Alberto Contador is ready to challenge Chris Froome in the battle for Tour de France honours and after what has probably been his best ever spring season, he claims to be back at his 2009 level. However, he insists that the defending champion goes into the race as the favourite.

Since 2009 the Tour de France has always been won by the rider who dominated the early-season stage racing. Based on that fact, the Spaniard goes into this year's edition of La Grande Boucle as the man to beat.

After his disappointing 2013 season, Contador has been back to his best this year. He has won the Vuelta al Pais Vasco and Tirreno-Adriatico and finished 2nd in the Volta ao Algarve, the Volta a Catalunya and the Criterium du Dauphiné. The results have made it his best ever spring season and he can start the Tour de France a lot more confident than he did 12 months ago.

In his pre-race press conference, the Spaniard admits that he is a lot stronger than he was in 2013 and feels that he is back to his level of 2009 when he completely dominated the Tour.

"All Tours France are special, but I've come to this with confidence as I have had good results from the beginning of the season," he said. "I'm in good shape. My condition reminds me of the feelings I had at the start of the 2009 Tour de France where I did really well.

"My best prepared Tour was in 2009. I don’t know what my shape really is yet for this year's Tour, I do know that I’m in good shape, I feel a lot better than I have done in other years. my preparation has been very good, doing thousands and thousands of metres of climbing."

However, he insists that Froome is the favourite.

"I’ve said this lots of times and so it maybe repetitive but the rider who’s shown to be the strongest in the last two years is Froome and he’s the number one favourite," he said. "Have I got better form than last year? Definitely. I don’t know whether it’ll be enough. And there are other riders out there who can also have a huge influence on the race.

"For me all of them [the Tours de France]are special but this one is exceptional, this is the one everybody wants to win. I've come to this Tour very calm, in good shape, with lots of good race results. Froome is the top favourite and I'll ride day by day to see what happens. But yes, it’s a very special, important Tour."

"There's no doubt that I've come here in a good state of form, but the first week is not as decisive as perhaps other years (because of the lack of an individual or team time trial). There are key stages like the second and the fifth stages but it’s when we get to the Vosges when we'll see everybody’s real condition."

In 2010, Contador lost time to Andy Schleck on the cobbles but gained time on most of his rivals. He knows that time differences can be made when the race returns to the scene on stage 5.

"I think that we could see a series of different outcomes but Froome has a very strong team for the cobbles, Nibali is good too for this terrain. In any case, it’s going to be a battle for survival for every rider. It’s going to be a stage where you can lose the Tour, but also a day where you can gain a lot of time on your rivals. It’s difficult to make a prediction."

Contador revealed he has not seen Sunday's second stage.

"I’ve seen it on video but I've not been to see it. I know it's going to be really hard and there could well be time differences but one big factor will be the wind too. And that's a heck of a lot of climbing for the second day. We will have to be very focused all the way and I hope my legs respond all the way through."