Tinkoff-Saxo star Alberto Contador knows the risk of targeting both the Giro and the Tour for 2015, but he thinks he can prove the doubters wrong and can become the first man since Marco Pantani in 1998 to win both Grand Tours in the same year. If he could do the double, he would hold all three Grand Tours after winning the 2014 Vuelta.

"It's partly about legacy, this is true, and I will try and it will either work or it won't," Contador says to Cyclingnews at the Tinkoff-Saxo training camp in Gran Canaria.

"I love cycling and it's a big part of my life, but every year my plans are roughly the same in terms of targets, whether it's the Tour, the Giro or the Vuelta. This Giro and Tour challenge, it's something new, it's different."

"I have one opinion," he continues, raising his index finger to emphasise his point. "When I saw that people said that the Giro and Tour were impossible to win together I took a step back and thought, 'well it's only impossible until someone makes it possible.' Why do people think it's impossible? I mean if I go to the Giro and win, and I then recover well why can't I think take on the Tour? Of course, I know it's going to be difficult but there's a chance. That's my opinion, and that's what's in my head and motivating me."

Only one other rider in the current peloton, Vincenzo Nibali, has wins in all three Grand Tours and many consider the Spaniard, who turns 32 today, to be the greatest grand Tour rider of his generation.

Contador has virtually confirmed his 2015 schedule, where he will race at the Ruta del Sol, then defend his Tirreno-Adriatico title and then ride the Volta a Catalunya.

"Then it's the Giro d'Italia, perhaps a small race during my recovery period and then the Tour de France. That recovery time is going to be crucial, though, and we've not finalised that part yet," he says.

Contador knows how hard it will be to win both Grand Tours and he acknowledged that recovery will be the key to his success. He will also have to face up to riders who have specifically targeted the Giro or the Tour rather than both.

"I realise that this is a really difficult ambition because there are 33 days between the Giro and the Tour, and that recovery period is really hard to manage. It's a risk, I know that, because there are rivals out there who will just concentrate on one objective, whether it's the Tour de France or the Giro d'Italia."

"There are more guarantees in reaching top form if you take that single race approach but for me it’s something different," he adds, pointing out how his ambitions stretch above his rivals. "It's a risk, because maybe I'll win one, maybe two or maybe I'll win nothing but this is my calendar and we'll see how it turns out.”

"It's a bit like the time I attacked at Fuente Dé in the Vuelta a España. People think it's not possible, they say it's too hard to aim for three, to aim for two Grand Tours, and I know it will be hard but in my head I'm going to be ready for it.”

Contador used the disappointment of his crash at the Tour de France to fuel his Vuelta a Espana performance, coming back from a fractured tibia to win the race by over a minute to Chris Froome, the best rider Contador has raced against in terms of GC according to the Spaniard.

"I never trained as hard as when I did for this year's Tour de France. I've never been that skinny, that fit or that motivated but you know that in cycling you can't control everything. You don't know when you're going to crash but when I look at the speed of that crash, at 77kph, and realise that I only broke my tibia, I have to look at the balance. It was of course tough moment, of course it was, but you recover from setbacks and at the Vuelta I showed that."

Both Contador and Froome have taken great mental strength from their respective Vuelta rides and the two will be the men to beat on the roads of France come July again. When asked if he now has the edge over Froome, he replied:

"One thing is sure. After Froome won the Tour de France in 2013, he was asked who his major rivals were for the future and he said Nibali, Quintana and maybe Contador if I could return to that level but that it was different now. Well… that was one race. This year at the Tour we saw that I could be a favourite. When he was attacking this year, we saw that I could live with that, that I could go with him. So when he attacks and you know that inside you have more power, that gives you some security. An edge? I don’t know but security, yes."

"But now it changes nothing. We all start 2015 at zero and we all have to go from there but of course there's more confidence because you know you have the legs."

Contador still has a few years left in his legs before retiring, and he doesn’t know when that will be.

"I can't answer the question about retirement because I don't know. It's always difficult to say when but one thing is sure, I want to finish my career at the top but you need to take it all year by year," he says. "I don't think it will be this season. No, I don't think so. Maybe I can continue for another few years but I just want to finish at the top."