After a very difficult year in regards of his team’s disappointing results from major events and personal problems concerning doping allegations which brought him on a brink of depression, Bjarne Riis was certainly relieved while standing near to the podium there Alberto Contador was decorated a 2014 Tirreno-Adriatico champion.

Encouraged by no less than impressive performances of the Tinkoff-Saxo leader in the Race of the Two Seas, Riis anticipated an exciting encounter in the coming 101st Tour de France edition between Contador, Froome and other strong contenders and expressed certainty that they will be ready for it this time around.

"I think that we might have the battle that everyone dreams of," Riis told journalists at the finish line, clearly up for a battle with Froome, Team Sky and anyone else during the rest of the season.”

The Danish team’s manager confirmed the words of a new Tinkoff-Saxo coach referring to the psychological background of Contador’s underperformances last year and confessed it took particular time for the Spaniard to reset his focus.

"Alberto's a winner, what happened last year wasn't easy for him," he explained.

"People can imagine that it's been tough mentally to come back. He had to reset his focus. We agreed that we'd try to approach it differently this winter. He worked hard, it paid off and now this is the guy I know he can be."

"He'd probably not agree that it's a comeback. I think he's always been there, even if he's not been on the top level. The problem is that we expect this from him all the time but he's just not able to deliver all the time."

Riis was reluctant to share more specified details about a new approach to Contador’s training introduced by de Jongh, however, he confirmed words of the latter two about more extensive training at altitudes and added that the training program of the Spaniard has been more structured under the guidance of the Dutchman.

"I'm not going into details about how he trained and what we do but maybe it's a little more structured," Riis said.

"It's not that he never trained before but it’s a little more precise and we worked on the things I wanted him to work on. He's done that and he could see the result the whole winter in his testing. That's what's important. He feels good and he's happy."

Clearly referring to the methods used by Team Sky and Froome especially, Riis took his time to praise Contador’s ability to rely on his experience rather than solely on readings from the power meter.

"Alberto has a lot of experience, he doesn't look at his numbers all the time. He knows where he is. In races, if you want to beat the rest then you need to beat them, not sitting looking at your power."

The Tinkoff-Saxo manager also emphasized how important is was to claim a victory after an impressive long attack in the sixth stage of Tirreno-Adriatico, what significantly boosted the confidence of their leader and served as an important message sent to their rivals.

"I think it's important for him to be able to win with a long attack. It's a demonstration. He kind of needed that. He wanted to show that he's there and strong."

"I bet they are sitting home and watching, no doubt about that," Riis said.

"Are they worried? I don't know. But this is competition. If you want to win you need to be good. If you want to beat the rest you need to be the best."

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The Dane also confirmed another de Jongh’s words about Contador not being in his top disposition yet, however, he strongly believes everything develops in the right direction.

"He's worked hard, focused a lot and only done one race before this, I think there's still progressing but he's definitely not bad at all," Riis said.

Contador will face Chris Froome at the Volta a Catalunya later this month. It will be the next chapter in their clashes as they prepare for the big-match in July in France

"Catalunya and Pais Vasco are the next steps, we will go for that and try. We will stop after that and prepare for the Tour, Alberto won't ride Liege-Bastogne-Liege. The Vuelta is also in his programme, it's going to be a long season…"