ALBERTO CONTADOR hopes his body can remain intact for the next three weeks as he bids to become the first man since 1998 to win the Tour de France and Giro d'Italia in the same year.
Not since Marco Pantani has one rider won the Giro-Tour double and the Tinkoff-Saxo captain believes the feat would be key to the way his achievements are viewed by history.
The 102nd Tour, which begins in Utrecht tomorrow, is one of the most anticipated in recent memory, with 2007 and 2009 winner Contador, defending champion Vincenzo Nibali, 2013 winner Chris Froome and 2013 runner-up Nairo Quintana all vying for the yellow jersey.
Contador said: "If I were to win the Tour full stop, it wouldn't change my career so much but something that people would remember would be winning the Giro and the Tour in the same year.
"In my head I feel really motivated. How my body will react is a new challenge but I'm very happy with the condition I have."
The Spaniard crashed out of the last year's Tour as Nibali won in convincing fashion.
Contador revised his focus to the Vuelta and won ahead of Froome, whose Tour also ended with fractured limbs.
It was prior to the Vuelta that Contador first thought of the possibility of winning all three Grand Tours in succession.
His Tinkoff-Saxo team owner Oleg Tinkov came up with the idea of the four leading riders going for all three Grand Tours in one season, putting a €1m prize up for grabs.
The arduous task is thought to be near-impossible and few riders even start all three events in the same year, let alone finish them or compete for victory in them.
Contador described this year's Tour route, which traverses northern France from Utrecht before challenging stages in the Pyrenees and Alps, as the toughest he has done, with a potentially fractious first week followed by challenging mountain tests in the Pyrenees and Alps.
"It's hard and it's going to be fundamental not to crash or fall off and that's hard enough," Contador added. "I was worried that I wouldn't recover well from the Giro, but I have done. Both my head and body are in good shape, and it was maybe harder on my head [to recover well] than anything else. Now it's up to me to take the Tour day by day."
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