Tinkoff-Saxo’s team captain sustained a dislocated left shoulder, as he was dragged down by a big crash within the last 200 meters of stage 6. With a lot invested in this year’s Giro d’Italia, Contador remains optimistic and will further assess the injury before and on tomorrow’s stage.

At 7pm, after arriving to the team hotel, Tinkoff-Saxo’s captain Alberto Contador underwent medical examinations for 30 minutes in the mobile medical vehicle of the race organization, where both x-rays and an echography showed that Contador had dislocated his left shoulder in the crash.

Reemerging from the mobile unit, Alberto Contador explains that together with the team and race doctors he will reevaluate the effects before stage 7 but that he will take to the start.

“I haven’t broken anything but I have suffered a dislocation of the left shoulder. The doctors have recommended that I immobilize my left arm during the evening and night, while I try to move it a bit with the help of my other arm to promote the movement of the shoulder. I will focus on this until tomorrow before the stage, where the doctors will come back to put on a layer of bandage for the race”, says Alberto Contador and adds:

“I will try to start tomorrow on stage 7, as I have worked very hard ahead of the Giro. I will try to continue until the very last moment. I’m optimistic about the start tomorrow, but we have to wait until right before the start to see what happens and how serious the effect of the crash is”, finishes Alberto Contador.

In the crash, Alberto Contador also wounded his right knee, which, however, doesn’t worry the team captain, who has is focus directed towards his injured shoulder.

As the big pile-up occurred within the last 200 meters, Alberto Contador retained his overall leadership at Giro d’Italia, still with 2 seconds to Fabio Aru.