Alberto Contador cooks up a storm at the Giro presentation in Milan
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Spaniard predicts Froome will be toughest to beat in 2013 Tour
Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank) says he expects that Chris Froome, the 2012 Tour de France runner-up, could well be his most difficult challenger in next year’s Tour de France – but that he does not underestimate how hard it will be to beat the reigning champion Bradley Wiggins, either, saying the Londoner’s performance this July was “outstanding.”
The race route of the Tour de France will be unveiled on Tuesday in Paris, with the course widely expected to have fewer kilometers of time trialling and more mountainous stages. Contador has raced against Wiggins as an overall contender in one Grand Tour, in the 2009 Tour de France, where the Londoner equalled Britain’s then best-ever finish of fourth, while Contador won. Contador went head-to-head with Froome in this year’s Vuelta, which the Spaniard also won, with Froome in fourth. But when it comes to rivals for next year’s race, Contador knows which one he’s more worried about for now.
“Froome,” Contador told Cyclingnews. “His potential for attacking in the mountains is far, far higher [than in the 2012 Tour]. Even though it’s your form that really ends up making a difference on a climb, the attacks themselves can be important and that’s why I see him as being the most dangerous for next year.
“He’s very tough. I admire him greatly, what he did in the Vuelta was impressive, I take off my hat to him. He’d ridden the Dauphine, the Tour and the Olympics all out and he did a really good season all round.”
Contador said he had been very impressed, too, by the way in which Bradley Wiggins had won the Tour: “I wasn’t in the slightest bit surprised, Wiggins was brilliant in the time trials and then kept the race under control in the mountains. On top of that he had a very strong team.”
“He couldn’t have had a better opportunity to win the Tour. If Froome had been in another team,
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