The debut of Alberto Contador on the Tour: "It was seen that he could be one of the greats"

“They were three or four speeds above the others”. Carlos Sastre is not referring to the duel that two cycling monsters such as Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar are carrying out in this Tour de France, which could, although it has been sentenced after the Slovenian bird in Courchevel. The ex-cyclist from Madrid speaks from memory for EL MUNDO of that gala round of 2007, where on July 22 just 16 years ago, a certain Alberto Contador took off.

“He was already known, not in vain had he come from winning the Paris Nice, but in the Alps it was already seen that he could be one of the greats,” explains Michael Rasmussen, ex-cyclist and commentator on Danish television on the other end of the phone line and, on that Tour, Contador's great rival to take the final victory.

Rasmussen-Contador was the duo of gunmen in that gala round. A round that, unlike this year, passed through the Alps before the Pyrenees. The second alpine stage was the one that elevated Michael Rasmussen to the yellow jersey and, with him, he reached Mazamet with Contador trailing behind.

fourteenth stage

The Mazamet-Plateau de Beille stage, number 14, was one of the dates set for that Tour. There were 197 kilometers with two special category ports: The Port de Pailheres and the Plateau de Beille. “We already had 13 days in the legs and it depends on how each one takes it, but the forces were fair,” explains Sastre, in the end, fourth in that Tour.

Port de Pailheres was the first filter of a stage with a great Spanish presence, like that Tour that had 41 riders from our country. This port reduced the escape from 28 to six cyclists, of which five were Spanish. “After the escape of the Spanish, Rabobank began to control the race,” recalls Rasmussen.

The favorites waited patiently, their time would come. “I felt very good, very confident,” reveals the leader at the time and says of Alberto that “I knew we were the strongest.”. Sastre also felt prepared because “he arrived in the best possible physical condition.”

The favorites passed Aix-les-Thermes and, on the slopes of the Plateau de Beille, caught up with all the escapees except Toni Colom, who was thrown to the top two minutes behind them. “Plateau de Beille was the toughest climb, it reminded me a lot of the Lakes of Covadonga, like that among pine trees,” recalls Sastre.. 15 kilometers of ascent with an average slope of 8%, but with ramps of 11%. “It was our first big battle,” Rasmussen adds.

Little by little, all the favorites remained, including Alejandro Valverde and Óscar Pereiro.. “He got on very quickly,” says the former cyclist from Madrid. And then, Contador's ax blow five kilometers from the end. “I didn't know how strong he was until I let him attack and go,” says Rasmussen.

The one in Pinto seemed unattainable, but Rasmussen managed to stick to his wheel. “They released me just over two kilometers from the finish line,” laments Sastre. Both hunted down Colom, who was already melting down, and hostilities began for the stage victory.

final polemic

“I just wanted to run away from Cadel Evans, when we left him behind we went full speed to the top,” recalls the former Danish cyclist. It seemed that the agreement was that the stage would go to Alberto and Rasmussen would benefit from the time gained in the general. Then, the one from Rabobank launched a surprise attack to the one from Pinto. “Alberto told me: 'if I shoot, the victory is mine', but I wasn't going 100% so if it doesn't comply, then I win,” he says.

He tried but couldn't. Alberto, faster, counterattacked him and the Dane could only see his rear wheel when Contador hit his first shot in the Tour. “He beat me in the sprint, but I just wanted to get away from Evans, I knew that in the sprint he had a better chance than me,” says Rasmussen.

That Tour would end up being won by Contador, after Rasmussen was disqualified for not showing up for several anti-doping tests. At 25, his rivals saw that he was a special cyclist. “When you win Paris Nice at such a young age, you already know you're good, but he was extremely talented in the mountains,” Rasmussen defines.. For his part, Sastre says that “you could see that he was a good time trial runner, but in the mountains he made the difference. He was a rider who had a great lap.”. The one from Pinto would end up winning seven.