Contador suffers on Ax 3 Domaines mountain finish
Too ear꧂ly to think about change in strategy, says Riis
168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Alberto Contador suffered at the hands of Chris Froome and Team Sky on the 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:first mountain stage of this year's 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Tour de France. The Spaniard was simply unable to follow when Sky blew the race apart on stageꩲ eight's final climb of Ax 3 Domaines and lost 1:45 to Froome. He now sits seventh overall in the race, 1:51 off Froome's lead and with his chances of a third Tour de France title severely dented.
He barely spoke aꦉfter crossing the line, only telling rep꧋orts that, "we went up very hard, and I'm not in a good way at all."
Contador was paced by his teammate Roman Kreuziger after he l🦩ost contact with the leaders on the final ascent.
"I have to thank ⛄Kreuziger, but I need to eat well and recover for tomorrow," he said before vanishing into a Saxo-Tinkoff team vehicle.
Several hours later and back at the team hotel, Cyclingnews managed to reach the rider's press officer, who echౠoed Contador's words from earlier.
It waﷺs left to team boss Bjarne Riis to🤪 give a more elaborate explanation.
"We didn't expect it to happen, it's a real surprise. Perhaps Alberto had some breath🌃ing problems but I'm not sure about that."
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However, Contador has been beaten several times by Froome already this year with the British rider taking wins at the Tour of Oman and the Dauphine at Contador's expense. Since that last win the Spaniard had been at pains to stress that he 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:was not in top form but Saturday's performance was consistent – although the l𓆉arge deficit in time was still a surprise.
"The Tour's not over, the hardest parღt ღof the race are still to come.
"It's still too early to think about a change in strategy and Alberto is 🦩still our team leader. We're go🎐ing to carry on with the same strategy as we planned."
Daniel Ben🦹son was the Editor in Chief at gxiaowu.com between 2008 and 2022. Based in the UK, he joined the Cyclingnews team in 2008 as the site's first UK-based Managing Editor. In that time, he reported on over a dozen editions of the Tour de France, several World Championships, the Tour Down Under, Spring Classics, and the London 2012 Olympic Games. With the help of the excellent editorial team, he ran the coverage on Cyclingnews and has interviewed leading figures in the sport including UCI Presidents and Tour de France winners.