The UCI ProTour was a series of road bicycle races in Europe, Australia and Canada organised by the UCI (International Cycling Union). Created by Hein Verbruggen, former president of the UCI, it comprises a number of 'ProTour' cycling teams, each of whom are required to compete in every round of the series. It was initially the basis of a season long competition for rankings points, created for 2005 to replace the UCI Road World Cup series, which ended at the end of the 2004 season (although the World Cup did not include any stage races). The ProTour was the subject of continuing disputes involving the UCI, cycling teams, and the organizers of the world's most prominent bicycle races (most notably, the Grand Tours), and in 2009 and 2010 the ranking element of the ProTour was superseded by the UCI World Ranking. For 2011, the ProTour and World Ranking were fully merged into the UCI World Tour. ProTour status for teams - relabelled UCI ProTeams - will continue as the highest level of registration, and will carry the right and obligation to participate in all World Tour races.^[1]

Licensing[link]

The ProTour licences are given to a maximum of 20 teams, to which sponsors must commit multiple years of sponsorship (4 years at the ProTour's inauguration). The exception to this rule was the Phonak team, which was given only a two-year licence due to previous doping allegations. Licence holders can apply for registration each year, which is dependent upon a check on contracts and budgets.

After 2005, the Fassa Bortolo and Domina Vacanze teams folded and the vacant places were given to AG2R Prévoyance and Team Milram respectively. Following the 2006 season the designated replacement principal sponsor for the Phonak Hearing Systems team, iShares, pulled its support as a results of the Floyd Landis doping scandal and the team was disbanded. The Unibet.com Cycling Team received Phonak's ProTour license, and the Swiss-based, Kazakh-backed Astana Team received the license previously owned by Manolo Saiz and his Liberty Seguros-Würth. Unibet.com and Discovery Channel discontinued after the 2007 season, bringing down the number of ProTour teams to 18. At the end of 2008, another two teams dropped out: Crédit Agricole and Gerolsteiner. Their licenses were taken over by Garmin-Slipstream and Team Katusha. Bbox Bouygues Telecom and Cofidis were denied licence renewals for the 2010 season, and new licences were given to Team Sky and Team RadioShack. Although Lampre-Farnese Vini had had its licence renewed until 2013, its registration (a separate process from licensing, concerning finances) was temporarily rejected, but restored after they had missed one race. UCI bylaws were later changed to require a team to be registered before its license is granted or renewed, to avoid a repeat of this situation.

History[link]

Season-long competitions for professional road racing were first instituted in 1948, and continued until the late 1980s when the UCI instituted the UCI Road World Cup series which ran until 2004.

In replacing the World Cup, the ProTour was designed to follow the format of the Formula One motor-racing series, and was intended to address several concerns:

• The Grand Tours were not part of the UCI Road World Cup series
• Different riders and different teams targeted different types of races, making direct comparisons difficult
• Team sponsorships tended to last only a very few years
• Many teams had financial difficulty in paying their riders and staff members
• Several teams had been plagued by doping issues

The UCI lobbied the organizers of the Grand Tours to participate in the ProTour, and was successful in obtaining their agreement despite prior disagreements and threats to completely pull out of the ProTour.

The ProTour has been criticized for not having a system in place for a timely upgrade and downgrade of teams from/to the lower-tier UCI Continental Circuits.

[edit] UCI versus Grand Tour organisers

Originally, UCI and the organisers of the Grand Tours had been unable to come to terms on the 2006 UCI ProTour, with the result that the status of both the Grand Tours and some of the other races organised by those organisations behind the Grand Tours was unclear until well into the season, but they were eventually included.

During the 2007 UCI ProTour season, the ASO, RCS and Unipublic, organisers of the Tour de France, Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España respectively, remained at odds with each other. The primary reason was that grand tour organisers wanted more freedom to invite popular national teams (e.g., UCI Professional Continental teams) and the right to exclude some UCI ProTour teams such as Unibet.com. Failure to achieve agreement lead UCI chairman Pat McQuaid to send a letter in February 2008 to all professional teams urging them to boycott Paris–Nice because it was an 'outlawed' race. In response, the AIGCP (Association International des Groupes Cyclistes Professionels) announced that the teams had unanimously decided to take part in Paris–Nice, the organisation of which was to be taken over by the French Cycling Federation.^[2] Quick Step team manager Patrick Lefevere commented: "I'm more than fed up with all the arguing. ASO and UCI don't know how much damage they are doing to the sport. What am I supposed to tell my sponsors? This conflict has been going on for three years and is escalating all the time. Can the teams be certain that they will be able to take part in the Tour de France later in the year?".^[3]

From 2008, the ProTour was largely devalued by the withdrawal from its calendar of the three Grand Tours, namely the Tour de France, Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España, as well as the early-season stage race Paris–Nice and key single-day events such as Paris–Roubaix, Milan – San Remo, Liège–Bastogne–Liège, La Flèche Wallonne and the Giro di Lombardia.

On July 15, 2008, the 17 ProTour teams participating in the 2008 Tour de France announced that none of them would seek ProTour licenses for the 2009 season,^[4] but in the end all but two of them re-committed^{[citation needed]}.

In 2008 the Tour Down Under in Australia became the first ProTour event to be held outside Europe. This will be followed by two one day races in Canada in 2010, and possibly the Tour of California in 2011.^[5]

In 2009 UCI and organizers had agreement that events will be counted towards UCI World Ranking, which also includes Professional Continental teams. Grand Tour organizers kept the right to choose teams for the races, and also some of the teams chose not to race certain races. From 2011, all races on the World Calendar, those that yield World Ranking points, are to be classified as World Tour events, and the Pro Tour as a distinct series of races is to be discontinued.

