Say this about Alberto Contador:

Dude’s a pro.

I say this because even though he’s a three-time grand tour winner, including the 2007 Tour de France, he seamlessly moved into the role of super-domestique this week for Astana teammate Levi Leipheimer at the Vuelta a Castilla y León.

This is no small transition; Contador is currently the world’s predominant stage racer, and he entered Castilla y Leon as the two-time defending champion. Plus, he’s Spanish, racing on his home turf.

Yet, when Leipheimer beat him by 16 seconds in the Stage 2 time trial, Contador didn’t sulk, pout or protest; he just went to work protecting Leipheimer by riding ahead of him in the draft and keeping Levi out of the wind and out of trouble. Leipheimer joked at one point that he was riding behind a motorbike.

This is one of the cool things about cycling; even the biggest champions and stars are not above doing the grunt work of a domestique, riding hard tempo at the front of the pack and fetching water bottles, etc. Contador did the same type of yeoman work for Big George Hincapie at the inaugural Tour of Missouri in 2007, just two months after having won the Tour de France.

This type of thing demonstrates outstanding leadership for Contador, whose leadership was called into question by some after his team seemingly bailed on him when he appeared to be in control at Paris-Nice. He had no support, no water and no food … and bonked big time in the penultimate stage, losing the leader’s jersey and falling off the podium.  

But this week, Contador showed them how to support a team leader with his selfless work for Leipheimer. This will only help him down the road when he needs support in July in the Tour de France.

All and all, an outstanding job by Contador this week, and of course by Leipheimer in winning for second time in a stage race this season. Contador ended up on the podium in second place, with American David Zabriskie of Garmin-Slipstream in third.

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