Alberto Contador
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Alberto Contador

Contador at the 2007 Paris-Nice
Personal information
Full name	Alberto Contador Velasco
Date of birth	December 6, 1982 (1982-12-06) (age 25)
Country	Spain
Height	1.76 m (5 ft 9+1⁄2 in)
Weight	62 kg (140 lb)
Team information
Current team	Astana
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Rider type	All-around
Professional team(s)
2003–2006 2007 2008–	Liberty Seguros Discovery Channel Astana
Major wins
Tour de France (2007), 1 stage Youth classification (2007) Giro d'Italia (2008) Vuelta a España (2008), 2 stages Combined classification (2008) Paris-Nice (2007) Setmana Catalana (2005) Vuelta al País Vasco (2008) Vuelta a Castilla y León (2007, 2008)
Infobox last updated on:
September 21, 2008

Alberto Contador Velasco (born 6 December 1982 in Pinto, Madrid) is a Spanish professional road bicycle racer for UCI ProTeam Team Astana. He's the winner of the 2007 Tour de France with the Discovery Channel team and of the 2008 Giro d'Italia and 2008 Vuelta a España with Astana, being the fifth racer in history, and the first Spaniard, to win all three Grand Tours of road cycling, among legends Jacques Anquetil (1963), Felice Gimondi (1968), Eddy Merckx (1973) and Bernard Hinault in (1980). While he competes for the overall titles, he is considered a climbing specialist. Contador lives in his hometown Pinto.¹

Career

Early years

Contador turned professional in 2003 for ONCE-Eroski. In his first year as a professional he won the eighth stage (ITT) of Tour de Pologne. During the first stage of the 2004 Vuelta a Asturias he started to feel unwell, and after 40 kilometers he fell and went into convulsions. He had been suffering from headaches for several days beforehand and was diagnosed with a cerebral cavernoma, a congenital vascular disorder, for which he underwent risky surgery and a long road to recovery to get back on his bike.² Contador started to train again at the end of 2004 and eight months after the surgery he won the fifth stage of 2005 Tour Down Under.³ He went on to win the third stage and the overall classification of the Setmana Catalana, thus winning his first stage race as a professional. He also won an individual time trial during Vuelta al País Vasco, where he finished third, and the fourth stage of Tour de Romandie, where he finished fourth. In his first appearance in Tour de France, he finished 31st overall and third in the young rider classification.

In 2006 he won stages at Tour de Romandie and Tour de Suisse in preparation for Tour de France. Prior to the start of the race he was involved in the Operación Puerto doping case by the Spanish authorities and wasn't able to start. He was later cleared by the UCI. ⁴ Contador returned to racing in Vuelta a Burgos but he crashed after finishing fifth in stage 4, when he was riding back down to the team bus and he briefly lost consciousness.⁵

2007 season

Contador wearing the yellow jersey during the 19th stage of 2007 Tour de France.

Contador was without a professional contract until mid-January 2007, when he signed with Discovery Channel under a cloud of suspicion due to the Operación Puerto doping case.⁶

Contador's first major professional victory came with the 2007 Paris-Nice, which he won in dramatic fashion on the race's final stage. Discovery effectively wore down the remnants of the race leader, Davide Rebellin's, Gerolsteiner team, allowing Contador to launch an authoritative attack on the final climb. With Rebellin leading the chase, Contador held off his competitors in the final kilometers, winning him this prestigious race.

In the 2007 Tour de France, he won the 14th stage at the mountaintop finish of Plateau-de-Beille, and was second in the general classification to Michael Rasmussen. Upon Rasmussen's removal from the race after stage 17, Contador assumed the overall lead and the yellow jersey. In stage 19, a time trial, he managed to keep hold of the yellow jersey by a margin of only twenty-three seconds over challenger Cadel Evans and went on to win his first Tour de France, the first win for the Discovery Channel team since Lance Armstrong's victory in 2005.

After the announcement of the future termination of team Discovery Channel, Contador announced on October 23, 2007 that he would move to Astana for 2008. ⁷

2008 season

Contador wearing the maglia rosa during the 21th stage of 2008 Giro d'Italia.

On February 13, 2008, the organizer of the Tour de France announced that Astana would not be invited to any of their events in 2008.⁸ Consequently, Contador was unable to defend his 2007 Paris-Nice and 2007 Tour de France victories. Unable to defend his Paris-Nice victory, he then went on to win his second Vuelta a Castilla y León and the Vuelta al País Vasco by winning the opening stage and the final individual time trial. His next scheduled race and objective was the Dauphiné Libéré but his team received a last minute invitation to the 2008 Giro d'Italia one week prior to the start of the race. Contador was allegedly on the beach when he was told he was going to ride the Giro.⁹ Johan Bruyneel alluded to this on Belgian television by saying: "I'm not going to repeat the words I could hear him shout over the phone, but let's just say it wasn't pretty".

Contador wearing the golden jersey during the 20th stage of 2008 Vuelta a España.