Events[link]

Key:

*: Included in ProTour
•: Race held, but not as part of ProTour
X: Race not held, or not as elite professional race

Date	Race	Country	Type	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010
Mid-late January	Tour Down Under	Australia	1 week stage	•	•	•	*	*	*
Early-mid March	Paris–Nice	France	1 week stage	*	*	*	•	•	•
Early-mid March	Tirreno–Adriatico	Italy	1 week stage	*	*	*	•	•	•
Mid March	Milan – San Remo	Italy	1 day	*	*	*	•	•	•
Mid May (2005–2009) Late March (2010)	Volta a Catalunya	Spain	1 week stage	*	*	*	*	*	*
Late March - early April	Gent–Wevelgem	Belgium	1 day	*	*	*	*	*	*
Early April	Ronde van Vlaanderen	Belgium	1 day	*	*	*	*	*	*
Early April	Vuelta al País Vasco	Spain	1 week stage	*	*	*	*	*	*
Early April	Paris–Roubaix	France	1 day	*	*	*	•	•	•
Mid April	Amstel Gold Race	Netherlands	1 day	*	*	*	*	*	*
Mid April	La Flèche Wallonne	Belgium	1 day	*	*	*	•	•	•
Mid-late April	Liège–Bastogne–Liège	Belgium	1 day	*	*	*	•	•	•
Late April - early May	Tour de Romandie	Switzerland	1 week stage	*	*	*	*	*	*
May - early June	Giro d'Italia	Italy	3 week stage	*	*	*	•	•	•
Early June	Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré	France	1 week stage	*	*	*	*	*	*
Mid June	Tour de Suisse	Switzerland	1 week stage	*	*	*	*	*	*
Mid June	Eindhoven Team Time Trial	Netherlands	Team time trial	*	*	*	X	X	X
July	Tour de France	France	3 week stage	*	*	*	•	•	•
Early-mid August	Deutschland Tour	Germany	1 week stage	*	*	*	*	X	X
Mid August	Clásica de San Sebastián	Spain	1 day	*	*	*	*	*	*
Early-mid September Early August from 2009	Tour de Pologne	Poland	1 week stage	*	*	*	*	*	*
Mid-late August (Early August in 2005)	Eneco Tour	Belgium  Netherlands	1 week stage	*	*	*	*	*	*
Late August - September	Vuelta a España	Spain	3 week stage	*	*	*	•	•	•
Late August (2005–2010), September (2011- )	GP Ouest-France	France	1 day	*	*	*	*	*	*
Late July (2005–06) August - September (2007-)	Vattenfall Cyclassics (HEW Cyclassics in 2005)	Germany	1 day	*	*	*	*	*	*
Early-mid September	Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec	Canada	1 day	X	X	X	X	X	*
Early-mid September	Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal	Canada	1 day	X	X	X	X	X	*
Early October	Züri-Metzgete	Switzerland	1 day	*	*	X	X	X	X
Early-mid October	Paris–Tours	France	1 day	*	*	*	•	•	•
Mid October	Giro di Lombardia	Italy	1 day	*	*	*	•	•	•

List of current UCI ProTeams[link]

The 18 ProTeams in 2012 are:^[6]

Code	Official Team Name	License holder	Country	Website	Groupset	Bike
ALM	Ag2r-La Mondiale	EUSRL France Cyclisme	France	ag2r-cyclisme.com (French)	SRAM	Kuota
AST	Astana	Olympus Sarl	Kazakhstan	proteam-astana.com	SRAM	Specialized
BMC	BMC Racing Team	Continuum Sports LLC	United States	bmcracingteam.com	Shimano	BMC
EUS	Euskaltel-Euskadi	Fundación Ciclista Euskadi	Spain	fundacioneuskadi.com (Spanish)	Shimano	Orbea
FDJ	FDJ-BigMat	Société de Gestion de L'Echappée	France	equipecyclistefdj.fr (French)	Shimano	Lapierre
GRM	Garmin-Barracuda	Slipstream Sports, LLC	United States	slipstreamsports.com	Shimano	Cervélo
GEC	Orica-GreenEDGE		Australia	greenedgecycling.com	Shimano	Scott
LAM	Lampre-ISD	Total Cycling Limited	Italy	teamlampre.it	Campagnolo	Wilier
LIQ	Liquigas-Cannondale	Liquigas Sport Spa	Italy	teamliquigas.it (Italian)	SRAM	Cannondale
LTB	Lotto-Belisol	Belgian Cycling Company sa	Belgium	lottobelisol.be	Campagnolo	Ridley
MOV	Movistar Team	Abarca Sports S.L.	Spain	movistarteam.com	Campagnolo	Pinarello
OPQ	Omega Pharma-Quick Step	Esperanza bvba	Belgium	omegapharma-quickstep.com	SRAM	Specialized
RAB	Rabobank	Rabo Wielerploegen	Netherlands	rabosport.nl/wielrennen (Dutch)	Shimano	Giant
KAT	Team Katusha	Katusha Management SA	Russia	katushateam.com	Shimano	Canyon
RNT	RadioShack-Nissan-Trek	Leopard S.A.	Luxembourg	radioshacknissantrek.com	Shimano	Trek
SAX	Team Saxo Bank	Riis Cycling A/S	Denmark	team-saxobank.com	SRAM	Specialized
SKY	Team Sky	Tour Racing Limited	United Kingdom	teamsky.com	Shimano	Pinarello
VCD	Vacansoleil-DCM	STL-Pro Cycling B.V.	Netherlands	vacansoleilprocyclingteam.com (Dutch)	Shimano	Bianchi

History of team participation[link]

Dark grey indicates that the team was not operating in the year in question. Mid-grey indicates that the team was competing at a lower level in the year in question.

ProTour Results[link]

Year	Top Ranked Individual	Top Ranked Team	Top Ranked Nation
2005	Danilo Di Luca (ITA) Liquigas-Bianchi	Team CSC	Italy
2006	Alejandro Valverde (ESP) Caisse d'Epargne-Illes Balears	Team CSC	Spain
2007	Cadel Evans (AUS) Predictor-Lotto	Team CSC	Spain
2008	Alejandro Valverde (ESP) Caisse d'Epargne	Caisse d'Epargne	Spain

From 2009, the season-long competition element of the ProTour was replaced by the UCI World Ranking.

