Astana Cycling Team

Alberto Contador: “You can not always win”

Alberto Contador was unable to complete its team work today because of a allergic crisis that stoped him to breathe well in the last climb, where he decided to keep his pace on the last three kilometers. Astana leader congratulated his teammates and said that cycling “is influenced by many factors and this shows you cannot win allways”.

Photo ContadorInfo

“It's been a pretty hard day”, said Contador, “the team has worked very well, it was very windy and a very good day, very sunny, but that has done that allergy has affected me a lot. I have been attacked especially, and on last 3 kilometers I told Vino to stop because I had trouble for breathing. That causes not to oxygenate my legs well and I decided the best thing was to keep my rhythm and go calmly to the finish”, he said.

Arriving in Corsica, Contador feared already that this could happen, seeing how advanced flowering was. “Yes, but I hoped another cloudy day, as before, when there was more humidity, but this has not happened. I'm happy for the team's work, although it was a pity not to culminate it. Now we must continue calmly with the preparation, to recover and nothing more, wait what I can do tomorrow, because we have a good time trial”.

What happens tomorrow will depend, says Alberto, “of how to recover and how I feel of allergy, but it’s a good course for me and today I allowed myself to be more relaxed at the end than other riders”.

Finally, Contador said not to feel disappointed by this result. “I do not feel disappointed”, he said, “people must understand that you cannot always win. There are many factors in the sport and especially in cycling. As I said, nobody is unbeatable”. Indeed, despite a good start, “the wind has moved much pollen and you just have to see my legs to notice how I retained liquids as a result of allergy”, he concluded.
 
(Automatic translation. Forgive imprecisions).

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Jacinto Vidarte
Jefe de Prensa / Press Officer