News shorts: Illness forces Contador to skip San Sebastian and end season

Contador ends season due to illness

Alberto Contador had planned to end his season with the Clasica San Sebastian, but has now announced he will not ride the Spanish race.

“Good morning all,3 days after the Tour still continue with fever. Sorrowfully I cannot be in San Sebastian,” he Tweeted Wednesday morning.

Contador had hoped to be the first to win the Giro d’Italia/Tour de France double since 1998. He won the overall title in the Giro but was fifth in the Tour.

Team Tinkoff-Saxo has not yet announced if he will be replaced inSan Sebastian.

No Vuelta for Boonen

Tom Boonen will skip the Vuelta a Espana this year, but will look to other races to prepare for the World Championships in Richmond. It has been an off-year for the 34-year-old, with only two wins so far.

Instead of Spain, the Etixx-QuickStep will tackle the Eneco Tour (August 10-17) and the Vattenfall Cyclassics in Hamburg on August 23, reports nieuwsblad.de.

If he is nominated by his team for the Worlds team time trial, he will probably ride the GP Quebec (September 11) and the GP Montreal (September 13). If not, he will take on the Tour of Britain (September 6-13) before traveling to the US for the Worlds.

Boonen underwent surgery for a dislocated shoulder after crashing out of Paris-Nice and was out of racing for nearly two months and keeping him out of the Spring Classics.

Barguil to lead Giant-Alpecin in San Sebastian

Warren Barguil, coming off 14th place overall in the Tour de France, will captain Giant-Alpecin in the Clasica San Sebastian this coming weekend. He will look to become the first rider to finish in the top 30 for the German-based team, in its third participation.

According to team coach Christian Guiberteau, Barguil is “a rider who normally fits the course to aim at a good result, but we have to await how he recovers from his first Tour de France to be ready for another hard race. The rest of the team will support him in that.”

The rest of the team consists of Chad Haga, brothers Frederik and Tobias Ludvigsson, and Zico Waeytens, who are all coming off altitude training in France, as well as Koen de Kort, Thierry Hupond and Lars van der Haar.

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