See also[link]

• Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI)
• List of UCI ProTour records

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Official Union Cycliste Internationale website
• www.cyclingnews.com coverage of ProTour collapse, a 1-April joke

Bibliography[link]

• Luca Rebeggiani/Davide Tondani: Organizational Forms in Professional Cycling - Efficiency Issues of the UCI Pro Tour (describes strengths and weaknesses of the UCI ProTour from a social scientists' point of view)

Wouter Weylandt

Personal information
Full name	Wouter Weylandt
Born	(1984-09-27)27 September 1984 Ghent, Belgium[1]
Died	9 May 2011(2011-05-09) (aged 26) Mezzanego, Italy
Height	1.84 m (6 ft 0 in)
Weight	72 kg (160 lb)
Team information
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Professional team(s)
2004–2010 2011	Quick Step-Davitamon Leopard Trek
Major wins
Vuelta a España, 17th stage (2008), Giro d'Italia, 3rd stage (2010)
Infobox last updated on 2011-05-09

Wouter Weylandt (27 September 1984 – 9 May 2011)^[1] was a Belgian professional cyclist for UCI ProTeam Quick Step-Davitamon and later for Leopard Trek. His first major win was the 17th stage of the 2008 Vuelta a España. He also won the 3rd stage of the 2010 Giro d'Italia. He died in a crash during the 3rd stage of the 2011 Giro d'Italia.

Career[link]

In September 2004, Wouter Weylandt became a member of the team Quick Step-Davitamon, participating in the Memorial Rik Van Steenbergen, Grote Prijs Jef Scherens and Circuit Franco-Belge, where he took twelfth place. He was part of the Belgian team in the under-23 category at the 2005 UCI Road World Championships.^[2]

Weylandt turned professional for Quick Step-Innergetic in 2005, but this first professional season was marred by mononucleosis detected at the beginning of the year. Towards the end of the season, he won the GP Briek Schotte, and finished fifth at the Memorial Rik Van Steenbergen event and the National Award, demonstrating his excellent sprinting qualities.

In 2006, his first full season, he finished fifth in the Three Days of West Flanders, then second in the Nokere Koerse, where he won the bunch sprint behind Bert Roesems. During this season, he failed to achieve any victories, apart from the small GP Vichte, but showed great consistency in the sprint, in particular, winning the points classification of the Tour of Poland and finishing fifth in the Championship of Flanders.

In 2007, Weylandt won further victories. In March, he won a stage of the Three Days of West Flanders, which he finished second overall, 5 seconds behind Jimmy Casper. Two weeks later, he won the Tour of Groene Hart, then finished fourth in the Grand Prix de l'Escaut. On good form, he won three more stage wins during the rest of the season in the Tour of Belgium, the Ster Elektrotoer and the Eneco Tour. Finally, during the Tour of Poland, he took advantage of a good performance with his team in the team time trial of the 1st stage to take the leader's yellow jersey for a day.

2008 began just as well for Weylandt. He won the sprint in Nokere Koerse, and finished second in the Tour of the Groene Hart, defeated by Tomas Vaitkus. In April came one of the best performances of his career on the one-day races, finishing third in the classic Gent-Wevelgem behind Oscar Freire and Aurelien Clerc after a fierce sprint. Late in the 2008 season, Weylandt took part in the Tour of Spain, his first grand tour. He participated as lead-out rider for team leader Tom Boonen, but when he dropped out Weylandt seized his chance and won the 17th stage in Valladolid. Building on the momentum of this victory, he took his fourth win of the season on the Omloop van de Vlaamse Scheldeboorden two weeks later.

Following the death of his friend Frederiek Nolf at the Tour of Qatar in February 2009, Weylandt won two more victories early in the season. He won the Memorial José Samyn race after a breakaway with Remi Cusin, and four days later, he won another stage of the Three Days of West Flanders. He finished eleventh in Paris-Roubaix in April.^[3]

In the absence of satisfactory results in late 2009 and early 2010, he was publicly criticized by the Quick Step manager Patrick Lefevere.^[4] In May, he won the sprint of the third stage of the Tour of Italy. Suffering from gastroenteritis requiring hospitalization, he left the race a few days later.^[5]

Although his contract at Quick Step was not renewed, he gained a contract with another UCI ProTeam squad, the newly-formed Leopard Trek. He was the second ranked sprinter on the squad, behind Daniele Bennati, and was placed in the team's squad for the 2011 Giro d'Italia as Bennati's lead-out rider. Bennati dropped out of the race line-up a few days before the start.

Death[link]

In stage 3 of the 2011 Giro d'Italia, Weylandt crashed while descending the Passo del Bocco, near the village of Isola di Borgonovo, suffering a fatal injury. With some 17 km of the stage remaining, riders were going downhill in the final part of the descent at an estimated speed of 70–80 km/h (43–50 mph). According to Manuel Antonio Cardoso (a Team RadioShack rider that was trailing Weylandt), Weylandt looked back over his left shoulder at other riders before a slight left bend. Weylandt lost control and hit the leading edge of a low concrete guard rail on the left side of the road with his foot and pedal. He was thrown to the right side of the road about 10 m (33 ft) away, crashing face down.

