Alberto Contador comments on future and the Vuelta

By Monika Prell

Tour de France champion Alberto Contador is looking for a new contract, while preparing to follow an exciting Vuelta a España. The 24 year-old will be leaving Discovery Channel when the team disbands at the end of 2007.

He affirmed in an interview with AS that he does not know if Dutch Team Rabobank will make an offer. "My representative Toni Rominger is the one caring for my future. He said to me that there are many teams that are interested in me. When the offers are more concrete, we will study them."

He is worried that some of his team-mates won't find a new home. "The best known have already found a squad: [Tom] Danielson Slipstream, [George] Hincapie and [Janez] Brajkovic T-Mobile, Egoi Martínez Euskaltel... But I worry the others, including the helpers, who won't find anything."

'Kid Contador' has requirements of his new team. It "should trust in me and be willing to help me win the Tour de France again. And I would like to feel good with them. The economical part is also important. I don't consider myself to be low-paid, but after my win of the Tour my asking-price increased even more."

The young Spaniard won't compete in the Vuelta a España, but he will follow the race with interest. He sees Cadel Evans (Predictor-Lotto) as highest favourite because of the performance the Australian showed during the season. But at the same time, he considered that "it will be a very open Vuelta, there are many riders with possibilities."

Amongst his own team-mates he tips the form of Janez Brajkovic and Stijn Devolder. He considers the toughest Spaniards to be Carlos Sastre (CSC), Oscar Pereiro (Caisse d'Epargne), Samuel Sánchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and José Ángel Gómez Marchante (Saunier Duval-Prodir). "The first two have already shown that they are good in big Tours, but the two other did not compete the Tour and are surely fresher."