Spaniard planning a series of single day WorldTour events
Having said during the Tour de France that he won’t defend his Vuelta a España title due to tiredness, Alberto Contador is instead likely to ride a number of one day races before calling a halt to his season.
The Spaniard based his season around being at his best for the Tour de France but after sitting second overall to eventual winner Chris Froome, he cracked on the final mountain stage and slipped to fourth in the general classification.
He will return to competition in 33 days time when he rides the GP Plouay in France. After that, he will travel to Canada and compete in two WorldTour races there, the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec on September 13th and, two days later, the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal.
According to his press officer Jacinto Vidarte, attempting to take the rainbow jersey on a tough course that could suit his talents is looking unlikely.
“The worlds are still in doubt, as well as races like Lombardia,” he told VeloNation today.
Contador has had a quieter season than anticipated, notching up a single win, a stage of the Tour de San Luis in January.
He has clocked up several top ten results since then but clearly hasn’t been firing on all cylinders.
He is thought to want to end the season early and to focus at being back to his best in the 2014 Tour de France.
Contador’s team recently declared that it was parting ways with co-sponsor Oleg Tinkoff, who backed the team this year to the tune of an estimated six million euro.
He said that he wasn’t happy with Contador’s performance during the recent Tour, and yesterday blasted the Spaniard on Twitter over his decision not to defend his title in the Tour of Spain.
“He is not riding Vuelta- he is tired), LOL, what the fuck Conta is tired from,one race?He isn’t tired to receive monthly HUGE check, though,” he wrote.
It is understood that Riis and the team are not happy with the public criticism. Riis said recently that Tinkov’s twitter message were one factor in the relationship breaking down, but not the main reason.