Alberto Contador amazed by cycling today: "They have taken it to another level"

Alberto Contador is looking ahead to the Giro d'Italia with his Team Polti VisitMalta squad, with more than a belief that they can secure a stage victory again and finish as high as possible with their big star, Davide Piganzoli.

The Spaniard, in an interview to the Gazzetta dello Sport, acknowledged that he is in awe with cycling today for being very offensive. Of course, Contador rode in a style ahead of his time, with his attacking nature not dissimilar to that of Tadej Pogacar today.

"Ah, how much I would have loved to race in this cycling, with this fantasy and continuous attacks, even from far away. And sometimes, when I'm racing and I see a climb, I think 'ah, I don't have the form anymore, but it was just right for me..... I imagine I'm still in competition."

The man from Pinto won the Giro on two occasions (in three he went home with the maglia rosa, but one of them was taken away from him because of Operación Puerto) and he never hid the fact that it was one of his favorite races. This is what he said in the Gazzetta in statements translated by Relevo:

"The Giro has always been a special race for me. It's the most beautiful spectacle in cycling and the one I've enjoyed the most throughout my career. It was the race that made me fall in love with the sport, with its romantic touch and unique culture. I've only felt that emotion there. It may seem strange to say that it marked me more than the Tour or that it was more special than the Vuelta, which is also at home and with your people. But since my first participation in 2008, I knew that a connection was born that lasts forever."

He is clear about the big difference between cycling today and his own, "Today the big difference is, above all, in nutrition and recovery. I used to take bars and gels too, of course, but now it's taken to another level. I never went so far as to weigh food with a scale, I preferred to be guided by what I felt I needed."

And he insists on the hyper-professionalization that has reached all levels and makes absolutely everything controlled, "Cyclists now train with sensors that measure blood sugar levels to know how they assimilate gels, monitor how long it takes to take effect, analyze skin temperature to understand the functioning of the heart or know in what conditions the body recovers best.

"Everything is much more technical. In my day, the team was already big, about 70 people, but now there are more than 100. I was driven by sensations, and that was wonderful; you could have more or less sensitivity, but you made a difference. Today, everything is based on calculations: everything is data."