Contador plays down chance of Vuelta appearance

Alberto Contador was greeted by more than 300 fans when he returned to Madrid on Monday having wrapped up a third Tour de France victory the day before. After meetings with Spanish prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and the president of Madrid’s regional government, the Astana team leader got a hero’s welcome in his home-town of Pinto, where he once again stated that he is unlikely to line up in his national tour, which starts in Sevilla on August 28.

Peter Cossins has written about professional cycling since 1993 and is a contributing editor to Procycling. He is the author of The Monuments: The Grit and the Glory of Cycling's Greatest One-Day Races (Bloomsbury, March 2014) and has translated Christophe Bassons' autobiography, A Clean Break (Bloomsbury, July 2014). 

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