Contador has the fans in his heart

By Jean-François Quénet in Forcalquier

While one might expect that a rider who's palmarès include all three Grand Tours may be jaded by winning, Alberto Contador's enthusiastic victory salute at the top of La Montagne de Lure belies a competitor who's still excited by crossing the line first. With a large smile on his face, Contador hit his heart twice and made the gesture of a gun shot.

"In some ways, this is my trademark," the Spaniard explained. "When I show my heart, I want to thank all the people who support me. Today, on the final climb, the crowd was tremendous. I suffered a lot but the satisfaction at the end was enormous."

Contador's win looked easy but it required a significant effort to achieve. "The wind made the race very difficult at the end," he said. "I knew this was the stage for making a difference so I tried to create a gap and after that I had to maintain it. I was not certain that I could do it against a rider like Sylvain [Chavanel] who is very tough.

"I maintained a high rhythm," he continued. "When I saw Toni Colom and Fränk Schleck dropping off, I preferred to push myself and keep going. I thought it was too early to attack with eight kilometres to go, but there weren't many options."

With a 1:13 advantage over Luis León Sánchez and 1:24 over Chavanel, Contador's got a comfortable lead with two days to go in Paris-Nice. "The race is certainly not over yet," said Contador. "There are two hard days to come yet and the race is very hard to control. Riders like Luis León [Sánchez], [Antonio] Colom, Samuel Sánchez or Fränk Schleck can still create many problems."

Contador didn't mention Chavanel who lost the yellow jersey but still remains in third place overall. "My Paris-Nice is already a success." Chavanel said. "I've won a stage and I've spent three days in yellow. I'm happy with that and I'm still in contention for second place."