Alberto Contador out of the Tour de France
Tinkoff-Saxo rider crashes out on stage 10
Tinkoff-Saxo’s team captain Alberto Contador abandoned the Tour de France after a crash midway through the tenth stage on Monday. The Spaniard hit the ground 95km into the race and appeared to injure his right knee.
Contador got back on a team bike but lost nearly four minutes to the peloton as he received medical treatment from the side of the car. He stopped a second time because he appeared to have a problem with his shoe. Three of his teammates waited for him to help pace him back to the field including Michael Rogers. It looked as though we would try to continue the race, however, he was forced to abandon the race all together a few kilometers later.
Contador was a major favorite to win the overall title at this year’s Tour de France, along with the defending champion from Team Sky Chris Froome. Froome was also forced to abandon the Tour part way through stage 5 after suffering a broken left wrist and right hand from crashes during the first week of the race.
Contador sat in ninth place overall at the start of the tenth stage, 4:08 minutes behind the overall race leader Tony Gallopin (Lotto-Belisol). He was poised to move up in the classification as the stage finished on La Planche des Belles Filles, and following a rest day on Tuesday, was headed toward the high mountain stages.
Contador's crash occurred on the descent of Petit Ballon. His team's efforts to bring him back to the peloton were made difficult by the mountainous terrain and the high speed up front. After 20 kilometers of chasing, Contador was not able to pedal and abandoned the race due to his knee injury, which was later confirmed by his Tinkoff-Saxo team in an official statement.

Thank you for reading 5 articles in the past 30 days*
Join now for unlimited access
Enjoy your first month for just £1 / $1 / €1
*Read any 5 articles for free in each 30-day period, this automatically resets
After your trial you will be billed £4.99 $7.99 €5.99 per month, cancel anytime. Or sign up for one year for just £49 $79 €59

Join now for unlimited access
Try your first month for just £1 / $1 / €1
Get The Leadout Newsletter
The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!
Kirsten Frattini is an honours graduate of Kinesiology and Health Science from York University in Toronto, Canada. She has been involved in cycling from the community and grassroots level to professional cycling's WorldTour. She has worked in both print and digital publishing, and started with Cyclingnews as a North American Correspondent in 2006. Moving into a Production Editor's role in 2014, she produces and publishes international race coverage for all men's and women's races including Spring Classics, Grand Tours, World Championships and Olympic Games, and writes and edits news and features. As the Women's Editor at Cyclingnews, Kirsten also coordinates and oversees the global coverage of races, news, features and podcasts about women's professional cycling.