Two things could keep me riding in 2017: Cyclist Contador

Spanish cyclist Alberto Contador has said there were two things which could stop him from retiring at the end of the current season.

The 33-year-old, who is the only Spaniard to have won the three "grand tour" (France, Italy and Spain), said he was thinking of retiring at the end of the year, reports Xinhua.

But said he is willing to continue, but only under special circumstances. Those are a chance to form and lead his own professional cycling team or if he is unable to give his best at Tour e France 2016 cycling competition.

"There are two options in my head to stop the idea of retiring which I mentioned a year ago," said Contador on Monday.

"One of them is that something goes wrong in the Tour d France, as happened in 2014 (when he broke his leg in a fall) which stops me giving my best, or being able to launch the professional team that we are planning," he added.

Contador said he was optimistic that the project of forming a professional cycling team was "slowly taking shape."

"It is a complicated project, because my idea is for it to be a team that would guarantee success and for that to happen you need a big budget," he said, adding the possibilities of starting his own team for 2017 were "around 50 percent."

The cyclist admitted that budget would be around 15 million euros ($16.5 million) and insisted that the work he was doing in trying to set it up was not affecting his preparations for the new cycling season.