14.04.2014 @ 16:00 Posted by Jesper Ralbjerg

Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) stayed away from the Paris-Roubaix on Sunday, but he was scheduled to arrive in Compiegne, the start town of the Queen of the Classics, today to get up close and personal with the dreaded cobblestones.

Arriving straight from Vuelta al País Vasco triumph, Contador will scrutinize the route of stage 5 in this year’s Tour de France that features pavé. Contador will ride the cobble sectors with Danish Tinkoff-Saxo teammate Niki Sorensen.

“It’s important to see the cobbles. He will get the feeling of how they feel,” Tinkoff-Saxo sport director Philippe Mauduit told VeloNews. Com. “Alberto is OK on the cobbles. At the 2010 Tour he was pretty good, especially compared to the others.”

Many of the riders who are expected to lay claim to the yellow jersey during the Tour have been trekking north to test themselves on the cobbles. Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) even participated in Dwats door Vlaanderen and E3 Harelbeke to come to terms with the pavé.

With 15.4km scattered across nine sectors, the cobblestones are likely to prove pivotal. The anticipation is that some of the favourites for overall victory will lose huge chunks of time, and all chances of wearing yellow in Paris.

Contador has been all but unstoppable during the 2014 season, either winning or finishing as runner-up in every stage race he’s started, with victories at Tirreno-Adriatico and Basque Country, and second places at the Volta ao Algarve and the Volta a Catalunya.

Thus one might expect Contador to be highly motivated to ride the Ardennes Classics to add to his already impressive 2014 palmares, but that will not be the case, Mauduit insisted.

“He’s not a machine. He’s had a heavy spring, he needs time to breathe,” Mauduit said. “After a rest, he will train at altitude, race the [Critérium du] Dauphiné, and then the Tour.”