Spanish Tour de France legend Alberto Contador announced last week that he has had 100 benign tumours removed.
The two-time Tour de France winner posted on his Instagram account with a video in which his entire legs and torso were swathed in bandages and he had sticking plasters on his arms.
"Yesterday it was time to go to the repair shop," the rider turned commentator wrote on his Instagram account. "I needed to get some lipomas removed and it turned out I had over 100! I won't be riding for a while."
The former Astana rider said that he expected to be back on his bike next month and had been meaning to get the surgery done for some time.
Since he posted that video the two-time Giro d’Italia winner has appeared to be in good spirits posting a giveaway for a Bkool virtual training platform subscription and several images of him enjoying typical Christmas celebrations with his family.
He now has plenty of time to fully recover before resuming his usual day job of managing his bike brand Aurum, which he co-owns with fellow grand tour winner Ivan Basso and appearing as a pundit on Eurosport’s cycling coverage.
It hasn’t all been bad news for Contador in recent weeks. The Eolo-Kometa team, which he is heavily involved with and supplies Aurum bikes to, received confirmation of its ProTeam status earlier this month.
The Spaniard is regularly pictured riding with the team’s pros on Instagram and in 2021 Cycling Weekly spoke to Brit John Archibald, then on the squad, who told us Contador is still every inch the athlete.
“Contador likes to hammer still,” the Scotsman recalled. “When we were doing a chain going through and off he's the one kicking through. I daren’t kick through on him because he’ll probably just kick you harder. He says he's overweight and doesn’t have the same form he used to have, but he still likes to ride hard.
The same could not be said for Basso, who has a more hands-on role with the squad though. “If we started going up a hill anything above zone two, he's like, ‘Woah, chill boys,’” said Archibald.