The medical chief of staff of the Giro, Dr. Tredici, was right behind the accident in a service car and reported that he ran to Weylandt less than 20 seconds after the crash but, he said on Sky News, "...he was already and clearly dead upon impact. I had never seen such a thing before, such a sudden death." Tredici also reported about the very severe trauma Weylandt's contact with the wall had caused him: had Weylandt survived, injuries to his left foot and lower leg would likely have necessitated their amputation. The Giro d'Italia medical team and Garmin's team doctor performed resuscitation attempts for around 45 minutes, drying Weylandt's lungs, infusing liquids to counteract his large blood loss, and administering adrenaline and atropine to support and restart his heart beat and respiration. Meanwhile, an emergency team was rushing to the incident by helicopter. Upon their arrival, Weylandt was declared dead at the scene due to facial and basal skull fractures, as his injuries were too severe to allow resuscitation. It was determined that his heart had stopped immediately upon impact. Forensic exams the next day found extensive internal organ damage.^[6][7][8] This autopsy confirmed that the cyclist was "dead on the spot and did not suffer."^[9] Weylandt was wearing a helmet, as all professional road cyclists have been obliged to do since May 2003.^[10]

Weylandt is the fourth rider to die in the history of the Giro d'Italia.^[11]

Weylandt is survived by his girlfriend, An-Sophie, who, at the time of the crash, was five months pregnant with the couple's first child.^[12] Their daughter, Alizée, was born on 1 September.^[13]

Tributes[link]

In tribute to Weylandt, the following day's stage of the race was neutralized, with teams taking turns to ride in front, and all riders wearing black armbands. A Bersaglieri band performed "Taps" at the beginning of the stage, while supporters held up condolence messages and replicas of Weylandt's race number, 108, as a token of respect along the route. Church bells tolled in mourning all along the stage. Leopard Trek team was allowed to cross the finish line first, along with Weylandt's training partner Tyler Farrar, riding for Garmin-Cervélo, who linked arms as they finished the race.^[14] Farrar withdrew completely from the race at the finish of the stage and the next day the whole Leopard Trek team also announced their withdrawal. Weylandt's race number 108 has been retired from use in the Giro.^[15] On 4 July 2011, Farrar formed a two-handed W as he crossed the line to win the third stage of the Tour de France, again as a tribute to Weylandt^[16].

Before the start of the third stage of the 2012 Giro d'Italia, a short ceremony was held and a minute's silence was observed.^[17]

Palmarès[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Wouter Weylandt

Alberto Contador

Personal information
Full name	Alberto Contador Velasco
Nickname	El Pistolero
Born	(1982-12-06) 6 December 1982 (age 29) Pinto, Madrid, Spain
Height	1.76 m (5 ft 9 1⁄2 in)
Weight	62 kg (140 lb)
Team information
Current team	Suspended
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Rider type	Climber
Professional team(s)
2003–2006 2007 2008–2010 2011–2012	ONCE-Eroski Discovery Channel Astana Saxo Bank-SunGard[1]
Major wins
Grand Tours Tour de France General Classification (2007, 2009) Young Rider Classification (2007) 3 individual stages Giro d'Italia General Classification (2008) Vuelta a España General Classification (2008) Combination Classification (2008) 2 individual stages Stage Races Paris–Nice (2007, 2010) Vuelta al País Vasco (2008, 2009) Vuelta a Castilla y León (2007, 2008, 2010) Volta ao Algarve (2009, 2010) Single-Day Races and Classics Spanish National Time Trial Championship (2009) Other UCI World Ranking (2009) Velo d'Or (2007, 2008, 2009)
Infobox last updated on 9 February 2012

Alberto Contador Velasco (Spanish pronunciation: [alˈβerto kontaˈðor βeˈlasko]; born 6 December 1982) is a Spanish professional road bicycle racer, who last rode for UCI ProTeam Team Saxo Bank. He was the winner of the 2007 Tour de France with the Discovery Channel team. With the Astana team he has won the 2008 Giro d'Italia, the 2008 Vuelta a España and the 2009 Tour de France. He initially also won the 2010 Tour de France with this team, and the 2011 Giro d'Italia with team Saxo Bank-SunGard, only to be stripped from these titles later having been found guilty of a doping offence.^[2][3] He is the fifth racer in history, and the first Spaniard, to win all three Grand Tours of road cycling.

Contador is widely considered to be the best climbing specialist and stage racer in the world.^[4][5] Notable summit stage finishes on which he has victories include the Alto de El Angliru in the Vuelta, the Plateau de Beille in the Tour and Mount Etna in the Giro.^[6] After being widely expected to lose his tenuous lead in the 2007 Tour de France in that race's final individual time trial,^[7][8] Contador has become a more accomplished time trialist, with several victories in the discipline. He has earned a reputation as an all-rounder, a cyclist who excels in all aspects of stage racing which are needed for high places in the general classification.

Contador's career has been marked by occasional doping allegations, the foremost of which, the Operación Puerto doping case, led his Astana-Würth team (a team unrelated in composition to the current Astana team, despite the same sponsor) to withdraw en masse from the 2006 Tour de France before it began. He was eventually cleared of any wrong-doing, but was also accused of doping after his victory in the race the following year.^[9] In September 2010, Contador announced that he had tested positive for clenbuterol in a control taken during that year's Tour de France, but although he was suspended during an investigation,^[10] he was cleared by the RFEC. A review by the Court of Arbitration for Sport initially set for June 2011^[11][12] was later deferred several times until February 2012, when the CAS decided that Contador be stripped from the results obtained in the 2010 Tour de France and later, which also caused him to lose his 2011 Giro d'Italia victory. He was also suspended until 5 August 2012.^[2]

Personal life and early career[link]

Contador was born in Pinto in the Community of Madrid, the third of four children. He has an older brother and sister and a younger brother, who has cerebral palsy. Having previously practiced other sports, such as football and athletics, Contador discovered cycling at the age of 14 thanks to his elder brother Francisco Javier.^[13]

When Contador was 15, he began to compete in races at the amateur level in Spain, joining the Real Velo Club Portillo from Madrid. Although he got no victories that year or the next, he demonstrated great qualities and was soon nicknamed Pantani (after Marco Pantani, regarded as one of the best climbers of all time) for his climbing skills.^[14] In 2000, he experienced his first victories, winning several mountains classification prizes from prominent events on the Spanish amateur cycling calendar.^[13]

He dropped out of school at the age of 16 without having finished his Bachillerato and signed with Iberdrola-Loinaz, a youth team run by Manolo Saiz, manager of the professional ONCE cycling team. In 2001, he won the under-23 Spanish time trial championship.^[15]

