Is Alberto Contador finished?

Even the GOAT's had to give in to Father Time.

Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, Miguel Indurain, Lance Armstrong, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant or even Peyton Manning. Except for Manning, they tried to beat it but it was a Sisyphean task, they would soon realise that it all will be taken away.

Alberto Contador is now 33 years old and had been racing for 14 years at the highest level. He is unarguably the greatest cyclist of his generation, a difficult generation since it came on the heels on the career of one Lance Armstrong, a dominant cyclist and a more dominant personality. But Alberto survived it all– Armstrong and a doping conviction.

The Spaniard has officially won seven Grand Tours (2 TdF, 2 Giro d’Italia’s and 3 Vuelta a España’s) and DQ’d for two for doping. He also won other small races although he hasn’t won the World Championships (now unlikely) nor the Olympics.

In the early part of the 2015 season, he was strong, winning the Giro d’Italia, but the win came because of internal squabbles in the rival team, ASTANA, between leader Fabio Aru and his stronger teammate Mikel Landa. Two months later, he suited up for the Tour de France. While most riders who rode the Giro are expected to have an average Tour, Contador was expected to do well. He was Alberto Contador, for crying out loud!

Unfortunately, he didn’t show up, and finished almost 10 minutes behind champion Chris Froome, 5th overall. If it was a neo-pro, it would have smelled a million Euros but for Contador, it was a portent of things to come.

This year, he signed a contract extension with his current team, TINKOFF, saying that this will be his final season. But he flopped in the Tour, dropping out after crashing hard during stage 17. He went back against his word and signed a contract with the US Team TREK-Segafredo, for the 2017 season.

Now I think that this is a good decision if he needs money, but Alberto is worth $15 million and he doesn’t need the aggravation. I seriously doubt if he will win another Grand Tour because its clear as wet paint that he’s on the decline. It’s not as if he’s on the last year of a multi-year contract worth millions that he has to honor it.

Only a few great athletes knew to stop before the Great Decline. John Elway retired after winning his second Super Bowl. Tennis’s Pete Sampras, boxer Lennox Lewis, David Robinson, Bill Russell, Coach John Wooden – to name some, retired while on top of their games.

Currently, Contador is racing at the Vuelta, and while he is still aggressive, he can’t make it stick anymore because he doesn’t have the consistency. It’s a pitiful sight to see so I hope he’ll wake up one morning, give TREK-Segafredo a call, and ask them to void his 2017 contract. I’m sure TREK will honor it.