Alberto Contador (Saxo-Tinkoff) finished the Critérium du Dauphiné today helping teammate Michael Rogers, who had a bad day on the climb to Risoul. He wanted to be in front to try to fight for the stage win but things didn’t work out that way.

“It was a day that I was waiting for. The finish suited me pretty well and we wanted to control the stage all day. After the Col de Vars I had a bit of bad luck, because when I dropped back to get rid of my raincoat, I had a bad fall [because another rider crashed in front of Contador]. I got up, I went back to the group and the sensation was very good at the last climb.”
 

Contador had been setting his sights on a stage win today. “I was thinking about fighting for the
stage, because today, with the weather, I was breathing much better. But we saw that Rogers was in a bad moment and I thought it was better to lend him a hand to try to maintain his place on the podium. At the end he did not have a good day, but I'm happy because the sensations are very good.”

Asked about his chances of winning the stage if he hadn’t sacrificed his own ambitions in order to help Rogers, Contador said he wasn’t sure. “How would I have managed today? I do not know, I can't know, but I'm very happy with the sensations that I have.”

At first sight his crash didn’t seem to have any serious consequences, but Contador was cautious. “It is still too soon to know if it will have any consequence. My left side feels quite beaten. Luckily, with the rain we wear a lot of clothes and when you slip over the road, you have fewer scratches. I hope it won’t interfere with my plans as I continue my preparation for the Tour.”
 

The best moment of the day for Contador was when Gallopin went forward.
“The situation was very good, because Gallopin was wearing out the Sky team, he had
a good pace and I was following his wheel, thinking of giving one more gear to try to fight for the stage win. But the race developed in another way and I thought that being with my teammate was better.”

Looking back, Alberto Contador makes an optimistic evaluation of the Critérium du Dauphiné.
“The balance is good, very good. My sensations are very good, regardless of the result in the overall; that is secondary. I've been mostly focused on going better every day and I am very happy with the level of form that I have now and I think I'll be in top condition for the Tour de France. I’m not saying my form will be better than any in other years, because that will be seen in the race, but it certainly won’t be worse than in previous years.”