Contador to Ride Vuelta, Healing Faster than Expected

Aug 14, 2014 – Alberto Contador, who was forced out of the Tour de France on Bastille Day with a broken shinbone, intends to start the Tour of Spain after all, he announced on Thursday.

AFP/Yuzuru Sunada

  
At the end of July Contador had ruled himself out of the Vuelta, which begins on August 23 in Jerez, having crashed hard on a descent and suffered the injury which ended his hopes of a third Tour win.
 
“I’ve been riding the bike for ten days and yesterday was the first day I could climb a mountain pass without knee pain,” said the leader of the Tinkoff-Saxo team. “That excites me, motivates me and has led me to make the decision to ride
the Tour of Spain,” he added.
 
A surgeon traveled from Madrid to Contador’s home in Lugano, Switzerland, to treat him, re-opening the wound and cleansing it to allow it to heal better.
  
“Thanks to the work of the specialists who have treated me I could recover in record time. Am deeply grateful to them all,” Contador said.
 
It was a far cry from his tweet in July when he ruled himself out of the race he has won twice, in 2008 and 2012.
  
“Bad day today, there is a complication in the scarring of the injuries, I don’t have a date for when I can climb back on a bike. Goodbye to the Vuelta,” he said then.

Hi all.I want to announce I will ride the Vuelta a España.Here you have a little video.See you all in Jerez https://t.co/T83QmVJL1t

— Alberto Contador (@albertocontador) August 14, 2014