Tour de France winners Chris Froome and Alberto Contador set for showdown in Andalusia

Sport360 staff 07:37 18/02/2015
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  • High hopes: Chris Froome (l) and Alberto Contador (r) have both targeted major titles ahead of this week’s Ruto del Sol.

    Former Tour de France winners Alberto Contador and Chris Froome will go head-to-head in their first outing of the 2015 season in the five-stage Ruta del Sol in Andalusia starting today.

    – Dutch rider Niki Terpstra retains Tour of Qatar lead
    Kristoff rides the storm to win the second stage of the Tour of Qatar

    Spain’s Contador announced on Monday that he intends to retire after two more seasons at the top.

    However, he also hinted that date could be moved forward should he succeed in becoming the first man since Italian Marco Pantani in 1998 to win both the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France in the same season.

    Contador was too good for British rider Froome as he stormed to a third Tour of Spain triumph in September, but is desperate to make up for the disappointment of having to retire during the 10th stage of last year’s Tour de France after suffering a broken leg in a heavy crash.

    “I start my season in two days and I am desperate to get going, I have trained a lot,” Contador said.

    “I am a rider that likes to compete. We will see what shape I am, perhaps I will be a little slower than last year with this great Giro-Tour challenge I have planned.

    “Obviously, when you plan something it is because you want to win.

    Fierce competition: Alberto Contador and Chris Froome are both aiming for the Giro and Tour de France double this season.

    “I don’t settle and I wouldn’t sign for anything other than first place in both.

    “It doesn’t mean I am going to win or that it will be easy, to win one will be really difficult, much less both of them.”

    Kenyan-born Froome has also stressed that the Tour de France remains his priority after he too had to retire just five stages into the defence of the title he won in 2013.

    Last year’s Giro champion Nairo Quintana misses out after crashing at the Colombian national championships last week and his Movistar team-mate Alejandro Valverde is skipping the event despite winning in Andalusia for the past three years.

    The race should therefore provide an early season pointer as to which man is in better shape with Contador and Froome expected to battle it out for the general classifi-cation victory.

    A split stage today will provide the first test with a short 118km stage followed by an 8.2km individ-ual time trial.

    However, the real intrigue will come on stages three and four with steep mountain climbs to the finish on Friday and Saturday.

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