Contador back on top in TT

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Alberto Contador (Astana) seized control of the Vuelta a Castilla y Leon on Saturday afternoon with yet another commanding individual time trial performance. The Spanish stage race star completed the 15.1 kilometre course more than 30 seconds faster than his nearest competitor, Janez Brajkovic (RadioShack). Now former-race leader Igor Antón (Euskaltel Euskadi) finished third, almost a minute behind Contador.

Along with his stage win on Saturday, Contador turned a 13 second overall deficit prior to the stage, into a 41 second lead over Antón. Ezequiel Mosquera (Xacobeo Galicia) did enough to retain his third place position, but is now 1:20 behind Contador with only one stage to go.

It was the first individual time trial win of the season for the Spanish time trial Champion, however, It is the third time this season Contador has recorded a top-two position in an individual time trial, of the four he has competed in so far.

“I really wanted to do it well and try to get the win," said Contador. "I haven't won a time trial yet this year and that was the main objective. We have been working on improving the bike and we have achieved a very good result, because there were significant differences."

“I rode better than expected, because you always have doubts and it was a very tough time trial, very good for climbers like Igor Antón or Mosquera”.

Contador knows that even with a 41 second lead over the Euskaltel-Euskadi rider he will have to be on his guard on tomorrow's final stage.

“It will be a tough day, because some people will look for the escape and the team will have to do a great effort, but I hope we will pass the day without problems”.

Starting sixth, Jonathan Castroviejo (Euskaltel-Euskadi) had set an early benchmark of 22:17 for the 15.1 kilometre course. His time was surpassed by Cervelo's Ignatas Konovalovas, who was able to drag the standard down to a shade over 22 minutes, with 22:03.

The first to surpass the sub-22 minute barrier was Stef Clement (Rabobank), who completed his time trial ten seconds faster than Konovalovas. Clement's mark proved the most resilient. His teammate, Steven Kruijswijk, who had been on the attack regularly throughout the opening stages of the race, recorded 22:06, but was still 13 seconds shy.

Jose Mendes (La-Rota Dos Moveis) made use of his local knowledge to move ahead of Clement in the provisional standings with 21:51, but his time stood at the top for little more than a minute as Gustavo Cësar Veloso (Xacobeo Galicia) cut another 13 seconds off with his 21:38 effort.

With almost all of the nineteen riders left to finish out on course Veloso began the anxious wait to see if his time would hold firm. It didn't. Janez Brajkovic (RadioShack) gave an indication of what was to come as he finished in 21:03, a full 35 seconds faster than the Xacobeo Galicia man.

Contador was the next to register an improvement and it was yet another significant one. He tore 33 seconds off Brajkovic's time, with 20:30. With only Igor Antón (Euskaltel-Euskadi) left out on course, Contador only had to wait momentarily to find out his final position as the Euskaltel rider finished with the third fastest time, 21:24.

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