Contador bounces back in Vuelta a Espana's first summit finish

Two days after it looked as if Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo) might have only a symbolic impact on the Vuelta a España, Spain's Grand Tour star has bounced back with a vengeance on the first summit finish of the race.

Having lost over 2:30 on the first major mountain stage in Andorra, Contador suffered a stomach virus that briefly caused him some serious problems. As he put it afterwards, he felt unusually weak on the Andorra ascent of La Comella, and it looked as if he was out for the count.

However, as Trek-Segafredo directeur sportif Dirk De Mol told Cyclingnews on Tuesday morning, "It's not like Alberto lost 15 minutes or something," and on stage 5's tricky, steep uphill finish - not the kind of terrain where Contador is at his best - the Spaniard showed that he has not yet said his last word in the Vuelta.

ADVERTISEMENT

Whereas in Andorra, even Sky rider Gianni Moscon's accelerations could sink the Spaniard, this time Contador was able to resist both Moscon's hard pulling and Chris Froome's attacks and even put in a brief dig of his own before the line on the three-kilometre ascent.

He finished in the same time as race leader Froome, Esteban Chaves (Orica-Scott) and Michael Woods (Cannondale-Drapac). Gaps on such a short, punchy climb were fairly minimal, but the Spanish veteran has regained nearly 30 seconds on riders like Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) and almost a minute on Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale).

"I felt a whole lot better than on Monday and getting to be similar to how I felt before coming on the Vuelta," Contador said afterwards.

You can read more at Cyclingnews.com