Jul 26, 2009, 16:33 GMT
Paris - The ease with which Alberto Contador won the 2009 Tour de France shocked many analysts.
He was dominant in the mountains, won one time trial and came in second in the other, and his final margin over second-place Andy Schleck was more than 4 minutes.
But Contador spent much of the three-week race trying to be a gentleman. He allowed Frank Schleck to win the hardest stage of the race, on Wednesday, because he and his brother, Andy, had done much of the work on the final climb.
He gently deflected questions about his rivalry with Astana teammate Lance Armstrong, and never criticized the seven-time Tour champion directly.
And he refused to address allegations, by three-time Tour winner Greg Lemond, that he was using banned substances. His answer to all his problems was to point his index finger like a pistol when he crossed the finish line and to smile.
'I am fortunate to be able to say that I beat celebrated cyclists,' he said Saturday. 'Today I am ahead of Lance Armstrong. The photograph on the Champs Elysees (where the race ended) will be historic.'
Born in Madrid on December 6, 1982, Contador discovered cycling at the age of 14 thanks to his older brother, Francisco, who today is his agent and protector.
He soon showed real climbing ability and was nicknamed Pantani, after the late Tour de France winner Marco Pantani, widely considered one of the greatest climbers in cycling history.
Contador dropped out of school at age 16 to join a youth team run by Manolo Sainz, manager of the now-disbanded professional ONCE team. In 2001, he won the under-23 Spanish time trial championships.
His career suffered a setback in 2004 when he fell off his bike during the first stage of the Tour of Asturias and went into convulsions.
He was diagnosed with a cerebral cavernoma, a congenital vascular disorder, for which he underwent surgery. Eight months later he won the fifth stage of the 2005 Tour Down Under for the Liberty Seguros team, previously known as ONCE.
In 2006, he was implicated in the Operacion Puerto doping case by the Spanish authorities, and the team was not able to start in the Tour de France.
Although suspicions remained about his involvement, Contador has never been formally charged. He has also never tested positive in a doping test.
Contador joined the Armstrong's former team Discovery Channel and, under the tutelage of its manager Johan Bruyneel, he won the 2007 Tour de France.
He was prevented from defending the title the next year when his new team, Astana, was banned from the 2008 Tour for past doping infractions.
Instead, he won both the 2008 Giro d'Italia and the 2008 Vuelta a Espana, becoming only the fifth cyclist to win all three Grand European Tours in his career.
Now, having won the second Tour de France title at age 26 with astonishing ease, Contador looks to be in a position to dominate the race, and the sport, for many years.
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