Triple Tour de France champion Alberto Contador, fighting to clear his name of a doping offense, was set for Tour of Catalunya victory yesterday after maintaining his 23-second lead in the penultimate stage.
The Spaniard, who learned on Thursday that the International Cycling Union would appeal against the Spanish federation’s decision to exonerate him, finished safely in the main pack in the stage won by compatriot Jose Rojas.
Contador failed a dope test for the banned anabolic agent -clenbuterol during last year’s Tour, but has denied any wrongdoing and said it came from contaminated meat.
With one short, flat stage remaining from Parets dels Valles to Barcelona yesterday, and a 23-second advantage over American Levi Leipheimer to his name, the Saxo Bank rider said he was pleased to have got through a deceptively difficult stage.
“It was a hard day, very fast until a break could actually get away, then things calmed down,” Contador told reporters.
“At least we got some help controlling the race from other teams, which wasn’t the case yesterday. This is proving to be a tough race, when there are breaks, they always contain riders who are threats to my lead,” he said. “The stages are so long too, this is going to be a good workout for upcoming races on my calendar.”
Contador said he was not prepared to think of himself as the overall winner yet, even though Catalunya’s hardest stages were behind him.
“Tomorrow will be fast as well and I’m pretty sure there will be some more attacks,” he said.
“You have to be extra-careful, too, when the race route goes into a large city like Barcelona,” he said. “As ever, I’m taking this on the day by day.”
After four podium finishes in previous stages, Rojas was delighted with his bunch sprint victory.
“The last kilometer was very complicated, there was a lot of pushing and shoving in the pack, but I kept calm and managed to stay out of trouble,” he said. “Now I want to see if I can make it two out of two wins with -another -victory tomorrow.”
The Movistar sprinter secured the win ahead of Thursday’s victor, Portugal’s Manuel Cardoso, with Friday’s stage winner, Samuel Dumoulin of France in third.
TRACK WORLDS
REUTERS, APELDOORN, NETHERLANDS
Australia ruled the roost at the world track championships on Saturday, claiming three out of the four gold medals on offer plus a silver.
With one day remaining, Australia have an unassailable lead in the medals table with six golds, two silvers and one bronze.
The 2008 Olympic silver medallist Anna Meares kicked off the gold rush in the individual sprint when she saw off Lithuanian Simona Krupeckaite as holder Victoria Pendleton of Britain settled for the bronze.
Less than half an hour later, fellow Australian Shane Perkins showed no first-time nerves on his world championships debut as he overpowered triple winner Chris Hoy of Britain in the keirin.
Michael Freiberg then made it three out of four for Australia with victory in the six-event omnium, beating Shane Archbold of New Zealand and Belgium’s Gijs Van Hoecke.
“Six months ago I could never have imagined myself being here, I wasn’t even expecting to ride the omnium, but the chance was there and I took it,” Freiberg told reporters. “I didn’t do so well in the individual pursuit, so I knew I had to pull out something special in the scratch race and that’s what made the difference.”
Freiberg said three golds in three Olympic events “was a fantastic sign for the Australian track program and a real tribute to the staff that have supported us.”
“I had to be very respectful and patient in the final because Simona’s got an extremely explosive jump,” Meares said. “I got myself in a little bit of trouble in our second heat, so I had to make my own path and unfortunately she was in the way. I had to use my elbow to lever my way through and then it was all about going for broke.”
Hoy’s silver in the keirin meant no world championships gold for the Briton for the first time since 2003, apart from 2009 when he did not participate.
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