An incredible accomplishment that came over a tough road
Today Alberto Contador not only won the Tour de France for the third time, but secured the fifth consecutive Grand Tour victory of his career. He first won the overall at the Tour de France in 2007 while riding for the Discovery Channel team, with current RadioShack manager Johan Bruyneel at the helm.
He wasn’t allowed to defend his title in 2008, when the Astana team he followed Bruyneel to after Discovery Channel folded, was refused a start in the race. In February of that year Tour de France organizers, the Amaury Sport Organisation, announced that the Kazakh-funded team would not be invited to any of their events that season due to the doping controversy at the Tour the previous year involving Alexandre Vinokourov. Astana had changed management following Vinokourov’s blood doping violation, but the organization decided they wanted to make an example of the team that was created for the Kazakh hero.
Initially, the team was also not selected to participate in the Giro d’Italia in 2008, but the race organizers decided to extend an invitation just one week prior to the start. Contador had been vacationing on a beach in Spain following his wins at the Vuelta a Castilla y León and the Vuelta al País Vasco, when he received a call-up to start in the Italian Grand Tour. He immediately changed gears and headed across the Mediterranean to the start in Palermo.
Contador rode into the maglia rosa using the mountains included in stage fifteen, and held onto the jersey all the way to the finish in Milan. Like the 2010 Tour de France, Contador managed to secure the overall victory in Italy without winning a stage.
He then went into the Vuelta a España as the race favorite, with recent Tour de France winner and compatriot Carlos Sastre expected to be his chief rival. Contador again used his climbing prowess to secure the leader’s jersey by winning stage thirteen that featured a finish atop the feared Alto de L’Angliru climb. He followed it up with another stage win in the mountains the following day, and carried the golden fleece of race winner all the way to the finish in Madrid.
In 2009 Contador was treated to another surprise when he learned seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong intended to return from a more that three-year retirement. The American would again ride with long-time friend and manager Bruyneel, which put him alongside Contador on the Astana team.
At first there were assurances that Armstrong would back the man who had just won three consecutive Grand Tours, but his intentions for an attempt at an eighth Tour de France victory became clearer as July approached.
The intensity between the two champions turned into animosity as the race progressed but, despite the turmoil within the team, Contador let his legs do the talking and snatched up yellow with a commanding attack to win the fifteenth stage ending in the mountain-top village of Verbier. He continued to dominate in the mountains, and capped off his fourth Grand Tour victory with a surprising win at the time trial in Annecy.
His 2009 ended in turmoil as the entire Astana Tour de France team was brought over to Armstrong’s new RadioShack team. The Kazakh formation had been in trouble with the International Cycling Union (UCI) over funding all year long, and Contador was obligated to stay with another year left on his contract, and many doubts surrounding the team’s future.
Much to the cycling world’s surprise, Contador decided not to fight in court and stayed with Astana, adding an addendum to his contract with respect to doping to ensure a clean team. He came out dominating the week-long stage races, with victories in the Volta ao Algarve, Paris-Nice and the Vuelta a Castilla y León, all the while deflecting criticism of an Astana team that most were certain would fall flat in defense of his Tour de France crown in July.
The Spaniard had nothing but praise for his teammates all season long, but when he was unable to unhitch RadioShack’s Janez Brajkovic on the slopes of Alpe d’Huez at the Critérium du Dauphiné, doubts about his Tour success began to surface. He entered the Tour with a solid performance in the prologue, but was upstaged by arch rival Armstrong in the opening effort. The American immediately began loosing time in the mountains, and crashed his way to irrelevance as Saxo Bank’s Andy Schleck emerged as the expected real challenger for the overall.
Both riders were the other’s equal in the mountains, with Contador securing the jersey following a mistake by Schleck that cost him 39 seconds and the coveted maillot jaune. Going into the penultimate time trial only 8 seconds separated Schleck from his dreams of yellow – the same slim margin Greg LeMond defeated Laurent Fignon by just over two decades prior.
With the Spaniard almost certain to take big time in the race against the clock, Schleck began his journey three minutes before the leader with nothing to lose. By the time Contador reached the 18 kilometer mark, only 2 seconds separated the two riders, news that dealt a psychological blow to the struggling race leader. Although the Luxembourg time trial champion put in an incredible effort, in the end Contador won the duel by 31 seconds, ironically leaving a 39 second cushion for final victory in Paris.
His third Tour de France win, which should likely have been his fourth, now makes it his fifth consecutive Grand Tour win in three years. Next year Schleck will likely prove to again be his biggest challenge in July. At 26 years of age he will be a year stronger, possibly 40 seconds faster, and in with a good chance to dethrone the Spaniard.