Two days before making his return to the Tour de France, Alberto Contador (Saxo-Tinkoff) said he was relieved that some of the pressure of being the overall favourite has shifted from him to Chris Froome (Sky) and that he felt confident going into the Tour because his team is significantly better this year than it was in 2011.

 “It’s not much different to other years. The plan is to do the best possible,” Contador told Spanish sports paper Marca. Quizzed about being nudged out of favourite status by Froome, he replied: “It doesn’t change much, it’s better in a way as in previous Tours that pressure all fell on me. That said, the pressure is the same as it always has been at the Tour.”

At the Critérium du Dauphiné Contador was destroyed by Froome in the individual time trial. After that crushing defeat Contador said he was only at 75 per cent of his powers. Speaking about his current form just days before the Tour, Contador said: “It’s difficult to say where I am right now. That will become clearer when the race gets under way. I would say that I am at about 90 per cent right, which is just about where I want to be given the difficulty of the race this year.”

For obvious reasons, Contador refused to be drawn on tactics and his plans for attacking Froome and some of his other rivals. He did concede, though, that attacks from a long way out might become necessary:

“The route this year provides a lot of opportunities. There are some short mountain stages where you can take a risk and make attacks from a long way out if things have got complicated in the overall standings. But if things go to plan I won’t be thinking about tactics until after the second time trial. At that point, my tactics might need to become more aggressive or perhaps more conservative. In any case, one thing that’s for certain is that there will be more action on this route than in recent years.”

Lately theories of a possible Spanish alliance to attack and disintegrate the Sky team in order to topple Chris Froome have surfaced in some media. However, Contador quickly dismissed such speculations, citing his own experience from the Giro d’Italia two years ago.

“Everyone will do their own race because we each have our own objectives, but there may well be circumstances when riders’ objectives do overlap. There was a lot of talk about Italian riders forming a coalition against me at the Giro [two years ago], but in the end it came to nothing.”

Contador agreed that one major factor playing to his advantage is the strength in depth of the squad surrounding him. “It’s stronger than the line-up we had in 2011 and that will change the way we ride. It’s going to help a lot knowing that they will be able to put me in a better position when we get to the foot of the climbs.”

In particular Contador heaped praise on his team captain Michael Rogers, who formed an essential part of the Sky team that steered Bradley Wiggins to overall success last year. “He’s given us some insight into the way Sky works, but he’s also very important because of his palmares and experience.”