Alberto Contador held a press conference on the first rest day of the Tour de France, where he summed up by saying, “The balance of the race is very good, and I am very happy with the situation in the overall standings, after passing the first week with the dangers of pavé and the possibility of (cross)wind.”

Alberto took a few questions from the assembled crowd:

What lessons do you extract from what happened yesterday in the final kilometer?

“No one can have many conclusions because it was a very soft climb, and the last kilometers were almost flat. I went with four attacks, and perhaps the conclusion is that I have to select the rivals that I must follow. On the other hand, the team is in very good condition, and my legs are fine."

Are you not afraid that Andy Schleck has taken morale, and that he and others will attack more?

"The attacks come anyway, and maybe this is pretty good, because people can take more responsibility for the race and this will give them more motivation."

Did Armstrong’s disadvantage maybe motivate you too much to respond all attacks?

"Not at all. We saw that Armstrong was behind, and while that was good for our race, we must also take into account that he had very bad luck. No, that did not affect me at all."

How do you explain the success of Spanish sport in the world?

"It's a bit hard to explain, but it depends a bit on the culture, and sport is the leading global representation of a country. In Spain, the athletes are highly valued and therefore reach success in basketball, motorcycles, F1, cycling and football."

Does the collapse of Armstrong change strategies in the race?

"RadioShack maybe will have a little less presence, but the team will continue to be well represented, although their main rider is now Leipheimer."

What do you expect on tomorrow stage with la Madeleine and the final descent?

This is a very complicated and very hard stage. Perhapsla Madeleine does not have the prominence of a summit finish, but before the top of the final col, we will have climbed more than 4,000 meters. Together with the difficulty of the first week, it may give many surprises."

What are your feelings about Armstrong after seeing how he suffered?

"It's a complicated situation, never seen him like that, and yesterday when I saw the stage on the hotel TV, I thought of all he has done and all he has achieved. Yesterday, he did not have his best day, and of course I hate to see such a situation. I've always had admiration for him, and now I have even more."

What do you think about what Andy Schleck said that after what happened yesterday, he has more confidence in his chances?

"After yesterday's stage, I still think the same as before. He (Andy) is one of the favorites, and was the most difficult rival in the mountains last year, and it seems that this year will be the same. But, there still remains a lot of Tour, and I do not give so much importance to Sunday's stage."

Did you say that you must choose the riders to follow, who are they?

"There are many who are near in the overall, but in this sense the most direct rival is Schleck, although there are others like Evans, Leipheimer and Menchov, who are very good in time trials, and I can not let them to take time."

Your future is with Astana?

"My brother is in charge of these issues and is now in talks with the bosses of the team. I can not say exactly how things are, but most likely I’ll continue with Astana."

Sastre said today that this Tour will be a question of survival due to heat conditions. You are an aggressive rider, are you ready for a survival Tour?

"Heat always limits you, but the Tour always ends up being a survival. The tactics will depend upon the situation in the GC. Before, I had to attack, but now I have a good situation, and we must calculate our efforts."

Yesterday we saw that you had more teammates (in the latter part of the stage) than others, are you going tomorrow to continue with that tactic to send them to work?

"We will see how things are going, because there are other teams that have to take more responsibility. I have the good luck to be surrounded by great riders and friends as well, which gives me more tranquility, but every day wew will see if we need to make the race more or less hard."

Translated from original Spanish, please forgive any inaccuracies.