Alberto Contador
Winner of Tour de France 2007, 2009, 2010 Winner of the Giro d' Italia in 2008, 2011 Winner Vuelta a España 2008, 2012 Spanish time trial champion in 2009 Winner of the UCI World Calendar 2009
Alberto Contador Velasco ( born December 6, 1982 in Madrid ) is a Spanish cyclist.
Contador is the fifth rider to all three " Grand Tours" (Tour de France, Vuelta a España and Giro d' Italia ) decide for themselves. In addition to these tours, he also won several other important competitions such as Paris - Nice or the Basque Country Tour.
In 2010 he was banned for doping, the barrier be lifted first and pronounced retroactively in February 2012 to two years, from August 2010 to August 2012, by the International Court of Sport (CAS ) again. At the same time Contador were all successes since the positive doping test officially denied, including the Tour victory in 2010 and the Giro victory of 2011.
Alberto Contador is a strong climber, but also a good time trialist. He is considered one of the best cruise specialists of the present. Contador is 1.76 meters tall, his racing weight is 62 kilograms.
Career
His first success came Contador in 2002, when he, the Spanish U-23 Championship won as a 19- year-old in the time trial.
In the following season, Contador was the cycling team ONCE professional. In his first year at ONCE he won a time trial at the Tour of Poland. From 2004 to 2006 he rode for Liberty Seguros, the new team to Manolo Saiz.
During a stage of the Tour of Asturias in May 2004, Contador suffered an epileptic seizure and fell to the ground. The doctors diagnosed then with him cavernoma in the brain, which was a little later removed surgically. Contador fell out for the rest of the season.
2005 Contador had his breakthrough; he won a stage at the Tour Down Under and a stage and the overall classification at the Catalan week. In the ProTour race Basque Country Tour and Tour de Romandie he won a stage and finished third or fourth in the Endwertungen. In 2006 he won a stage of the Tour de Romandie again and this time was second in the overall standings. In advance of the 2006 Tour de France Alberto Contador was excluded due to an alleged involvement in the doping scandal Fuentes, together with 50 other riders, including four teammates from the tour. An abbreviated name on a list seized Fuentes ' was Alberto Contador has been assigned. In later lists the name Contador, however, no longer appeared.
In 2007, Contador rode for the American Discovery Channel team. On 18 March 2007 he won the final stage and the overall classification of the voyage Paris - Nice. On 22 July 2007 he won the 14th stage of the Tour de France. After the overall leader Michael Rasmussen was suspended by his team on 25 July 2007, Contador won the overall classification of the Tour de France.
After the dissolution of the team Discovery Channel the end of 2007 Contador joined together with many of his teammates to the Kazakh team Astana, with whom he won the Giro d' Italia on 1 June 2008. Because the Astana team was not allowed to participate in the Tour de France, he could not defend his 2007 victory achieved.
In September 2008 he won ahead of his teammate Levi Leipheimer the Vuelta a España, making Contador is one of the few drivers who could win all three major country tours for themselves. This was before him only Jacques Anquetil, Bernard Hinault, Eddy Merckx and Felice Gimondi succeeded.
In July 2009, he convincingly won the 15th stage of the 2009 Tour de France, and thus took the lead in the overall standings. In the 17th stage, he built his lead. Just a day later, he won the time trial with three seconds ahead of Fabian Cancellara. After the 21 stage, he was also ranked number one overall and was able to win his second overall victory in the Tour de France.
Since Lance Armstrong after the year 2009, the Astana team left and up to the entire squad Contador of Astana in the Tour de France 2009 took to the newly formed Team RadioShack, Contador went with a completely new team in the Tour in 2010. His chief assistant was there the after a doping suspension returned Kazakh Alexander Vinokourov. Contador fought a head - to-head races with the last year's runner Andy Schleck. For discussions provided the course of the 15th stage, which ended in Luchon. During an attack by Schleck this jumped the chain from the bike Contador and Denis Menshov and Samuel Sánchez, who were at that time on the immediate prosecution of the Luxembourger, did not wait and went out a lead of 39 seconds. Some experts have analyzed the behavior as unsporting, while others saw it as a normal racing incident. After the third stage, there had been similar discussions after Andy Schleck had benefited from a fall on a cobblestone section and a broken wheel spoke Contador, by 1 minute and 13 seconds to make good on the Spaniards. In the end, Contador won by 39 seconds ahead of Schleck for the third time the tour exactly the same time that he had taken out on the 15th stage compared to its rivals.
On 2 August 2010, Bjarne Riis announced that Contador had signed a two -year contract with his team Saxo Bank, there to be team captain.
Despite the ongoing doping investigations against Contador, this was allowed to participate in the Giro d'Italia in 2011 and won the overall title as top favorite by a large margin. The profile of the probably hardest Giro history came to him doing very well. In Milan, the professionals should have completed 21 stages with 3479 km and over 40,000 meters of altitude. Contador demonstrated already on the 9th stage his strength, as he sat on Etna a courtesy, which none of the other favorites could follow, so he also took the overall lead to his stage win. From now on he led his opponent in front of downright, which earned him the displeasure of the audience. So he sat down at the Monte Zoncolan only by his Italian Vincenzo Nibali from fellow competitors to let him come again, then to finally break away from him. The audience put him this as a lack of sportsmanship and pelted him with eggs even. Undeterred, Contador built his lead in the overall lead ever further and was also able to work on marking decide for themselves. The 16th stage ( mountain time trial ), he finished first. On the 19th stage he drove up to the leader Paolo Tiralongo and helped his former teammates to win the race. At the finish in Milan Contador celebrated his second victory at the Tour of Italy with 6:10 minutes ahead of the Italians Michele Scarponi and 6:56 min to his compatriot Vincenzo Nibali.
