Contador’s season over, rider withdraws from final scheduled race

What might be Alberto Contador’s penultimate pro season has drawn to an end, with the rider’s planned participation in Saturday’s Clásica San Sebastián cancelled due to illness.

The Giro d’Italia winner stated that he would no longer line out in the event, conveying the news via Twitter.

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

— Alberto Contador (@albertocontador) July 29, 2015

The news comes one day after Spanish daily AS quoted Contador as saying he would only ride one more event before hanging up his racing wheels for the year, namely the same Clásica San Sebastián.

“It’s been a couple of years since I last rode and I want to end the year in this race before taking a holiday,” he stated. “We now start the rest period and after the Classic [Clásica San Sebastián] I will gradually take more time off my bike.”

It has been a mixed season for the rider. He was on a confidence high after winning the Vuelta a España ahead of Chris Froome last September and said that he was aiming to become the first to take the Giro d’Italia/Tour de France double since Marco Pantani succeeded in 1998.

However while he took the Giro and also nabbed a stage plus the overall classification in the Route du Sud in June, he was below his usual level in the Tour.

He was unable to challenge Forome and ended the race only fifth overall.

Contador has previously ended his season earlier than most in the past. He will hope that a break will bring about a return in energy and motivation and will enable him to knuckle down to training for what he will hope will be a successful 2016 season.

He has already said that he will bank everything on taking another Tour title.

He previously indicated that he expected 2016 to be his final pro season.