query: occupation alberto contador
supports: Spain, officially the Kingdom of Spain, is a sovereign state largely located on the Iberian Peninsula in southwestern Europe, with two large archipelagos, the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea and the Canary Islands off the North African Atlantic coast, two cities Ceuta and Melilla in the North African mainland and several small islands in the Alboran Sea near the Moroccan coast. Its mainland is bordered to the south and east by the Mediterranean Sea except for a small land boundary with Gibraltar; to the north and northeast by France, Andorra, and the Bay of Biscay; and to the west and northwest by Portugal and the Atlantic Ocean. It is the only European country to have a border with an African country (Morocco) and its African territory accounts for nearly 5% of its population, mostly in the Canary Islands but also in Ceuta and Melilla. A team time trial (TTT) is a road-based bicycle race in which teams of cyclists race against the clock (see individual time trial for a more detailed description of ITT events). In many racing sports an athlete (or occasionally a team of athletes) will compete in a time trial against the clock to secure the fastest time. In cycling, for example, a time trial (TT) can be a single track cycling event, or an individual or team time trial on the road, and either or both of the latter may form components of multi-day stage races. In contrast to other types of races, athletes race alone since they are sent out in intervals (interval starts), as opposed to a mass start. MILAN ("milan(e)" is French for kite) is a European anti-tank guided missile. Design of the MILAN started in 1962, it was ready for trials in 1971, and was accepted for service in 1972. It is a wire guided SACLOS (semi-automatic command to line-of-sight) missile, which means the sight of the launch unit has to be aimed at the target to guide the missile. The MILAN can be equipped with a MIRA or MILIS thermal sight to give it night-firing ability. A stopwatch is a handheld timepiece designed to measure the amount of time elapsed from a particular time when it is activated to the time when the piece is deactivated. A large digital version of a stopwatch designed for viewing at a distance, as in a sports stadium, is called a stopclock. In manual timing, the clock is started and stopped by a person pressing a button. In fully automatic time, both starting and stopping are triggered automatically, by sensors. The Avenue des Champs-Élysées is an avenue in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, long and wide, running between the Place de la Concorde and the Place Charles de Gaulle, where the Arc de Triomphe is located. It is known for its theatres, cafés and luxury shops, for the annual Bastille Day military parade, and as the finish of the Tour de France cycle race. The name is French for the Elysian Fields, the paradise for dead heroes in Greek mythology. The French proudly call their world-famous boulevard ""la plus belle avenue du monde"" ("the world's most beautiful avenue"). Marzio Bruseghin (born 15 June 1974 in Conegliano, Treviso) is an Italian retired professional road bicycle racer, who competed as a professional between 1997 and 2012. His best achievement was winning the 2006 Italian time-trial championship, as well as winning two time trial stages in the Giro d'Italia. In 2008 he completed all three Grand Tours, including a podium finish (Giro) and a top 10 finish (Vuelta). The 2009 Tour de France was the 96th edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tours. It started on 4 July in the principality of Monaco with a individual time trial which included a section of the Circuit de Monaco. The race visited six countries: Monaco, France, Spain, Andorra, Switzerland and Italy, and finished on 26 July on the Champs-Élysées in Paris. The 2008 Giro d'Italia was the 91st running of the Giro d'Italia, one of cycling's Grand Tours. It began in Palermo on 10 May and ended in Milan on 1 June. Twenty-two teams entered the race, which was won by Spaniard Alberto Contador of the cycling team. Second and third respectively were Italians Riccardo Riccò and Marzio Bruseghin. An individual time trial (ITT) is a road bicycle race in which cyclists race alone against the clock on flat or rolling terrain, or up a mountain road such as Alpe d'Huez (in French: "contre la montre"  literally "against the watch", in Italian: "tappa a cronometro" "stopwatch stage"). There are also track-based time trials where riders compete in velodromes, and team time trials (TTT). ITTs are also referred to as "the race of truth", as winning depends only on each rider's strength and endurance, and not on help provided by team-mates and others riding ahead and creating a slipstream. The opening stage of stage race will often be a short individual time trial called a prologue. The 2010 Tour de France was the 97th edition of the Tour de France cycle race, one of cycling's Grand Tours. It started on with an 8.9 km prologue time trial in Rotterdam, the first start in the Netherlands since 1996. The race visited three countries: the Netherlands, Belgium and France, and finished on on the Champs-Élysées in Paris. LAlpe d'Huez is a ski resort at . It is a mountain pasture in the Central French Alps, in the commune of Huez, which is part of the department of Isère in the region of Rhône-Alpes. It is part of the massif, over the Oisans, and is from Grenoble. The Alpe d'Huez resort is accessible from Grenoble by the , which runs along the Romanche Valley passing through the communes of Livet-et-Gavet and Le Bourg-d'Oisans as