Contador started his 2012 season in late January at the Tour de San Luis in Argentina. Despite a few kilograms overweight, he won the first mountain top finish on the third leg in the Mirador del Portero before Levi Leipheimer ( Omega Pharma- Quick Step) and Nibali and thus took over the leader's jersey of the race with four seconds ahead. It was also the first success of the team Saxo Bank in 2012. However, the Yellow Jersey he was on the following day, an individual time trial over 19 kilometers not defend, and lost as a day in sixth just over one minute, the new leader Leipheimer. But on the fifth stage to Mirador del Sol succeeded Contador the next victory, after he put an attack five kilometers from the finish of the mountain-top finish, which could only follow Leipheimer and Daniel Díaz ( San Luis Somos Todos ), but which he finally shake off yet could. Thus, the Spaniards secured the second place in the final standings of the Tour de San Luis.
On February 5, Contador denied at the Trofeo Palma at the Mallorca Challenge for Team Saxo Bank in his last race before his doping suspension until August 2012. After the doping ban, he played the Eneco Tour, where he finished fourth. Following this, he contested the Vuelta a España, where he took over with a surprise attack on stage 17 to stage win and the lead in the overall standings and won the tour so.
On January 3, 2014, Contador announced the formation of a bicycle School in his hometown of Pinto. Here he wants to take care together with his foundation to the promotion of young talent.
Doping
Contador is said to have contact with Eufemiano Fuentes and thus an involvement in the doping scandal Fuentes. He is suspected to have been registered under the symbol " AC" in the customer file of the physician. A revised version of the Fuentes list, which was released a short time later, he no longer appeared then on, however. Contador himself has always denied all doping allegations.
A survey conducted during the Tour de France doping test on July 21, 2010, a positive result from a small amount of clenbuterol was collected in the A and B sample. In accordance with the Regulations of the UCI was a provisional suspension of Contador, who had at the time of message end of September 2010 completed its season. Contador himself referred to the small amount of the approved substance and suspected a food contamination as the cause of the positive result, and clarified later, one of a helper in Spain and bought piece of meat was contaminated. September 30, 2010 Contador was locked. In addition, traces were discovered of plasticizers in the samples, as they are often found after blood transfusions. On 15 February 2011, the Spanish Cycling Federation ( RFEC ) he spoke of the accusations of doping on the grounds freely, the driver was able to prove that they have taken the banned substance through no fault to him, and lifted up his one-year ban. The UCI put the end of March 2011 appealed to the International Court of Sport on the grounds that they were not convinced by " intensive review " of the documents submitted by the Spanish Federation that the driver would have provided evidence to have taken the clenbuterol no fault to him. WADA joined a few days later on the appeal by the UCI.
In February 2012 the International Court of Sport Contador finished due to the two appeals with a two-year doping ban. The part of the WADA stated hypothesis of a banned blood transfusion is like the thesis Contador a contaminated piece of meat possible in principle, but more likely as the cause was a contaminated food supplement. Contador but the incumbent on it under the WADA Code evidence that the finding is not responsible for him, is not provided and therefore lock. The lock came retroactively on 25 January 2011. In the period of lock time was reckoned that was in 2010 and 2011 already locked Contador: Five months and 19 days. So that the doping suspension ended on 5 August 2012. Apart from the Tour de France 2010 title all results Contador were canceled after January 25, 2011 from the list of results, including the win at the Giro d' Italia 2011.
Achievements
2002
- Spanish U23 champion, Time Trial
2003
- A stage in Tour of Poland
2005
- A stage of Tour Down Under
- Appreciation and a stage Setmana Catalana
- A stage Basque Country Tour
- A stage of Tour de Romandie
2006
- A stage of Tour de Romandie
- A stage in the Tour de Suisse
2007
- A stage Tour of Valencia
- Overall and two stages of Paris-Nice
- Appreciation and a stage Vuelta a Castilla y León
- Appreciation, junior rating and a Tour de France
2008
- Overall and two stages of the Vuelta a Castilla y León
- Overall and two stages Basque Country Tour
- Appreciation Giro d' Italia
- Overall, combined score and two stages of the Vuelta a España
2009
- Appreciation and a stage Algarve Tour
- Two stages of Paris-Nice
- Overall and two stages Basque Country Tour
- Spanish time trial champion
- Appreciation, two stages and team time trial Tour de France
- Clasica Cancun
- Winner of the individual competition of the UCI World Rankings
2010
- Appreciation and a stage Algarve Tour
- Appreciation and a stage Paris-Nice
- Appreciation and a stage Vuelta a Castilla y León
- Two stages Critérium du Dauphiné
- General Classification Tour de France
2011
- Overall and two stages Vuelta a Murcia
- Appreciation and a stage Tour of Catalonia
- A stage in the Vuelta a Castilla y León
- Appreciation, points classification and two stages of the Giro d' Italia
- Two stages of the Tour de San Luis
- Appreciation and a stage Vuelta a España
- Milan -Turin
- A stage of the Tour de San Luis
- Volta ao Algarve stage a
- Overall and two stages of Tirreno- Adriatico
Grand Tour Ranking
DNF = Task
Awards
- Vélo d'Or 2007, 2008, 2009