Alberto Contador has given an exclusive and in-depth interview with Cyclingnews, where he spoke about potentially retiring in 2016, his failed Giro-Tour double bid and Chris Froome.

"I have always wanted to retire at the highest level – that's the way I want people to remember me," the Spaniard told Cyclingnews at a hotel nestled in the Italian Alps.

With 2016 being his last year as a pro, the Spaniard is making the Tour de France his biggest goals, after taking a Vuelta in 2014, a Giro win this year, meaning he just needs the Tour to complete the Grand Tour set since his suspension.

"The primary objective is the Tour de France. I'm a rider who likes to be competitive in every race I enter – I want to do well in the races at the start of the year – but the focus will be purely on the Tour. The only thing I can guarantee is that I'm preparing for it 100 per cent," says the seven-time Grand Tour winner.

He is being very specific about his preparation for next year’s Tour, and he says he knows most of his program for next year up until the Tour.

"I'm planning a, let's say, traditional calendar," he says, explaining the shape 2016 will take. "I will for certain start competing in the third week of February at either the Volta ao Algarve or the Vuelta a Andalucía.”

"Then I'll do a race that will probably be the most important for me, and that's either Tirreno-Adriatico or Paris-Nice. That will be crucial in giving me a base. Then I'll do another one, shortly after, likely to be Catalunya. Then I will start to really focus; I'll do the Dauphiné, and then the Tour. That's more or less the plan."

While the 32 year old knows how strong Chris Froome (Sky) is, having beaten him in the 2012 and 2014 Vuelta and losing to him in the 2013 and 2015 Tour, the Tinkoff-Saxo rider says Froome has some chinks in his armour, especially when the race route doesn’t contain long time trials.

"I thought he was strong at the Tour, especially the stage to La Pierre Saint Martin – he was incredible. However, it surprised me that towards the end he had some bad days. It made me think back to the Tour of 2013 that he also won. The final days there were also not so great for him. These are interesting things to look at.”

He says that while he could only win the Giro and finish fifth in the Tour, he doesn’t regret doing the Giro-Tour double and says he has really enjoyed his season. Along with the Giro, he was second overall and won a stage in the Vuelta a Andalucia and won a stage and the GC at the Route du Sud. However, he says if he did it all again, he would make changes.

"I am very happy with the season that I've done. I enjoyed trying the double. I sacrificed myself like never before to try and pull it off," said Contador, who admits he was concerned by his legs in the opening days of the Tour but thought he would be able to ride them back into shape.”

"If I had to go back to try it again I would make some changes. The calendar is the main thing – I would have fewer races at the start of the season. Also the Route du Sud – between the Giro and Tour – I maybe wouldn't race that. That way you wouldn't have the rhythm going into the Tour but you would be a bit fresher. I didn't manage the victory in France, but the truth is that I'm happy with how the season played out."