Alberto Contador Velasco (born 6 December 1982 in
Madrid, Spain) is a professional road bicycle racer
for UCI ProTeam Team Astana and winner of the 2007
Tour de France with team Discovery Channel. While he
competes for the overall titles, he is considered a
climbing specialist.
Contador lives in Pinto, Spain.
An early career highlight is his Stage 5 victory in
the 2005 Tour Down Under, his first win after
overcoming a massive blood clot in his brain, for
which he underwent a risky surgery and a long,
painful road to recovery to get back on his bike.
The blood clot was discovered after he crashed and
went into convulsions during the first stage of the
2004 Vuelta a Asturias. He had suffered headaches
for several days beforehand.
Following the demise the Manolo Saiz–run Liberty
Seguros-Würth team, Contador was without a
professional contract until mid-January 2007, when
he signed with Discovery Channel under a cloud of
suspicion due to the Operación Puerto doping case.
Contador's first major pro victory came with the
2007 Paris-Nice, which he won in dramatic fashion on
the race's final stage. Discovery effectively wore
down the remnants of the race leader, Davide
Rebellin's, Gerolsteiner team, allowing Contador to
launch an authoritative attack on the final climb.
With Rebellin leading the chase, Contador held off
his competitors in the final kilometers, winning him
this prestigious race.
In the 2007 Tour de France, he won the 14th stage at
the mountaintop finish of Plateau-de-Beille, and was
second in the general classification to Michael
Rasmussen. Upon Rasmussen's removal from the race
after stage 17, Contador assumed the overall lead
and the yellow jersey. In stage 19, a time trial, he
managed to keep hold of the yellow jersey by a
margin of only twenty-three seconds over challenger
Cadel Evans and went on to win his first Tour de
France, the first win for the Discovery Channel team
since Lance Armstrong's victory in 2005.
After the announcement of the future termination of
team Discovery Channel, Contador announced on
October 23, 2007 that he would move to Astana for
2008.
On February 13, 2008, the organizer of the Tour de
France announced that Astana would not be invited to
any of their events in 2008. Consequently,
Contador's ability to defend his 2007 Tour de France
title is now in doubt.
Contador was kept out of the 2006 Tour de France due
to connections with the Operación Puerto doping
case. He and four other members of his team at the
time, Astana-Würth, were cleared of all charges on
July 26, 2006 by the Union Cycliste Internationale
after Judge Antonio Serrano dropped the case against
all suspects, when he stated that he was not sure
Spanish health laws had been breached.
On July 30, 2007 German doping expert Werner Franke
accused Contador of having taken drugs in the past
and being prescribed a doping regimen by Dr.
Eufemiano Fuentes, who was connected with Operación
Puerto. He passed his evidence on to the German
authorities on July 31, 2007. Contador denied the
accusations, saying "I was in the wrong team at the
wrong time and somehow my name got among the
documents." On August 10, Alberto Contador publicly
declared he's a clean rider in face of suspicions
about his alleged links to the Operación Puerto
blood-doping ring. "I have never doped and I have
never participated in an act of doping," said
Contador, reading from his prepared statement. "I
won the Tour clean. It’s impossible for me to
understand the attacks made against me, questioning
my integrity as a sportsman, from people who don’t
know me but feel they can make such judgments. My
commitment against doping is total and I will always
be willing to cooperate." Contador was joined by
Discovery Channel team manager Johan Bruyneel,
Spanish sports minister Jaime Lissavetzky and
members of his family. Contador is joining the
Astana team for the 2008 season, following the
footsteps of his team manager(Johan Bruyneel) and
Tour third placed winner, Levi Leipheimer.
