Astana Cycling Team

Alberto Contador retained the yellow jersey on a day that was announced too complicated for their interests. The Astana team responded well to attacks and the stage was resolved with a win for Xavier Tondo and a second place for Alejandro Valverde, who added another 6 seconds of bonus and is now at 14 second in overall. “The forces have responded to me”, said a Alberto Contador who warmly congratulated Tondo and said he is very happy with this result, waiting, tomorrow, the last stage.

Contador said that during the stage also took into account the interests of rival teams. “At the end they are more interested than me to win”, said about Caisse D'Epargne. “They're at very close in GC both Luis Leon and Valverde and have a very powerful team. I'm also here to win, but I know how I am and how my team is and I can not take responsibility for the entire race. At the end, the interests of Caisse, Garmin and Liquigas also have to be in action”.

Alberto felt very good during the stage, done with a spring weather. “The legs respond and that is important in a very fast stage, because the Paris-Nice will be one of the fastest in recent years”.

In the last climb, Alberto expected more attacks, but did not occur. “People did not moved, but because there was a lot of km until the finish. Then, the finish was not very hard to make differences and also because we have spent many days of competition and forces are not the same”.

Finally, Alberto said that the last stage will be also “a difficult day, but I know the route very well because I almost always used it to attack. This time, at first, and say at first, I will approach it differently, but we'll see how everything goes. For now I'll rest in order to be tomorrow at the best possible condition”.

(Automatic translation. Forgive inaccuracies).

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Jacinto Vidarte

AUDIO:

Contador 1 13-3-10

Contador 2 13-3-10