After seeing how well he has responded to the attacks from Ritchie Porte and Fabio Aru in the last few days at the Giro d’Italia, many members of the press are wondering if he and his Tinkoff-Sax team have exaggerated how bad his dislocated shoulder was.

“It’s complicated to put a percentage on my condition,” Contador responded when asked if was bluffing in the post-race press conference after stage eight.

“Of course, it’s not just in the race, but also at night. I have to have it immobilised.”

Rivals for the GC like Richie Porte seemed to think the Spaniard was bluffing about his injury when he was asked the question about his condition.

“Bluffing? I don’t think he can be in too much difficulty if he’s still riding up that climb that fast,” Porte explained while on his turbo trainer warming down. “Day by day, we’ll see how he goes. I have respect for Alberto, he’s a big fighter.”

Contador says he is worried about the stage 14 ITT, which is 59km long and he doesn’t know if he can hold the aero bars for that long.

“That’s a question that I have in my mind,” he said. “Yesterday, I thought that I only have about five to six stages to go until the time trial. We’ll have to make a test to see how I can hold the bars. I usually have the arms together very close, but perhaps we’ll have to change that.”