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Alberto Contador planning to retire after 2016 season

Tinkoff-Saxo rider to bring curtain down on career at age of 33

Alberto Contador plans to retire after the end of the 2016 season, meaning his career will end at the age of 33 - or that's what he is reported to have told a Spanish journalist.

The news came in a tweet by Juan Gutierrez, a journalist with Spanish sports daily, AS.

Gutierrez is attending the launch today of the 2015 development squads of the Tinkoff-Saxo rider's Fundacion Contador.

In the tweet, he said: "I have news. Alberto Contador has announced that 2016 will be his last season as a cyclist."

 

 

Quoted in the Guardian later, Contador said: "I would like to retire being at the top.This year, I will definitely be competing and also next year. I cannot confirm it but that could be my last. Yes, beyond 2016, I don’t see myself [competing].

“I don’t want to put an exact date because many things can happen. Imagine that I fall in the Tour in 2016 then I would not like to retire in that way but right now I don’t see myself competing for more than two years.”

“I feel very good,” he continued. “Physically I recover very well from training and I am really enthusiastic and happy with the team that I have around me. It’s true that the years go by and although I feel really well, I don’t know how many more years I could be competing in the great races and I don’t want to reach that limit.”

The Spaniard, who is aiming to become the first man since Marco Pantani in 1998 to win the Tour de Franec and Giro d'Italia in the same year, added: “My plan is to compete at the Giro and the Tour and I don’t want to be second in either of them.

"I just want to win both although we have to wait and see what happens. Many people consider this challenge to win two Grand Tours impossible, so you can imagine three. I would only compete in La Vuelta this year if I have an accident in the Tour.

“I reiterate that I will only compete to win. I’m never satisfied. Victory is the only thing I think of.”

One of only two men currently riding to have won all three Grand Tours - Vincenzo Nibali is the other - Contador was given a mostly backdated two-year ban after testing positive for clenbuterol during the 2010 Tour de France.

He was stripped of that title, which he won as an Astana rider, as well as the 2011 Giro d'Italia, by when he was riding for Saxo Bank.

Contador crashed out of last year's Tour de France with a broken fibula halfway through the race, but returned to win the Vuelta in September.

There has been speculation in recent months about when Contador might retire.

His current contract with Tinkoff-Saxo ends this season, and last week team owner Oleg Tinkov said that while he would like him to sign for another year, this could be his final season in the peloton.

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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7 comments

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Gasman Jim | 9 years ago
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I thought he broke his tibia not his fibula.

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Simon_MacMichael | 9 years ago
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Now corrected ... had in my brain about contract expiring and fingers clearly went on autopilot as I typed  40

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paddyirish | 9 years ago
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Who's got a beef with Dirty Bertie?

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millskid | 9 years ago
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Maybe the butcher he gets his steaks from is closing!

Exciting rider to watch but he is a unrepentant cheat and I wont miss him. Should have had all his titles stripped.

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adscrim replied to millskid | 9 years ago
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millskid wrote:

Maybe the butcher he gets his steaks from is closing!

Exciting rider to watch but he is a unrepentant cheat and I wont miss him. Should have had all his titles stripped.

Maybe it's just that the steaks are now too high - he's only little after all.

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hampstead_bandit | 9 years ago
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"There has been speculation in recent months about when Contador might expire."

I hope not. I know he is retiring, but hopefully not "expire" i.e. die!

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thesaladdays replied to hampstead_bandit | 9 years ago
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hampstead_bandit wrote:

"There has been speculation in recent months about when Contador might expire."

I hope not. I know he is retiring, but hopefully not "expire" i.e. die!

Agree, perhaps a 'best before' date would have been more appropriate  39

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