2011 Tour de France too good for Alberto Contador and other favourites at end of 12th stage
Alberto Contador, the defending champion and a serious contender for 2011 Tour de France, failed to live up to the expectations and grabbed the 8th spot in the 12th stage, while in overall classification he is at the 7th position, as on July 14.
Contador seemed undisturbed after his decomposed performance as he said, “I’m happy with the result because I am sure that from everyday onwards I’ll become better and that is the most important thing. As I said this morning, my goal was to race to my expectations
and be defensive as this was the first mountain stage after so many setbacks. I had to be a bit cautious and not risk anything.”
Contador is one of the big GC contenders who recently won the 2011 Giro d’Italia in May. The 2010 Giro d’ Italia winner, Ivan Basso’s performance was also not good as expected. Frenchman, John Gadret, of Ag2r la Mondiale’s team, who finished fourth overall
at the 2011 Giro d’Italia, has also been pulled out of the Tour de France after stage 10.
Despite losing time in stage 12, Contador is not ready to give up and is positive that he will recover for a comeback with flying colours as the Tour proceeds. He finished eighth at the stage 12 as he eased up on the final climb at Luz Ardiden. Contador
ended 43 seconds adrift to Samuel Sanchez, the stage winner.
After the results of stage 12, his standing in overall classification is 7th as he is four minutes behind Thomas Voeckler, who is the race leader.
He further added, “We have seen from the beginning of the Tour that the Schleck brothers were to play two cards and they would take turns attacking. Today, I simply wasn't feeling my best and my pedalling was not natural. It seems that both Schleck brothers
are a tremendous threat in the overall classification but Frank seems like the strongest at the moment.”
The Spaniard is also hopeful that he will recover from his knee injury as race proceeds towards the next stages of the Tour.
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