Tour de France: Alberto Contador confirmed in Tinkoff-Saxo team
Monday 29 June 2015 16:37, UK
Alberto Contador will have the full might of the Tinkoff-Saxo team behind him as he bids to add the Tour de France to his 2015 Giro d'Italia success.
The Spaniard came home nearly two minutes clear of Fabio Aru in the season's first Grand Tour, which finished on May 31, despite being injured in a crash during the first week of the race.
He will be bidding to become the first rider to complete the Giro-Tour double since the late Marco Pantani in 1998.
His decision to go for the double means the strongest possible line-up for the Tour, which starts on Saturday in Utrecht, with Chris Froome, Vincenzo Nibali and Nairo Quintana all providing fierce competition for the title.
Contador will have four top-class climbers to help him out, with Michael Rogers, Ivan Basso and Roman Kreuziger included along with Rafal Majka, who won the King of the Mountains jersey in last year's Tour.
The team will also be active in flatter stages, with Peter Sagan set to mount a challenge for the green points jersey, a prize he has won in the last three editions of the race.
Their nine-rider line-up is completed by workhorses Daniele Bennati, Michael Valgren and Matteo Tosatto.
Contador, who also won the Route du Sud earlier this month, said: “It’s a personal challenge and a big dream. The Tour is the most important race, the one that changes your life and I can vouch for that.
"Until you win it, you don’t really realise how important it is, but on the other hand one more Tour victory more - or one less - would not make my career more memorable.
"On the other hand, if I won the Giro-Tour, it would be something everybody would remember for a long time. It will be really hard. But I’m doing absolutely everything to recover as well as I can do, every hour, every minute, every day to be there in the best condition.
"Then I will see if I can get it because it is not just a physical challenge, above all it’s a mental one. And then the race has to go well…but [as for the] people who are convinced that it is impossible, that just motivates me even more.”
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