Despite the lack of preparation, he finished second in the first individual time trial and took the maglia rosa after the 15th stage up to Passo Fedaia. Alberto Contador was proclaimed winner of the Giro the 1st June 2008 in Milan. He became the first non-Italian to win the Giro d'Italia since Pavel Tonkov in 1996 and also the second Spanish rider ever to win the Giro after Miguel Indurain won it in 1992 and in 1993. He later emphasized the importance of this win by saying that "taking part in the Giro and winning it was a really big achievement, bigger than if I'd had a second victory in the Tour de France".¹⁰

At the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, Contador competed in the road race and the individual road time trial. He did not finish in the road race, in which 53 of the 143 starters did not complete the course in particularly hot and humid conditions. He placed fourth in the individual time trial, 8 seconds behind his Astana teammate Levi Leipheimer.

Contador entered the 2008 Vuelta a España as the main candidate to win. His biggest challenger was likely to be compatriot Carlos Sastre, who had won the Tour de France just a month before.¹⁰ Contador won Stage 13 by attacking on the fabled Angliru and this resulted in him capturing the Golden jersey as the leader of the race. He extended his lead by winning Stage 14 to Fuentes de Invierno and maintained his lead in subsequent flat stages and the final time trial. In the final standings, Contador finished 46 seconds ahead of teammate Levi Leipheimer and more than four minutes ahead of Carlos Sastre.¹¹ The win made him the fifth cyclist to win all three Grand Tours, after Jacques Anquetil, Felice Gimondi, Eddy Merckx, and Bernard Hinault. In the process he also claimed the following records: first Spaniard, youngest (age 25), and shortest amount of time (14 months). He also becomes only the third cyclist to complete the Giro/Vuelta double, joining Merckx (1973) and Giovanni Battaglin (1981).

Later in the year Contador won the Vélo d'Or award for the best rider of the year for the second consecutive season. The Giro and Vuelta winner beat time-trial Olympic champion Fabian Cancellara and Tour winner Carlos Sastre in a vote by international cycling writers.¹²

2009 season

On September 9, 2008, the seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong announced that he was coming back to pro cycling with the express goal of winning the 2009 Tour de France.¹³ Astana manager Johan Bruyneel, Armstrong's former mentor and directeur sportif, said that he couldn't allow Armstrong riding for another team and later signed him. The announcement by Armstrong clashed with the ambitions of Contador, who insisted he deserved the leadership of Astana, and hinted at the possibility of leaving the team if he was given a secondary role supporting Armstrong.¹⁴ Contador was later given assurances by Bruyneel that he would remain team leader and decided to remain at Astana for the 2009 season.¹⁵ Contador will miss the 2009 Giro d'Italia and may also skip the 2009 Vuelta a España to focus on winning the 2009 Tour de France.¹⁶

Doping allegations

Contador was kept out of the 2006 Tour de France due to alleged connections with the Operación Puerto doping case. However, he and four other members of his team at the time, Astana-Würth, were eventually cleared of all charges on July 26, 2006 by the Spanish courts and later two out of the five (including Contador) were cleared by the UCI.¹⁷ Each received a written document signed by Manuel Sánchez Martín, secretary for the Spanish court, stating that "there are not any type of charges against them nor have there been adopted any type of legal action against them."¹⁸

In 2006 a document from the summary of the investigation (documento 31) was released. In it Contador initials (A.C.) were associated with a hand-written note next to his name saying, "Nada o igual a J.J." (Spanish for "Nothing or like J.J."). JJ were the initials of Jörg Jaksche, who later admitted to be guilty of blood doping prepared by the Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes in 2005.¹⁹²⁰

Alberto Contador was questioned in December 2006 by the magistrate in charge of the Puerto file. The rider declared to Judge Antonio Serrano that he did not know Eufemanio Fuentes personally.²¹ According to Le Monde, he refused then to undergo a DNA test that would have judged whether or not he had any link to the blood bags that were found in the investigation.²²

On July 28, 2007 the French daily Le Monde, citing what it claimed was an investigation file it had access to, stated that Contador's name appeared in several documents found during Operación Puerto.²³ According to some sources, Contador's name is mentioned on a list of then-Liberty Seguros teammates that appear on a document later to identified as a list of training schedules for members of the team. A second reference includes initials of riders’ name that appeared on another training document (e.g. A.C. for Alberto Contador), although neither of those two references could be linked to doping practices.²⁴

On July 30, 2007 German doping expert Werner Franke accused Contador of having taken drugs in the past and being prescribed a doping regimen by Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes, who was connected with Operación Puerto.²⁵²⁶ He passed his evidence on to the German authorities on July 31, 2007.²⁷ Contador denied the accusations, saying "I was in the wrong team at the wrong time and somehow my name got among the documents."²⁷ On August 10, Alberto Contador publicly declared he's a clean rider in face of suspicions about his alleged links to the Operación Puerto blood-doping ring. "I have never doped and I have never participated in an act of doping," said Contador, reading from his prepared statement. "I won the Tour clean. It’s impossible for me to understand the attacks made against me, questioning my integrity as a sportsman, from people who don’t know me but feel they can make such judgments. My commitment against doping is total and I will always be willing to cooperate." Contador was joined by Discovery Channel team manager Johan Bruyneel, Spanish sports minister Jaime Lissavetzky and members of his family.²⁸

