Flu forces Contador out of Il Lombardia

Alberto Contador has been forced to skip Il Lombardia, one of his final races in Tinkoff colours, due to flu. On Thursday, Contador had posted a photo of himself training on the rollers saying that the autumn rain had taken its toll on him and he confirmed on Friday morning that he would not be present on the start line in Como.

“Goodbye @Il_lombardia, after preparing myself and looking after myself, the flue stops me,” he wrote. “Good luck in the final race of the WorldTour @tinkoff_team.”

Contador had been due to close out his time at the Tinkoff team with appearances at Il Lombardia and the Abu Dhabi Tour, as he confirmed earlier this month. The team had hoped he could send the squad off with a final WorldTour victory. Rafal Majka confirmed on Facebook that he would replace the Spaniard in the final WorldTour race of the season, stating that it would be his final race of the year. 

"My legs feel tired and they aren't the way that they were at the Tour de France and the Olympic Games in Rio," Majka said. "My goal is to help the boys in getting the best possible result for the course."

Contador has had a mixed season with early season victories let down by crashes at the Tour de France and the Vuelta a Espana. In an exclusive interview with Cyclingnews earlier this month, Contador said that while he was content with how he had performed throughout the season he was not entirely happy with the end result.

Tinkoff's team for Il Lombardia are: Rafal Majka, Roman Kreuziger, Jesper Hensen, Pavel Brutt, Sergio Paulinho, Pawel Poljanski, Matteo Tosatto, Michael Gogl, .