Contador lives with his wife^[16] Macarena in the city of Pinto when not competing, and enjoys hunting in his spare time. He has a fascination for birds, keeping personally bred canaries and goldfinches at home.^[17][18]

Professional career[link]

ONCE/Liberty Seguros (2004–2006)[link]

Contador turned professional in 2003 for ONCE-Eroski. In his first year as a professional he won the eighth stage of the Tour de Pologne, an individual time trial. During the first stage of the 2004 Vuelta a Asturias he started to feel unwell, and after 40 kilometers he fell and went into convulsions. He had been suffering from headaches for several days beforehand and was diagnosed with a cerebral cavernoma, a congenital vascular disorder, for which he underwent risky surgery and a recovery to get back on his bike.^[5] As a result of the surgery, he has a scar that runs from one ear to the other over the top of his head.^[19] Contador started to train again at the end of 2004 and eight months after the surgery he won the fifth stage of the 2005 Tour Down Under racing for Liberty Seguros, as the team previously known as ONCE had become.^[15] He went on to win the third stage and the overall classification of the Setmana Catalana, thus winning his first stage race as a professional. He also won an individual time trial during the Vuelta al País Vasco, where he finished third, and the fourth stage of the Tour de Romandie, where he finished fourth overall.^[6]

In 2006, he won stages at the Tour de Romandie and Tour de Suisse in preparation for the Tour de France. Prior to the start of the race he was implicated along with several teammates in the Operación Puerto doping case by the Spanish authorities, and the team was not able to start. He was later cleared by the Union Cycliste Internationale, cycling's governing body.^[20] Contador returned to racing in the Vuelta a Burgos but he crashed after finishing fifth in stage 4, when he was riding back down to the team bus, and briefly lost consciousness.^[21]

2007 season[link]

After having been implicated in the Operación Puerto doping case, Contador was without a professional contract until mid-January 2007, when he signed with Discovery Channel.^[22]

Contador wearing the yellow jersey during the 19th stage of the 2007 Tour de France.

Contador's first major professional victory came with the 2007 Paris–Nice, which he won 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 attack on the final climb. With Rebellin leading the chase, Contador held off his competitors in the final kilometers, winning him the race.^[23]

In the 2007 Tour de France, he won a stage at the mountaintop finish of Plateau-de-Beille, and was second in the general classification to Michael Rasmussen.^[24] Upon Rasmussen's removal from the race before stage 17 for lying to his team about his pre-race training whereabouts,^[25] Contador assumed the overall lead and the yellow jersey, though he did not don it until after the stage.^[26] In the stage 19 individual time trial, he managed to defy expectations and keep hold of the yellow jersey by a margin of only 23 seconds over challenger Cadel Evans and 31 seconds over teammate Levi Leipheimer. As this was the Tour's penultimate stage, it was the last real competition of the race (since the final stage is traditionally non-competitive save for a bunched sprint to the finish line) and it secured Contador his first Tour de France victory.^[27] It is the closest the top three finishers in the Tour de France have ever finished to one another.^[28]

After Discovery Channel announced 2007 would be its final season in professional cycling, Contador announced on 23 October 2007 that he would move to the Astana team for 2008.^[29]

2008 season[link]

Contador wearing the pink jersey during the 21st stage of 2008 Giro d'Italia.

On 13 February 2008, the organizer of the Tour de France, the Amaury Sport Organisation, announced that Astana would not be invited to any of their events in 2008 due to the doping previously perpetrated by Astana, despite the fact that its management and most of its ridership had changed before the 2008 season.^[30] Consequently, Contador was unable to defend his 2007 Paris–Nice and 2007 Tour de France victories. He went on to win his second Vuelta a Castilla y León, as well as the Vuelta al País Vasco by winning the opening stage and the final individual time trial. His next scheduled race and objective was the Dauphiné Libéré but his team received an invite to the 2008 Giro d'Italia one week prior to the start of the race. Contador was on a beach in Spain when he was told he was going to ride the Giro.^[31]

Contador wearing the golden jersey during the 20th stage of the 2008 Vuelta a España.

Despite the lack of preparation, he finished second in the first individual time trial and took the pink jersey after the 15th stage up to Passo Fedaia. Upon winning the final pink jersey in Milan, he became the first non-Italian to win the Giro d'Italia since Pavel Tonkov in 1996 and also the second Spanish rider to win the Giro after Miguel Indurain won in 1992 and 1993. He later emphasized the importance of this win by saying that "taking part in the Giro and winning it was a really big achievement, bigger than if I'd had a second victory in the Tour de France".^[32]

At the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, Contador competed in the road race and the individual road time trial. He did not finish in the road race, in which 53 of the 143 starters did not complete the course in particularly hot and humid conditions.^[33] He placed fourth in the individual time trial, eight seconds behind his regular teammate Leipheimer.^[34]

Contador entered the 2008 Vuelta a España as the main candidate to win. His biggest challenger was likely to be compatriot Carlos Sastre, who had won the Tour de France just a month before.^[32] Contador won stage 13 by attacking on the fabled Angliru climb and this resulted in him capturing the golden jersey as the leader of the race. He extended his lead by winning stage 14 to Fuentes de Invierno and maintained his lead in subsequent flat stages and the final time trial. That final time trial was won by Leipheimer by a wide margin. Contador later took some offense to Leipheimer seemingly riding with winning the Vuelta in mind, after it had been established earlier in the race that Contador was Astana's team leader.^[35] In the final standings, Contador finished 46 seconds ahead of Leipheimer and more than four minutes ahead of Sastre.^[36] The win made him the fifth cyclist to win all three Grand Tours, after Jacques Anquetil, Felice Gimondi, Eddy Merckx, and Bernard Hinault.^[37] In the process he also became the first Spaniard,^[38] youngest (age 25),^[39] and shortest amount of time to accumulate all three wins (15 months).^[40] He also became only the third cyclist to win the Giro and the Vuelta in the same year, joining Merckx (who did it in 1973) and Giovanni Battaglin (who did it in 1981).^[13]

