Two punctures at decisive points dash Saxo Bank-SunGard leader’s hopes
Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank-SunGard) was denied the chance to defend his title at the Vuelta a Castilla y León in its Queen stage today, as two strokes of bad luck at decisive points of the stage cost him. The Danish team controlled the race almost from start to finish; a first puncture saw control slip through its grasp though, then a second saw Contador’s hopes dashed entirely.
“My plan for the end of the stage was to monitor [Xavier] Tondo and Igor Antón, which were the most dangerous riders,” Contador explained, “but at two kilometres to the finish I had a front wheel puncture. I had already noticed before and I tried to continue, because I knew that if I stopped to repair it, the race was over for me; but I had no other option.
“I have had bad luck,” he added, “tomorrow is another day.”
Although the lead was held, going into the stage, by Francesco Ventoso of Movistar, Saxo Bank-SunGard decided that it wanted to control the race on behalf of Contador. To this end it worked to reel back the stage’s early breakaway on the first climb of the day, to the Alto del Peñón, and ramped up the pace to reduce the size of the main field as it approached the top.
“The team took the responsibility from the beginning and we did very well until the first climb”, said Contador. “There, we almost wheeled in the breakaway but at some 1,800 meters from the summit I had a puncture on the rear wheel so I’ve changed with Jesus Hernandez, but we had problems with the chain and lost too much time.”
Left isolated by the incident, Contador was forced to chase alone for a while on the descent; he was soon joined from behind by two teammates though, and the stage once again came under control of the Saxo Bank-SunGard team.
“I waited for my colleagues on the descent and Richie Porte and Jesus Hernández arrived,” he explained. “Richie did a great job and I congratulate him for this. Then Jesus did the same thing, to maintain the distance with the three riders who had attacked, while I was waiting for the attacks in the last kilometres.”
All was going to plan for Contador then, as the stage entered its decisive phase, but then disaster struck once more; this time it was at too late a point of the stage for him to recover this time.
“Unfortunately, two kilometres from the finish I had another puncture and I could not do anything about that. So I chose to finish the stage calmly and I hope I will have more luck on tomorrow’s time trial.”