Alberto Contador announces retirement from professional cycling at end of 2016 season

Spaniard Alberto Contador has announced his plans to retire from professional cycling at the end of the 2016 campaign.

Being out of contract at Tinkoff-Saxo at the end of the season, the 32-year-old two-time Tour de France winner had already recently suggested he was closing on the end of his career and that he wanted to do it at his peak by winning one of the big races.

Now speaking at the presentation of the Tinkoff-Saxo for the new season, the Spaniard has now claimed he eventually believes the 2016 campaign will be his last one on the bike.

"Physically I still recovered well and I'm excited about the team, but the years pass. Next year I'll be in the squad, but will be the last one," Contador said, according to Spanish newspaper AS.

Having won one Giro, two Tour de France and three Vuelta a España, the 32-year-old will face this season with the challenge to become the first cyclist to win both the Giro d'Italian and the Tour de France since Marco Pantini in 1998.

"If I ask myself the Giro and the Tour is not worth me being second in any of them. I'm just looking to win, but then we'll see what happens. I am maverick and victory is all that I ask myself," the Spaniard said ahead of the start of the season, which begins on Wednesday, 18 February, in the Vuelta Andalucia.