Later in the year, Contador won the Vélo d'Or award for the best rider of the year for the second consecutive season. The Giro and Vuelta winner beat Olympic time-trial champion Fabian Cancellara and Tour winner Carlos Sastre in a vote by international cycling writers.^[41]

2009 season[link]

On 9 September 2008, the seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong announced that he was returning to professional cycling with the express goal of participating in the 2009 Tour de France.^[42] Astana manager Johan Bruyneel, Armstrong's former mentor and sporting director, said that he could not allow Armstrong riding for another team and later signed him. The announcement by Armstrong clashed with the ambitions of Contador, who insisted he deserved the leadership of Astana, and hinted at the possibility of leaving the team if he was given a secondary role supporting Armstrong.^[43] Contador was later given assurances by Bruyneel that he would remain team leader and decided to remain at Astana for the 2009 season.^[44] Contador later claimed the situation was drastically overblown by the media.^[45] Contador decided to miss the 2009 Giro d'Italia to focus on winning the Tour de France.^[46]

Contador started his 2009 season at the Volta ao Algarve race in Portugal, winning the overall classification, placing second on stage 3, and winning the decisive 33 km individual time trial.^[47] He was in position to win Paris–Nice again after winning the prologue and the toughest mountain stage, but suffered a breakdown in stage 7, losing his yellow jersey to fellow Spaniard Luis Leon Sánchez. Contador and his Astana team later blamed the breakdown on Contador eating inadequately, leaving him without the energy to chase attacks.^[48] Contador finished fourth overall. Contador continued his build up to the Tour by racing the Dauphiné Libéré. He put in a strong performance of the opening time trial and stayed in touch with race leader Cadel Evans on the longer time trial.^[49] However, the strong ride of compatriot Alejandro Valverde up the Ventoux distanced Contador and he rode to help Valverde take the Yellow Jersey while finishing comfortably in third place overall.^[50]

Contador wearing the yellow jersey at the Champs-Élysées stage of the 2009 Tour de France.

On 26 June 2009, Contador competed in the Time Trial of the Spanish National Championships. He stated that he entered the race in order to gain more experience on his new Trek TT bike, but he came away with a convincing victory over Luis León Sánchez, the defending champion, winning by 37 seconds. This is his first National Championship as a professional.

Contador won Stage 15 of the 2009 Tour de France by soloing to the finish line more than a minute ahead of most of his closest GC competitors, and in so doing took the general classification leader's yellow jersey.^[51] He then extended his lead on Stage 17, after finishing second in a breakaway of three riders with the same time as the stage winner, and then the next day he won the second time trial, increasing his overall advantage to more than four minutes.^[52][53]

Contador won his second Tour de France on 26 July 2009 with a winning margin of 4'11" over Andy Schleck. He finished 5'24" ahead of Lance Armstrong, who finished third in his return to the Tour after a four year absence.^[54] Contador has won the last four Grand Tour races that he has entered. During the celebration at the podium, the organizers of the Tour wrongly played the Danish National Anthem instead of the Spanish Royal March.^[55][56] In the aftermath of the tour, Contador and Armstrong engaged in a war of words, with Contador quoted as saying that, although Armstrong "is a great rider and [..] did a great Tour[, but] on a personal level [..] I have never admired him and never will", and Armstrong responding that "a champion is also measured on how much he respects his teammates and opponents."^[57] The sniping caused others, such as the director of the Tour, to wonder "what it would have been like to have had Contador and Armstrong in different teams."^[57]

On 31 July, Contador's agent (who is also his brother) announced that Contador had turned down an offer to remain with Astana under a new four-year contract because he had felt so uncomfortable being caught between the Kazakhstan owners of the team on one side and Bruyneel on the other, and he was hoping to leave Astana at the end of the year, although his contract did not expire until the end of 2010.^[58] However, on 11 August, Contador's teammate and close friend Sérgio Paulinho accepted a two-year contract with Team RadioShack, indicating that Contador might not be able to leave Astana as readily as he and his agent wished.^[59] This was confirmed on 15 August, when a spokesperson for the Kazakhstan sponsors of Astana said that they intended to sponsor the Astana team on the UCI ProTour through 2013 and that they intended to enforce the last year of Contador's contract with Astana in 2010.^[60]

2010 season[link]

Contador wearing the yellow jersey during the 17th stage of the 2010 Tour de France. He was later stripped of this title.

On 21 February, Contador won his first race of the season, the Volta ao Algarve, by winning its queen stage and finishing second in the final time trial.^[61][62] Due to new UCI regulations concerning the nose cone of time trial bikes, Contador did not use his Shiv time trial bike, and instead used the standard red Specialized time trial bike.^[63] On 14 March, Contador won his second Paris–Nice, finishing ahead of other pre-race favorites like Alejandro Valverde and Luis León Sánchez. His main attack came in the mountaintop finish to Mende, where he crossed the finish line alone and successfully secured the yellow jersey.^[64] Contador also competed in and concluded the Criterium International with a second place in the final time trial, only 2 seconds behind stage winner David Millar, while Pierrick Fédrigo successfully defended the maillot jaune against rivals such as Cadel Evans and Samuel Sánchez.

Contador was a favorite coming into the 2010 Tour de France, along with Team Saxo Bank's Andy Schleck. On Stage 15 Schleck was race leader and pressing the pace over the day's final climb of Port de Bales when he threw his chain. Contador and Denis Menchov immediately moved to the front and attacked, pressing the advantage over the crest of the climb and all the way back down into Bagneres-de-Luchon. They were aided by Sammy Sanchez and two others making a group of five riders. Schleck chased hard, but had no other riders to help bridge the gap. By stage's end, he had lost the yellow Jersey and 39 seconds to Contador.^[65] Contador, who now had an eight second lead in the race, met with a mixed reception as he received the yellow jersey on the podium at the end of the stage. It is an unusual occurrence in the Tour for the new race leader to be met with whistles and cat calls as he is given the yellow jersey.^[66] The yellow jersey changing shoulders made a large difference in the remainder of the race, for now the onus was on Schleck to attack Contador, and not the other way around.

