Light schedule for Contador before Tour de France

Rest and relaxation are what Saxo Bank-SunGard has ordered for Giro d'Italia winner Alberto Contador, with the Spaniard set to scale down his race programme between now and the start of the Tour de France on July 2.

“Now he can relax a little, and so we look calmly forward and later make the program prior to the Tour,” Bjarne Riis told the Ritzau news agency.

Contador will skip the Tour de Suisse and Criterium du Dauphine, the traditional Tour-lead up races.

“The only thing that maybe he should ride is the national championships in Spain. I would basically like to see him ride both the road race and the time trial, but we will see about that a little later,” Riis said.

Contador may not race, but will make a trip to France to pre-ride some of this year's key stages, Riis said.  It has not yet been decided which teammates will accompany him.

There are still 14 teammates in the running to be amongst the eight to support Contador in the Tour, and Riis hopes to name his final nine before the Danish championships, to be held the end of this month.  “There are 14 riders in the game for the Tour. Now we see how it goes in the Dauphiné and in Switzerland.”