Alberto Contador looks set to challenge for the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France next year after his Tinkoff-Saxo manager, Bjarne Riis, revealed his aim of winning both races.
Contador, who won this year’s Vuelta a España, raced the two other Grand Tours in 2011 but after victory in the Giro he finished fifth in the Tour de France and said he came into the latter race below his best.
Both those results were voided after Contador was found guilty of accidental ingestion of a banned doping product and, according to Riis, the 31-year-old Spaniard is set for another attempt to win both races.
“We need to win in a Grand Tour, and preferably in both the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France,” Riis told the Danish BT website on his return from a team training camp in Tanzania.
“Alberto needs challenges to motivate him. There is a risk associated with it, but I like the idea. We need riders who have the balls to dare to risk anything. Why should he not try it? If there is anyone who can do it, he can. If he didn’t think he could do it, he would have opposed the plan.”
Team Sky’s Chris Froome had initially hinted at a reluctance to compete in next year’s Tour de France but earlier this month suggested that stance was softening. Both he and Contador were forced to pull out of this year’s Tour following heavy crashes with Vincenzo Nibali going on to take the yellow jersey.
