Alberto Contador won't have to undergo surgery for his broken tibia but the doctors in Madrid have informed him that he is unlikely to be ready for the Vuelta a Espana. Nonetheless, the Spaniard stays optimistic and still hopes to be at the start of his home race.

Today, Alberto Contador said goodbye to his teammates during breakfast and went to the Clinica Centro Hospital in Madrid with high hopes of a quick recovery – fast enough to participate in the Vuelta a España, although everyone in the Tinkoff-Saxo team are aware of how hard it will be to become fully competitive in just 40 days.

After thorough examination, the medical staff at the hospital with speciality in this kind of injury came up with this conclusion:

“The doctor told me that surgery would increase the trauma the knee has suffered and will delay the recovery time even further so I’m not undergoing surgery. The good news is that I have no tendon or ligament injured and the fissure is in the best possible place. I’m homebound for minimum two weeks and, until the wounds heal, the leg has to be immobilized”, said Alberto Contador after leaving the hospital in Madrid and added:

“Doctors have told me it will be almost impossible to become ready for the Vuelta but we’ll see how the recovery develops. I’m calm because the doctors gave me the worst case scenario but I will work hard in the coming weeks and we’ll see how far I can get”, said the leader of Tinkoff-Saxo.