more than happy with TTT result
Alberto Contador was all smiles at the finish line in Montpellier after Astana’s dramatic team time trial win.
And why not? The 2007 Tour champ had plenty of reason to be happy. The team not only won the stage, but Contador profits from the major time gaps opened up to rivals even before the race turns into the Pyrénées.
“I have every reason to be happy. We took some time on our rivals, riders like Evans, Sastre, Menchov and the Schleck brothers,” Contador said. “Things are looking pretty good for us on the GC.”
Contador is quickly earning the reputation as the king of the understatement and to say things are looking pretty good is putting it mildly.
Thanks to the big team time trial effort, Contador slots into third place overall, just 19 seconds behind leader Fabian Cancellara and teammate Lance Armstrong. His flanks are protected by four more Astana teammates in the top 11.
Contador leads defending champion Carlos Sastre, two-time runner-up and Giro d’Italia champion Denis Menchov, all by more than two minutes.
“Now the pressure is on them. They will have to take risks and attack from far,” he said. “It’s hard to believe that we’ve only raced four days when we’ve already lived so much. And all the most important stages still lie ahead of us.”
And then there’s the question of Armstrong, who just missed taking the yellow jersey by fractions of second.
Armstrong profited from good positioning in Monday’s stage to sneak into a late-stage breakaway when the pack split under pressure from Columbia-HTC in heavy crosswinds. Contador missed the move and had to watch Armstrong, and his own chances of taking yellow disappear up the road.
“Sometimes there are situations in the race that are difficult to understand,” Contador said with a smile when asked about the Monday breakout. “Today we rode as a team and everyone profited from it.”
Armstrong and Contador seem destined for a major showdown on the summit finish at Arcalis on Friday in Andorra. With the yellow jersey up for grabs, neither rider will be obliged to hold back to defer to a race leader, so it should be a bare-knuckle fight to the top.
When asked if the question of the team’s leadership has been resolved, Contador said he was “bored” with the question.
“How many leaders are there at Astana? How many riders are there? Nine, no? This question of leader, no leader, it’s becoming a little tiresome,” he said. “I believe that the road will put everything in its place.”
Contador expressed genuine sorrow, however, that the seven-time Tour winner wasn’t able to don the yellow tunic.
“It’s too bad we couldn’t take the jersey for Armstrong, because we know what it means to him,” he said. “Now it’s it true can race more relaxed in the coming days, but it’s still a shame he doesn’t have it.”
One has to wonder if Contador is thinking that he’s going to do his damnedest to make sure Armstrong doesn’t have come Friday.
Follow Andrew Hood’s twitter at twitter.com/eurohoody.
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