Alberto Contador quits Tour de France with fever in the Pyrenees

Sean Yates, Contador's directeur sportif at Tinkoff, confirmed that the embattled Spaniard had been suffering from a fever since the race entered the mountains on Friday.

Two crashes in the opening two days in Normandy meant Contador trailed the race leader Chris Froome (Team Sky) by more than three minutes going into the last stage ahead of Monday's first rest day.

Despite his illness, Contador started stage nine promisingly - attacking his rivals on the first of five scheduled climbs to join a breakaway riding two minutes ahead of the peloton.

But Contador was unable to keep up with the pace of the leaders and quickly dropped back to the pack before spending long periods of time deep in discussion with his team-mates and staff in the Tinkoff team car.

Contador, one of only six men with titles in all three grand tours (France, Italy, Spain), quickly faded away though and rolled down to his team car several times.

He called it quits on the what was second of the day's four climbs in the Pyrenees.

"It's bad news for me, it was my last chance to win the Tour de France," said team owner Oleg Tinkov, who is pulling out of cycling at the end of the year.

"But who knows maybe I'll come back in a few years."

Around two-thirds up the Port del Canto climb some 100km from the finish, the 33-year-old dropped the back of the peloton before pulling up alongside his Tinkoff team car, which he entered after giving an apologetic wave to the TV cameras.

Contador's race got off to the worst possible start after the veteran crashed heavily on a tight bend in the opening stage, suffering cuts and bruises to his left shoulder, arm and hip. One day later Contador crashed again, this time falling on his right-hand side. Contador lost time in the uphill finish at Cherbourg in stage two before being distanced by his rivals towards the end of the hilly stage in the Massif Central on day five.

Saturday's opening day in the high mountains - won by Froome after a daredevil descent - saw Contador concede the best part of two minutes. This resulted in Tinkoff team leadership being entrusted to the Czech rider Roman Kreuziger, currently sitting in 12th place on GC some 34 seconds adrift of the summit.

It remains to be seen if Contador - who is expected to announce his move to the Trek-Segafredo team on Monday - will ride the Vuelta a Espana later in the summer.