Jered Gruber, writing for Velo Nation, argued that Contador was right to attack, defending him on the basis that Schleck did not wait for Contador when he was delayed behind a crash on the cobblestones in stage 3 and lost 1' 13" to Schleck, a crash that cost Schleck the aid of his best ally in the tour, his brother Fränk Schleck. But of course that was early in the race and neither rider had the yellow jersey at the time.^[67] Race commentator Paul Sherwen thought the attack in poor form, whereas his co-commentor Phil Liggett thought not.^[68] Schleck said he considered Contador's actions to be unsporting.^[69] Hours after the conclusion of the stage, Contador voiced an apology for his behavior on his YouTube channel.^[70] Five days later in the stage 19 time trial, Contador beat Schleck again, taking 31 seconds from him. Contador went on to win the Tour de France for the third time with an advantage of 39 seconds over Andy Schleck, the exact amount of time he had taken from Schleck on Stage 15.^[71] Contador became the seventh rider to win a Tour de France without winning a stage.

Contador has signed a two-year contract with Saxo Bank-SunGard for the 2011 season, to ride under team manager Bjarne Riis, who revealed that he would like Contador to try winning all three Grand Tours in one season, a feat never before accomplished. Contador's agent and brother Fran later countered the statement by saying it was "nothing but a dream". Within two weeks, three of Contador's Spanish teammates signed to make the same transfer: Jesús Hernández, Daniel Navarro and Benjamín Noval.^[72]

2011 season[link]

Contador in maglia rosa in Milan celebrates victory at 2011 Giro d'Italia. He was later stripped of this title.

Alberto Contador riding during the 2011 Tour de France.

Amidst the clenbuterol controversy, Contador earned his first win in the Vuelta a Murcia. He won the overall classification as well as two stage victories en route to his victory. Later in the month of March, Contador entered in the Volta a Catalunya, where he claimed a win on the third stage to Vallnord, maintaining his advantage until the end of the race.^[73] He also won the individual time trial of Vuelta a Castilla y León.

Contador competed in the 2011 Giro d'Italia, his first time racing in the Giro since his victory in 2008. Contador won the ninth stage on Mount Etna, his first stage win at the Italian Grand Tour. That stage gave him the overall lead in the Giro, as well as the points classification. He also won the 12.7 km (7.9 mi) mountain time-trial to Nevegal. On 29 May, Contador went on to win the race for the second time.^[74][75] In addition to winning the General Classification, Contador also won the Points Classification and finished second in the Mountains classification.

Despite the fact that he was scheduled to appear before the Court of Arbitration for Sport in early August, Contador announced in early June he would compete in the 2011 Tour de France.^[76] The CAS had planned to hear the case in early June but the dates were pushed back to early August.^[77] Contador aimed to become the first rider to win both the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France in the same year since Marco Pantani accomplished the feat in 1998.

In the opening stage Contador got slowed down by a crash and lost more than one minute. He lost additional time in the team time trial at Les Essarts but finished second in the fourth stage up to Mûr-de-Bretagne. Contador suffered four crashes in the opening nine days of the Tour, injuring his right knee before facing the Pyrenees mountain stages. He was dropped in the final kilometer in the stage to Luz Ardiden and finished two seconds behind Andy Schleck at the top of the Plateau de Beille.^[78] On the sixteenth stage to Gap, Contador attacked on the ascent of the Col de Manse, with Cadel Evans and Samuel Sánchez joining him in taking a time advantage over the other favorites in the general classification, including more than a minute over Andy Schleck.^[79] He was also aggressive in the next stage to Pinerolo but unable to win time to the other favorites besides Thomas Voeckler and Ivan Basso. In the stage to Col du Galibier he lost time to the other favorites after Andy Schleck launched a solo attack sixty kilometers from the finish and Contador was later unable to follow the pace set by Cadel Evans.^[80] Contador launched an early attack on the last mountain stage to Alpe d'Huez, reaching the top of Galibier with Andy Schleck, but their effort proved unsuccessful and they were captured by the rest of the main contenders following the long descent from the mountain. Contador launched another attack on the first kilometers of Alpe d'Huez but he was eventually beaten to victory by Pierre Rolland with Samuel Sánchez second.^[81] Contador finished fifth in the overall classification, 3 minutes 57 seconds behind Cadel Evans, bringing an end to his streak of six consecutive Grand Tour victories.^[82]

2012 season[link]

Contador started his season with still no verdict in the chlenbuterol case. He finished second overall in the 2012 Tour de San Luis and he won both uphill finsihes. He only fell short in the time trial stage of the race. On 6 February he was stripped of these early results, as well the 2010 Tour de France and 2011 Giro d'Italia wins and many other victories. He was also suspended untill 5 August 2012 and his contract with Team Saxo Bank was anulled.

On monday 16 April Tristan Hoffman, sporting director of Team Saxo Bank, hinted at a possible return of Alberto Contador with the Saxo Bank team at the 2012 Eneco Tour.^[83] on 6 August 2012. The next day Contador himself confirmed the rumour of a comeback at the Eneco Tour and hinted at a comeback at the Saxo Bank team. Besides the Eneco Tour he confirmed he will ride the 2012 Vuelta a España and he aims to start at the 2012 UCI Road World Championships on both the road race and the time trial.^[84]

Doping allegations[link]

Operation Puerto[link]

After final rosters had been presented for the 2006 Tour de France, Contador and five other members of the Astana-Würth team were barred from competing due to alleged connections with the Operación Puerto doping case. Contador and four other members of his team at the time, Astana-Würth, were eventually cleared of all charges on 26 July 2006 by the Spanish courts and later two out of the five (including Contador) were cleared by the UCI.^[20] Each received a written document signed by Manuel Sánchez Martín, secretary for the Spanish court, stating that "there are not any type of charges against them nor have there been adopted any type of legal action against them."^[85]

