Alberto Contador is Tour de France favorite, but he competes under a cloud
Picking the winner of this year’s Tour de France is a snap for some. Oddsmakers hailed three-time winner Alberto Contador of Saxo Bank a 4-5 favorite as of Friday.
For good reason: Contador has won the last six Grand Tours he has entered. He is one of only five riders in the last century to win all three, the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a Espana, in a career.
Others believe that nobody will win this year. The cloud hanging over Contador and his inclusion this year guarantees turmoil, distractions and controversy throughout the three-week, 2,100-mile race,which starts in northwestern France today.
Contador has been a source of consternation since the results of a drug test during last year’s Tour de France revealed trace amounts of clenbuterol, an asthma drug that is banned because it can improve aerobic capacity. The Spanish cycling federation bought Contador’s argument that contaminated beef was the source of the drug and cleared him of wrongdoing. The Union Cycliste Internationale and the World Anti-Doping Agency appealed the decision, which won’t be heard in the Court of Arbitration for Sport until after the Tour.
Because he has been found innocent, Contador is free to ride. If he wins again, then is found guilty, all of his results of the past year, including both Tour wins and the Giro win, will be wiped away.
The wait is killing some people, and killing the enthusiasm of others for the race they used to consider a three-week joyride through some of the world’s most spectacular scenery. Contador was greeted with as many boos as cheers when he was introduced at a pre-race extravaganza Thursday.
"It’s an absolute travesty of justice," said Phil Liggett, the English-speaking voice of the Tour for 39 years, who will broadcast this year on Versus and NBC. "The UCI dragged its heels for months. CAS said it would review it quickly, and now we have to wait until after the Tour. They should have made their decision by now. They should all be shot. It wouldn’t have taken this long for a serial rapist to be convicted."
The competitors can’t be distracted, though. Ryder Hesjedal of Garmin-Cervelo said Contador’s presence and the controversy surrounding it had no effect on team goals: winning the team time trial Sunday, winning a stage or two and placing either he or Christian VandeVelde on the final podium.
Contador is "the favorite and he wins grand tours, so it’s up to him to defend his champion status," Hesjedal said in an email from his training base in Girona, Spain, last week. "This doesn’t change how we are going to race or our opportunities."
Contador swatted away a series of pointed questions about succumbing to the pressure and criticism at his prerace news conference Thursday.
"There always a lot of pressure at the Tour; you can see that by the number of journalists here," he told reporters in Les Herbiers. "The outside pressure is greater than the inside pressure. I’m able to stay focused and know that my objective is to enjoy riding my bike. "
He acknowledged that completing the Giro-Tour double would be difficult. No one has managed the trick since Marco Pantani in 1998.
"It was a very hard Giro this year," Contador said. "It’s difficult to say how I’ll perform over three weeks."
If Contador is the favorite, then Andy Schleck is again the top-ranked challenger. Runner-up in 2009 and 2010, Schleck and his brother, Frank, have built a formidable team, designed to support them in the Tour. Problem is, Schleck hasn’t delivered this year, finishing eighth in the Tour of California and 19th in last month’s Tour du Suisse.
"I know favorites going head-to-head is good for the sport, but sometimes it all goes wrong," Liggett said. "Contador comes into the race with a cloud over him. It’s got to affect his mind. He admitted he doesn’t have the same form he had at the Giro. Schleck doesn’t have the magical form in the previous years, so he’s not gone the best."
Following that logic, Liggett bucked the oddsmakers by picking BMC’s Cadel Evans as his favorite. Evans has finished on the podium in Paris twice and seems more focused after finishing second in a Tour warm-up race known as the Criterium du Dauphine. He also likes a quartet from Radio Shack, particularly American Levi Leipheimer, who finished third in the 2007 Tour. And ever the Brit, Liggett also likes the chances of England’s Bradley Wiggins, who finished fourth in 2009 and faltered to 24th last year but recently won the Dauphine. Read More
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