Alberto Contador came away from stage six of the Volta a Catalunya on Saturday bruised and battered, as his Tinkoff-Saxo team suffered a bad day in Spain.
Contador was caught up in a crash in the final three kilometres of the stage, sustaining injuries on his left thigh, leg, knee, arm and hand.
Earlier, the Spaniard’s team-mates Ivan Basso and Jesus Hernandez had withdrawn from the race with a high temperature, leaving just four Tinkoff-Saxo riders in the race: Contador, Robert Kiserlovski, Sergio Paulinho and Michael Valgren.
Contador is expected to start Sunday’s final stage and maintains his third place overall, seven seconds behind race leader Richie Porte (Sky).
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“Alberto was brought down in a crash, luckily it happened within the last three kilometres, which means that he keeps his third place in the GC,” said Tinkoff-Saxo sports director Steven De Jongh.
“Right now, he has some pain in his back and superficial wounds but he is OK. We expect Alberto to start tomorrow, for the moment we do not see any concerns in letting him do so and then we hope that he has a good day.”
Contador’s crash has ended a poor week for the Russian team, after speculation on Monday that team manager and former owner Bjarne Riis had been suspended from his duties after a spat with new owner Oleg Tinkov.
The squad has scored just two wins so far this season: Contador’s stage three win at Ruta del Sol and Peter Sagan’s victory on stage six of Tirreno-Adriatico.