well as Haut-Oisans via the Col de Sarenne. Alpe d'Huez is used regularly in the Tour de France cycle race, including twice on the same day in 2013. The Alps are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across eight Alpine countries: Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Slovenia, and Switzerland. The mountains were formed over tens of millions of years as the African and Eurasian tectonic plates collided. Extreme shortening caused by the event resulted in marine sedimentary rocks rising by thrusting and folding into high mountain peaks such as Mont Blanc and the Matterhorn. Mont Blanc spans the FrenchItalian border, and at is the highest mountain in the Alps. The Alpine region area contains about a hundred peaks higher than 4000 metres (just over 13,000 feet). Alberto Contador Velasco ( Spanish pronunciation : ( alerto kontaðor elasko ) ; born 6 December 1982 ) is a Spanish professional cyclist , one of six riders to have won all three Grand Tours of road cycling . He was the winner of the 2007 Tour de France with the Discovery Channel team . With the Astana team he has won the 2008 Giro d'Italia , the 2008 Vuelta a España and the 2009 Tour de France . He initially also won the 2010 Tour de France with this team , and the 2011 Giro d'Italia with team Saxo Bank - SunGard , only to be stripped of these titles later having been found guilty of a doping offence . Following his return from a suspension , he won the 2012 Vuelta a España , the 2014 Vuelta a España and the 2015 Giro d'Italia . Notable summit stage finishes on which he has victories include the Alto de El Angliru in the Vuelta , the Plateau de Beille in the Tour and Mount Etna in the Giro . After being widely expected to lose his tenuous lead in the 2007 Tour de France in that race 's final individual time trial , Contador has become a more accomplished time trialist , with several victories in the discipline . He has earned a reputation as an all - rounder , a cyclist who excels in all aspects of stage racing which are needed for high places in the general classification . Contador 's career has been marked by doping allegations . The Operación Puerto doping case led his Astana -- Würth team ( a team restructured to the current Astana team ) to withdraw en masse from the 2006 Tour de France before it began . He was eventually cleared of any wrongdoing . In September 2010 , Contador announced that he had tested positive for clenbuterol in a control taken during that year 's Tour de France , in which he finished as winner , but although he was suspended during an investigation , he was cleared by the RFEC . A review by the Court of Arbitration for Sport initially set for June 2011 was later deferred several times until February 2012 , when the CAS decided that Contador be stripped of the results obtained in the 2010 Tour de France and later , which also caused him to lose his 2011 Giro d'Italia victory . He was also suspended until 5 August 2012 , and his contract with Team Saxo Bank was annulled . Upon the completion of his ban , Contador rejoined the renamed Saxo Bank -- Tinkoff Bank team . Rotterdam is a city in the Netherlands, located in South Holland, within the RhineMeuseScheldt river delta at the North Sea. Its history goes back to 1270 when a dam was constructed in the Rotte river by people settled around it for safety. In 1340 Rotterdam was granted city rights by the Count of Holland and slowly grew into a major logistic and economic centre. Nowadays it is home to Europe's largest port and has a population of 633,471 (city proper), ranking second in the Netherlands. The Greater Rijnmond area is home to approximately 1.4 million people and the Rotterdam The Hague Metropolitan Area makes for the 168th most populous urban area in the world. Rotterdam is part of the yet larger Randstad conurbation with a total population of 7,100,000. Carlos Sastre Candil (born 22 April 1975) is a former Spanish professional road bicycle racer and winner of the 2008 Tour de France. He consistently achieved great results in the Vuelta a España and equally good showings in the Tour de France. Sastre established himself as a strong and stable climbing specialist, and after working to improve his individual time trial skills, he became a contender for the top GC spots in the Grand Tours. In total, Sastre finished in the top ten overall of fifteen Grand Tours during his career. The 2008 Vuelta a España was the 63rd edition of the Vuelta a España, one of cycling's Grand Tours. The race began with a team time trial on August 30 in Granada. The Vuelta came to a close twenty-three days later with a flat stage, which brought the peloton into the streets of Madrid. Nineteen teams entered the race, which was won by the Spaniard Alberto Contador of . Second and third respectively were the American Levi Leipheimer of and the Spanish Carlos Sastre of . Riccardo Riccò (born 1 September 1983 in Formigine) is a former professional road bicycle racer from Italy. He remains under contract to UCI Continental team Meridiana-Kamen, but is suspended from all competition until 2024. He was previously ejected from the 2008 Tour de France for doping violations and suspended. Riccò returned to competition in late-2010, but in February 2011 he was fired by his team, , after he became seriously ill allegedly through a self-administered autologous blood transfusion. Hephaestus (or ; eight spellings; Ancient Greek: "Hphaistos") is the Greek god of blacksmiths, craftsmen, artisans, sculptors, metals, metallurgy, fire and volcanoes. Hephaestus' Roman equivalent is Vulcan. In Greek mythology, Hephaestus was the son of Zeus