It has been finally confirmed officially that the former Team Sky sports director Steven de Jongh was hired as a new coach at Tinkoff-Saxo and played a significant role in currently observed revival of Alberto Contador.

The future of Contador as a major grand tour contender was insecure following his 2013 performances, as, in fact, he has shown a very consistent disposition throughout whole season but never managed to reach the top of his possibilities and effectively challenge Christopher Froome (Team Sky).

Right after finishing 100th edition of the Tour de France in hugely disappointing fourth place, the Spanish climber emphasized that from then he would turn his entire attention to successfully bounce back in the French grand tour this season. As a consequence, supported by Bjarne Riis, Contador reached out to de Jongh in order to improve the quality of his training.

The former Rabobank and Omega Pharma-Quick Step rider signisicantly changed training methods of the Tinkoff-Saxo leader, improving his ability to control weight and convincing to undergo a prolonged training at altitude instead of rolling down the roads at the sea level with most of his team-mates.

"I'm really happy to be working with Steven," Contador told journalists, including Cyclingnews, after stage six of Tirreno-Adriatico.

"There's a good feeling between us, good understanding. I think the work is giving us some excellent results."

Considering Contador’s last performances in the Tirreno-Adriatico, especially crushing the whole opposition in mountainous fifth stage of the Italian race, the combination has to be regarded as a successful one while the first encounter between the Spaniard and Froome in Volta a Catalunya – highly anticipated.

As a former sports director at Team Sky, fired in a consequence of the “zero tolerance” policy of the British team after he admitted to taking EPO “on a few occasions”, de Jongh is aware of all their training methods. Contador, however, played down all the suggestions about using this king of knowledge of his new trainer to gain an advantage over Froome.

"He hasn't told me anything and I'm not interested in knowing anything [about Team Sky.] The important thing is that we keep doing as well as we have so far," Contador said.