A Talk with Alberto Contador

I recently attended a reception for Best Buddies, the “worlds largest organization dedicated to ending the social, physical and economic conditions of the 200 million people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (DD).” Founded 39-years ago by the charismatic Anthony Kennedy Shriver, the organization has always embraced cycling as a healthy means of membership drive and fundraising. The glittering reception, held in a massive Manhattan townhouse currently on the market for a cool $85 million (although the renovations are not yet finished perhaps qualifying it as the most expensive fixer-upper in history), featured Spanish cycling great Alberto Contador, winner of all three Grand Tours – a whopping seven GT wins in total.

I had a chance to speak with the Campionissimo, charming and effervescent as ever, and after we bonded over having shared Alejandro Torralbo as a mechanic (he’s currently with UAE) Contador gave me his take on the recent “polemica” at the Giro d’Italia. “First of all, it was a great Giro, coming down to the last real climb on the last real day of racing. But the fault was with Carapaz: he made a huge mistake by attacking on the first kilometer of the Colle delle Finestra and losing all his teammates. Del Toro is young, so explosive, and he had the means to catch the Ecuadorian. What Carapaz should have done was to use his team for the first 3 to 4 kilometers – that’s about what they are capable of – to put pain in the legs of Del Toro. Then, with his deeper strength, he could have hurt the younger rider and it might have worked out much better for him. But once just the two of them were out there, it became complicated, and they started playing games. But, at the same time, Simon Yates was putting out 6.2 watts per kilo on that climb, so maybe there was nothing either of them could have done. Yates was a worthy winner.”

A Q & A session followed where Contador explained to the crowd why his parents had never seen him race. “I have a younger brother who’s afflicted with cerebral palsy and of course he is the focus of the family. So, my parents had always to take care of him while my other brother and I went racing. It was a sacrifice we were happy to make.” Which might explain Contador’s strong attachment to Best Buddies and their mission. The Spaniard is now a fixture of their events and is clearly at home in their organization.

After being put on the spot with a question about his relationship with Lance Armstong during the 2009 Tour de France, Contador answered in a class manner. “Lance told me, ‘I want to win!’, but I too wanted to win.” (It was interesting to hear him say ‘win’ – one could feel the fierce champion coming through with that one word). “I had won the last three Grand Tours I had ridden, and Lance was coming into my team, Astana.  I wasn’t going to give up so easily, because (again) I wanted to win.” His trials and tribulations throughout that Tour are well documented, from sneak echelon attacks to purposely make him lose time, to having to purchase his own time trial wheels, the Spanish champion had a very rough time. Yet, he overcame the obstacles to win the final time trial and with it the Tour de France, his second conquest of la Grande Boucle.

It was a fine evening, old friends and new cycling fans come together for a great cause and to bask in the powerful charm of one of the greatest cyclists in history. I asked him one final question which had to do with his being one of the last truly exciting and attacking racers before the repressive Team Sky era of marginal gains and excruciatingly boring team tactics began, now happily replaced by the exciting generation of today. Did he think that current stars might have taken inspiration from his style? This seemed to please him immensely and, with a great smile he responded, “Tadej (Pogačar) came up to me recently and told me that as a boy he’d watched me race and that he always wanted to be able to attack in the same way. He thanked me for racing the way I did.”

From his tremendously entertaining racing career to his founding of junior and professional teams, to his work on Eurosport and now with Best Buddies, Alberto Contador is a crown jewel of our cycling world. It was an honor to have spent an evening in his company.