Spanish two-time Tour de France champion Alberto Contador has vowed to continue competing for at least another year after claiming the Vuelta Ciclista al Pais Vasco title on Saturday.
Contador, 33, declared last year that he would retire at the end of this season, but after his Basque triumph with victory in the time trial he said he would shelve plans to stop racing.
“After going round in circles, and discussing it with my family and my people, I have come to the conclusion that I enjoy what I’m doing and I’ll put the idea of leaving cycling to one side,” Contador was quoted as saying by Spanish daily AS. “I’ll continue doing what I enjoy and that day [when I retire] will come without warning. It sounds crazy, but since I announced I was going to quit I received an incredible amount of messages telling me not to retire.”
Photo: EPA
Contador has won all three Grand Tours — the Tour de France in 2007 and 2009, the Vuelta a Espana in 2008, 2012 and 2014, and the Giro d’Italia in 2008 and last year.
He won the 2010 Tour de France, but was later stripped of the title having tested positive for the banned anabolic agent clenbuterol and got a two-year suspension.
The Spaniard had blamed the failed test on contaminated meat and denied any wrongdoing.
Tinkoff rider Contador picked up his fourth Vuelta Ciclista al Pais Vasco title on Saturday after finishing first in the stage six time trial in 29 minutes 13 seconds, five seconds ahead of Colombian Nairo Quintana of Movistar Team.
That win gave him first place in the general classification, 12 seconds ahead of Colombian Sergio Henao of Team Sky, earning the Spaniard his first title this year after he narrowly missed out at the Paris-Nice and the Volta a Catalunya.
“I have had a very tough winter and this brings me immense happiness,” Contador said.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later