Alberto Contador ending his 2012 season
After a successful return to professional cycling, Alberto Contador rode the Giro Di Lombardia as the last race of his 2012 season.
The cyclist is looking ahead to take some rest after he finished ninth at the last European Grand Tour race of the calendar.
"It was a season without a lot of racing days, but they were very concentrated, and with a lot of really hard training days. This year wore me out, physically as well as psychologically", Contador stated.
"Then, the worlds were normal even though I had good sensations and I was a protagonist".
"Finally, I can't ask for anything more after this week in Italy and after having spent so many months without competition".
“From now on, I will rest and disconnect a bit from the bike. I need to give my body and my head some rest".
He was hoping to finish the season on a high-note but had to face the disappointment as Joaquim Rodriguez Oliver of Team Katusha claimed the top overall position.
The Spaniard took a total time of 6 hours, 36 minutes and 27 seconds to restrict Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez of Team Euskaltel-Euskadi as he finished 9 seconds behind at the second position.
Rigoberto Uran Uran of Team Sky Procycling, Mauro Santambrogio of Team BMC and Sergio Luis Henao Montoya of Team Sky Procycling occupied the third, fourth and the fifth positions in the respective order.
Winner of the 2012 Giro d’Italia, Ryder Hesjedal achieved the sixth position with Bauke Mollema of Team Rabobank and Oliver Zaugg of Team RadioShack-Nissan achieving the seventh and the eighth positions while Alberto Contador of Team Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank
finished ninth.
The 29-year-old was banned from professional cycling for consuming clenbuterol at the Tour de France 2010 and marked his return to professional cycling at the Eneco Tour 2012.
He rode brilliantly at the Eneco Tour and occupied the fourth overall position after the final general classifications and fine-tuned ahead of the biggest goal of his 2012 season, the Vuelta a Espana 2012.
Contador started the last Grand Tour race of the season rather slowly but surely and succeeded during the 17th stage of the race.
He also managed to claim an overall victory at the race and registered the fifth overall Grand Tour overall victory of the season.
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