Astana Cycling Team

Alberto Contador arrived in Burgos with his team mate Jesus Hernandez, and did together the last training before the Tour of Castilla and Leon, which begins tomorrow with a course that likes very much the leader of Astana. “It's a tourn that I faced with enthusiasm”, he says, “is a nice race with a final climb in the third stage, a time trial in the fourth and the final in Santiago de Compostela”. Contador finished second overall past year, behind his former team mate Levi Leipheimer, and has won the 2007 and 2008 editions.

Alberto Contador starts the race “with motivation and to see how legs respond because the last comtetition was nearly two weeks ago”, although his aim is double. “Of course, as I always say, where I go I like being at a high level and be ahead in the standings, but I don’t know what is my level here, nor the rest of the riders. And it will be also a preparation for the classics, Fleche and Liege, though these races I am aware that I start thinking more to gain experience, because I still don’t know them well and there are riders who are better than me”.

Alberto rode this morning with a new bike, designed especially for him. This is a Tarmac SL3 “with a design that has made Specialized based on the idea of the Triple Crown, with the yellow of the Tour, the Giro's pink and red jersey of the Vuelta, which changes this year. It is an aggressive design, personalized and I like it a lot”.

Specialized plans to build a very limited number of replicas of this new Alberto’s bike to be launched in the coming months and for which orders are already being received. Meanwhile, Alberto maybe can upload it to the podium in the Tour of Castilla and Leon, although he is very prudent. “Well, I would like, but we will to see how things are going. I hope I can race well with this bike ... because if I don’t, I’ll change it again”, he jokes.

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Astana Cycling Team
Communication Department