In May 2006, a document from the summary of the investigation (Documento 31) was released. In it, Contador's initials (A.C.) were associated with a hand-written note saying, "Nada o igual a J.J." (Spanish for "Nothing or like J.J."). J.J. were the initials of Jörg Jaksche, who later admitted to being guilty of blood doping prepared by the Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes in 2005.^[86][87] Contador was questioned in December 2006 by the magistrate in charge of the Puerto file. The rider declared to Judge Antonio Serrano that he did not know Eufemanio Fuentes personally.^[88] According to French daily Le Monde, he refused then to undergo a DNA test that would have judged whether or not he had any link to the blood bags that were found in the investigation.^[89]

On 28 July 2007, Le Monde, citing what it claimed was an investigation file to which it had access, stated that Contador's name appeared in several documents found during Operación Puerto.^[90] A second reference includes initials of riders’ names that appeared on another training document, although neither of those two references could be linked to doping practices.^[91]

On 30 July 2007, German doping expert Werner Franke accused Contador of having taken drugs in the past and being prescribed a doping regimen by Fuentes, who was connected with Operación Puerto.^[92][93] He passed his allegations on to the German authorities on 31 July 2007.^[94] Contador denied the accusations, saying "I was in the wrong team at the wrong time and somehow my name got among the documents."^[94] On 10 August, Contador publicly declared himself to be a clean rider in face of suspicions about his alleged links to the Operación Puerto blood doping ring.^[95]

2009 Verbier climb[link]

During the 2009 Tour de France, former Tour champion Greg LeMond wrote a column for Le Monde in which he noted that Contador's time up Verbier was the fastest climb in the history of the Tour, which LeMond claimed would require a level of oxygen transport (VO₂) "that has never been achieved by any athlete in any sport," and demanded that Contador prove that he was capable of that level of aerobic ability "without falling back to the use of performance enhancing products."^[96] At a press conference later that day, Contador refused to answer questions about the article.^[97] Subsequently, other experts disagreed with the calculations in LeMond's article, which were done by French physiology professor Antoine Vayer, who was a trainer for the Festina cycling team until the Festina affair in 1998.^[98] Two physiologists claimed Vayer's assumptions overstate the needed level of oxygen transport, and that the level Contador needed, while "still quite high," is "not so high that you can definitively state that it can only be achieved via doping."^[99][100] A third, who noted that Vayer is the leading expert in this field and "more than anyone, knows how to look at a climb in context", nevertheless also questioned Vayer's assumptions.^[101]

2010 Tour de France[link]

In September 2010, Contador revealed that a urine sample he had given on 21 July, a rest day in the 2010 Tour de France, had contained traces of clenbuterol. He has stated, due to the number of other tests he passed and that only a tiny amount of the substance was detected in the one he failed, that food contamination was to blame.^[102] Adding credibility to the explanation, anti-doping doctor Don Catlin said that of the contaminants found in food supplements, clenbuterol is one of the more common. However, when asked if it was plausible that Contador had ingested the clenbuterol through contamination, Catlin said "without knowing what the level in his sample is, it's impossible to say."^[103] Contador stated that he is the victim,^[104][105] and he can "hold his head high" and that he thinks he should not be punished.^[106] Several people related to the sport defended Contador saying that there is little benefit from using the drug in the amounts that were discovered and that no one would intentionally take such an easily detectable substance.^{[107][108][109]}

There has been some scepticism of Contador's claim that contaminated meat was to blame. In 2008 and 2009, only one animal sample came back positive for clenbuterol out of 83,203 animal samples tested by EU member nations. Out of 19,431 animal tests in Spain over the same period, there were no samples that came back positive for clenbuterol.^[110] Contador's urine sample, taken during the day before his clenbuterol positive sample, was reported to contain plastic residue indicating possible blood doping,^[111] but the test is not recognised by the World Anti-Doping Agency, so no charges in relation to this finding were brought. A theory has circulated that blood doping could account for the minute traces if the clenbuterol was introduced through a transfusion of already contaminated blood, rather than ingestion or injection.^[112]

The UCI issued a statement reporting that the concentration was 50 picograms per millilitre, and that this was 400 times below the minimum standards of detection capability required by WADA, and that further scientific investigation would be required. Contador was provisionally suspended from competition, although this had no short-term effect as he had already finished his racing programme for the 2010 season.^{[113][114][115]} Contador had been informed of the results over a month earlier, on 24 August.^[116] Later the amount discovered was clarified as 40 times below the minimum standards, rather than the 400 times originally reported by the UCI. Contador's scientific adviser claimed that he would have needed 180 times the amount detected to gain any benefit in his performance.^[117]

In late January 2011, the Spanish Cycling Federation (RFEC) proposed a one year ban, but it subsequently accepted Contador's appeal and cleared him of all charges. Contador returned to racing in February in the Volta ao Algarve, a race he won in 2009 and 2010. The UCI and the World Anti-Doping Agency each appealed the RFEC decision independently to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in March 2011, but Contador remained free to ride until the CAS made its ruling.^[118] The hearing with CAS was initially scheduled for June, but following an extension requested by Contador's legal team, it was rearranged for August, in the week following the 2011 Tour de France,^[77] and later postponed again until November 2011,^[119] with the result to be given in 2012. The decision on 6 February 2012 was that Contador lost his 2010 Tour de France title and his 2011 Giro d'Italia title, and would be suspended until August 2012.^[2] The following day, in a press conference, his contract with Team Saxo Bank was annulled.^[1]

Major achievements[link]

Grand Tours overall classification results timeline[link]

Grand Tour	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011
Giro d'Italia	–	–	–	1	–	–	DSQ
Tour de France	30	–	1	–	1	DSQ	DSQ
Vuelta a España	–	–	–	1	–	–	–

References[link]