Even though he turns each race into a spectacle, a glorification of attack cycling, Alberto Contador (Pinto, Madrid, December 6, 1982) is a serious cyclist. So serious and focused is his preparation for the Tour, not even the Armstrong earthquake seems to have any effect on him. “I keep my distance,” he says.

Question. Victory at the Algarve, main favorite at Paris-Nice…Is a great year in the making?

Answer: I’m very happy about how the year is going, about my progress. I’m working extremely hard and, as I see it, the work is paying off.

Q: Does it surprise you that you keep improving year after year?

A: I continue with the same motivation, or even more. That’s an extra. Besides, it’s a fact that the body continues developing until the age of 29, more or less.

Q: Can you feel it inside? Is there anything else that can make you feel stronger?

A: In training, I’m surprised at seeing the data from the computer and at verifying that things are better now than last year. And then, in the races, I’ve confirmed that the data is true.

Q: Is it also necessary to win as many races as you do to confirm it?

A: As soon as I start to train, I get into shape quickly and easily. When things are going well, I try to take advantage of it. When I’m in good condition, I always want to fight.

Q: It’s still three months until the Tour. Is it too soon to fight so hard?

A: But I enjoy competition and I win races that aren’t incompatible with the Tour. I can’t walk away from challenges. On the other hand, Paris-Nice was always a special race for me because it was my most important victory before I won the Tour.

Q: And in that race this year you suffered an unexpected collapse.

A: You learn more from defeats. When things turn out well, even though you make mistakes, you don’t give much significance to these errors. But, if things don’t go like you expect, you analyze, you look for all the possible mistakes and then interpret them. And, just like everything, they can be interpreted in very many ways.

Q: And what conclusions have you reached? Did you fall victim to extreme hunger?

A: There were many factors at play. I didn’t benefit from being the leader so early. Paris-Nice is always extremely hard, and this year it was even more so. There wasn’t a team that could control it. Take Sunday: Caisse d’Épargne had to defend the jersey in only that stage and fell apart. Afterwards, it’s always easy to say what if I had cooperated with this guy or that guy...

Q: Did losing take a lot out of you?

A: Paris-Nice 2009 does not appear on my palmares, but in my mnd, the personal satisfaction that I got from it is worth more than a victory. I’m not a rider who, at the end of a race, starts feeling like saying, like an accountant, “I’ve won three Paris-Nices or two tours of someplace or other,” no. I don’t ride to accumulate victories. I enjoy competing. I like, more than anything else in the world, to compete.

Q: Does your approach to cycling, searching so insistently on victory, does it makes you lose the grand prize?

A: I also like to be calculating, like Induráin. I’m only interested in the general. I don’t go out every day to tally up stage wins. On the contrary, there have been situations in which I would’ve liked not to arrive alone, to have had someone with me so that I could give him the stage win. I’m not one of those people who, at the end of the year, adds up how many victories he got. I’m above that.

Q: In fact, in Italy they criticized you for winning the Giro without winning a stage.

A: When I won the Giro, they labelled me as being overly calculating, but now they’re labelling me as the opposite. I know that I’ll never be able to do anything that pleases everybody. Each race is its own world, and develops according to the laws that it itself generates.

Q: What makes you, for example, make a surprise attack, like at Paris-Nice…

A: It was more a calculated reaction than grandstanding. I wanted to see how my physical situation was compared to the others. I went out with very sore legs and not with any idea of attacking. Then, I saw that things got agitated and that nobody was organized, and I went. Nobody countered, and I kept on. And, clearly, I also had it in my head to get time back on Chavanel, because I didn’t know what kind of fight he was going to put up in the stage at de Lure.

Q: And the fans gave you a standing ovation.

A: When I see something like that, that kind of appreciation, I’m filled with satisfaction. More, sometimes, than when I win.

Q: Do you feel like a slave to your persona, a climber with an attacking style?

A: I don’t try to make a spectacle just to make a spectacle. It’s my style of racing. Like the climber that I am, I have to attack. And I attack in a certain way and in key situations.

Q: One attack and straight forward, without looking back.

A: Depending on how my legs are, I look back or not. On a mountain with a headwind, for example, if I get a gap of five or six meters with an attack, I know that it’ll be very difficult for them to catch me, because it breaks the other rider’s rhythm. Then I try to to maintain the quickest tempo possible at a high cadence. That’s what I’m working on more now, attacking and keeping the cadence.

Q: Your most spectacular improvement has been in the race against the clock. Are you using the posture from the wind tunnel?

A: No. I’m a rider with long extremities, not as compact as Leipheimer, for example, that’s not very comfortable for me. I have done, however, a lot of work in stretching and flexibility to adapt my body as well as possible to the bike. That, and developing more power, is the key to improvement.

Q: How much can you still improve between now and the Tour?

A: Now I’m more tired that at Paris-Nice. I don’t like to talk about percentages, but I’m at 80-85% of the capacity I expect to have in the Tour. And I’m still 1.5 kilos above my weight.

Q: Could it be said that your 85% now is equal to 100% last year?

A: No, I wouldn’t say that. But, yes, my 100% this year will be superior to my 100% in 2008.

Q: Are you affected much by the media hubbub around Armstrong?

A: I’m very calm about it. There’s a lot of commotion on the subject of Lance, but I keep my distance. I’m very focused on my work, very motivated.

Q: You’ve won the three grand tours by the age of 25. There’s already a chapter in the books with your name on it. What’s left to motivate you?

A: I’m motivated by competition and by challenges. I’m sure that when I stop cycling, I’ll continue to have motivation for other challenges in life