and Hera, the king and queen of the gods. In another version, he was Hera's parthenogenous child, rejected by his mother because of his deformity and thrown off of Mount Olympus and down to earth. The Tour de France is an annual multiple stage bicycle race primarily held in France, while also occasionally making passes through nearby countries. The race was first organized in 1903 to increase sales for the newspaper "L'Auto"; which is currently run by the Amaury Sport Organisation. The race has been held annually since its first edition in 1903 except when it was stopped for the two World Wars. As the Tour gained prominence and popularity the race was lengthened and its reach began to extend around the globe. Participation expanded from a primarily French field, as riders from all over the world began to participate in the race each year. The Tour is a UCI World Tour event, which means that the teams that compete in the race are mostly UCI WorldTeams, with the exception of the teams that the organizers invite. Mount Etna (or Etna or "Mongibello" , or "â Muntagna") is an active stratovolcano on the east coast of Sicily, Italy, in the Metropolitan City of Catania, between the cities of Messina and Catania. It lies above the convergent plate margin between the African Plate and the Eurasian Plate. It is the tallest active volcano in Europe, currently high, though this varies with summit eruptions. It is the highest peak in Italy south of the Alps. Etna covers an area of with a basal circumference of 140 km. This makes it by far the largest of the three active volcanoes in Italy, being about two and a half times the height of the next largest, Mount Vesuvius. Only Mount Teide in Tenerife (owned by Spain) surpasses it in the whole of the EuropeanNorth-African region. In Greek Mythology, the deadly monster Typhon was trapped under this mountain by Zeus, the god of the sky and thunder and king of gods, and the forges of Hephaestus were said to also be located underneath it. Levi Leipheimer (born October 24, 1973) is an American former professional road racing cyclist. He was twice US national champion, winning the time trial title in 1999 and the road race in 2007, and is an Olympic medalist. Leipheimer was born and raised in Butte, Montana and resides in Santa Rosa, California with his Canadian wife Odessa Gunn. He is the patron of the widely attended King Ridge GranFondo, a mass participation ride in Sonoma County. France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans and had a total population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary semi-presidential republic with the capital in Paris, the country's largest city and main cultural and commercial centre. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse and Bordeaux. The African Plate is a major tectonic plate straddling the equator as well as the prime meridian. It includes much of the continent of Africa, as well as oceanic crust which lies between the continent and various surrounding ocean ridges. Between and , the Somali Plate began rifting from the African Plate along the East African Rift. Since the continent of Africa consists of crust from both the African and the Somali plates, some literature refers to the African Plate as the Nubian Plate to distinguish it from the continent as a whole. The Giro d'Italia (aka Corsa Rosa or Giro) is an annual multiple-stage bicycle race primarily held in Italy, while also occasionally passing through nearby countries. The race was first organized in 1909 to increase sales of the newspaper "La Gazzetta dello Sport"; however it is currently run by RCS Sport. The race has been held annually since its first edition in 1909, except when it was stopped for the two world wars. As the Giro gained prominence and popularity the race was lengthened, and the peloton expanded from primarily Italian participation to riders from all over the world. The Giro is a UCI World Tour event, which means that the teams that compete in the race are mostly UCI Proteams, with the exception of the teams that the organizers can invite. The general classification (or the GC) in bicycle racing is the category that tracks overall times for bicycle riders in multi-stage bicycle races. Each stage will have a stage winner, but the overall winner in the GC is the rider who has the fastest time when all the stage results are added together. Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a unitary parliamentary republic in Europe. Located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, San Marino and Vatican City. Italy covers an area of and has a largely temperate seasonal climate and Mediterranean climate; due to its shape, it is often referred to in Italy as "lo Stivale" (the Boot). With 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth most populous EU member state. Palermo (Sicilian: "Palermu", , from , "Panormos", , "Balarm"; Phoenician: , "Ziz") is a city of Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old. Palermo is located in the northwest of the island of Sicily, right by the Gulf of Palermo in the Tyrrhenian Sea. Zeus ("Zeús", ; Modern , "Días" ) was the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion, who ruled as king of the gods of Mount Olympus. His name is cognate with the first element of his Roman equivalent Jupiter. His mythologies and powers are similar, though not identical to those of the Indo-European deities such as Indra, Jupiter, Perun, Thor, and Odin.
candidates: architecture bank bicycle racer clock commercial count gastronomy general guide king major member military mountain religion sales sovereign
answer: bicycle racer