Major achievements

Alberto Contador in 2004 Liberty Seguros cycling team

Grand Tour Results (3 victories)

	2005	2006	2007	2008
Tour de France
General classification	31	-	1	-
Mountains classification	90+	-	2	-
Points classification	122	-	10	-
Youth clasification	3	-	1
Stages won	0	-	1	-
Giro d'Italia
General classification	-	-	-	1
Mountains classification	-	-	-	22
Points classification	-	-	-	8
Youth clasification	-	-	-
Stages won	-	-	-	0
Vuelta a España
General classification	-	-	-	1
Mountains classification	-	-	-	3
Points classification	-	-	-	2
Combination clasification	-	-	-	1
Stages won	-	-	-	2

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Alberto Contador

• Official website (Spanish) (English)
• Alberto Contador profile at the Cycling Website

Sporting positions
Preceded by Óscar Pereiro	Winner of the Tour de France 2007	Succeeded by Carlos Sastre
Preceded by Danilo Di Luca	Winner of the Giro d'Italia 2008	Succeeded by TBD
Preceded by Denis Menchov	Winner of the Vuelta a España 2008	Succeeded by TBD
Awards
Preceded by Paolo Bettini	Vélo d'Or 2007 – 2008	Succeeded by TBD

v • d • e Tour de France Yellow jersey winners 1903 Maurice Garin · 1904 Henri Cornet · 1905 Louis Trousselier · 1906 René Pottier · 1907-1908 Lucien Petit-Breton · 1909 François Faber · 1910 Octave Lapize · 1911 Gustave Garrigou · 1912 Odile Defraye · 1913-1914 Philippe Thys · 1915-1918 World War I · 1919 Firmin Lambot · 1920 Philippe Thys · 1921 Léon Scieur · 1922 Firmin Lambot · 1923 Henri Pélissier · 1924-1925 Ottavio Bottecchia · 1926 Lucien Buysse · 1927-1928 Nicolas Frantz · 1929 Maurice De Waele · 1930 André Leducq · 1931 Antonin Magne · 1932 André Leducq · 1933 Georges Speicher · 1934 Antonin Magne · 1935 Romain Maes · 1936 Sylvère Maes · 1937 Roger Lapébie · 1938 Gino Bartali · 1939 Sylvère Maes · 1940-1946 World War II · 1947 Jean Robic · 1948 Gino Bartali · 1949 Fausto Coppi · 1950 Ferdinand Kübler · 1951 Hugo Koblet · 1952 Fausto Coppi · 1953-1955 Louison Bobet · 1956 Roger Walkowiak · 1957 Jacques Anquetil · 1958 Charly Gaul · 1959 Federico Bahamontes · 1960 Gastone Nencini · 1961-1964 Jacques Anquetil · 1965 Felice Gimondi · 1966 Lucien Aimar · 1967 Roger Pingeon · 1968 Jan Janssen · 1969-1972 Eddy Merckx · 1973 Luis Ocaña · 1974 Eddy Merckx · 1975 Bernard Thévenet · 1976 Lucien Van Impe · 1977 Bernard Thévenet · 1978-1979 Bernard Hinault · 1980 Joop Zoetemelk · 1981-1982 Bernard Hinault · 1983-1984 Laurent Fignon · 1985 Bernard Hinault · 1986 Greg LeMond · 1987 Stephen Roche · 1988 Pedro Delgado · 1989-1990 Greg LeMond · 1991-1995 Miguel Indurain · 1996 Bjarne Riis · 1997 Jan Ullrich · 1998 Marco Pantani · 1999-2005 Lance Armstrong · 2006 Óscar Pereiro · 2007 Alberto Contador · 2008 Carlos Sastre

v • d • e Tour de France Maillot blanc (White jersey) winners 1975: Moser | 1976: Martínez Heredia | 1977: Thurau | 1978: Lubberding | 1979: Bernaudeau | 1980: Van der Velde | 1981: Winnen | 1982: Anderson | 1983: Fignon | 1984: LeMond | 1985: Parra | 1986: Hampsten | 1987: Alcalá | 1988: Breukink | 1989: Philipot | 1990: Delion | 1991: Mejía | 1992: Bouwmans | 1993: Martín | 1994–1995: Pantani | 1996–1998: Ullrich | 1999: Salmon | 2000: Mancebo | 2001: Sevilla | 2002: Basso | 2003: Menchov | 2004: Karpets | 2005: Popovych | 2006: Cunego | 2007: Contador | 2008: A. Schleck