Vuelta a Espana: Alberto Contador thought race was over after crash
Saturday 27 August 2016 20:23, UK
Alberto Contador has admitted he thought his Vuelta a Espana was over after crashing on Friday’s seventh stage.
The 33-year-old Spaniard fell on his left-hand side following a clash of wheels with 500m to go and had to undergo physiotherapy late into the night and then again on Saturday morning.
Contador had expected to perform poorly on stage eight and although he lost 25 seconds to new leader Nairo Quintana, he gained eight seconds on Chris Froome and Alejandro Valverde.
He said: "The aim was to get through the stage. Yesterday I wasn't even sure I could continue; I thought it could be all over.
"When I got to the hotel I could barely walk, but when I started today I got a lot of support from a lot of people, sending me messages and cheering me on and that boosted me a bit.
"So I'm satisfied; it was okay. A good result would have been to drop everybody, but when Nairo opened up a gap, I couldn't follow him."
Contador now lies seventh overall, 1min 39sec behind Quintana with two more summit finishes to come on Sunday and Monday.
He added: "Now it's back to recovery. The leg injury is better than I expected, but sometimes you pay more on the second day than you do on the first after a big crash. Tomorrow [Sunday], I expect I'll be following wheels."
