Won the Giro, Alberto Contador he's already thinking about the yellow jersey after packing the pink one he wore from the Abetone stage to yesterday's final triumph in Milan – with the only parenthesis in Jesolo when he gave it to Aru for a day after a fall.
Cycling thrives on business , Giro-Tour double is the one that tickles the Pistolero, a fascinating challenge that has been meditated on for some time also to recover what was taken away from him by the disqualification for doping (the 2010 Tour and the 2011 Giro) and by bad luck (the fall in last year's Grande Boucle, which forced to retire). Ambitious and legitimate objective for a champion like the Spaniard, but not easy to achieve, also because in France Nibali, Froome and Quintana await him who deserted the Giro precisely to prepare for the Tour. Contador, compared to his rivals, will arrive with over 3.300 km of the pink race in his legs, but also with the enthusiasm of his second success in the Giro.
A stellar challenge in view of which the Pistolero will do well to remedy in some way the fragility shown in the Giro by his team, the Tinkoff-Saxo which on Italian roads has left him more often than not isolated among many Astana. Contador always managed on his own, overcoming the shock of the painful fall of Castiglione della Pescaia and giving cycling lessons on the Mortirolo and in the Valdobbiadene time trial, but a defaillance on Colle delle Finestre was enough to understand the risks of loneliness. Bravo was Contador, in the Sestrière stage, to take off the clothes of the predatory dominus of the race to put on the more humble ones of the doser of energy to avoid a crush, the classic "homme au marteau" of the French, which could have made him lose the primacy . He lost the stage he wanted to win, but not the Giro. He didn't make it, cornered by an extraordinary man Fabio Arau and also from a surprising Mikel Landa. So since yesterday, after the last stage won by the Belgian Iljo Kessie over the Australian Durbridge, Contador has to share a very special record with Franco Balmamion: that of being the only two riders to have won two Tours without ever winning a stage.
Instead, he won two stages, the toughest and most spectacular ones in the Alps, one in a row Fabio Arau with the attitude of the young champion, grit and exuberance that make the Sardinian rider the most beautiful reality of Italian cycling, natural heir to Vincenzo Nibali for the great stage races. Third last year with a powerful victory in Montecampione, second this year ahead of teammate Landa, a Basque who seemed stronger than Contador himself uphill: Aru wowed the crowds with his way of running and his ability and the determination with which he reacted after the difficult days of the time trial and Aprica. Unlike Contador, Aru had a formidable team, an authentic battleship with individual excellence such as to bring out an almost dangerous conflict of interest between him and Landa, ruler of the two stages in the Dolomites, which sometimes ended up facilitating the Contador himself. Which in turn must thank the exploits of the two Astanas because they give meaning and value to his success given the premature disappearance of the other two favorites of the eve: Richie Porte retired early confirming that the Giro and Tour are too long and tiring competitions for the his physique; as for Rigoberto Uran, the Colombian held out until Milan, but apart from the two third places in the stages won by Aru there is little to remember of his Giro finished in 14th place after two second places in 2013 behind Nibali and the last year behind Nairo Quintana.
