Alberto Contador of Tinkoff Saxo finished off the job he started in the opening stage by winning the 54th Vuelta Ciclista al Pais Vasco (Basque Tour).
Contador had a twelve second lead going into the 25.9km time trial from Markina to Xemein over Alejandro Valverde and was warming up when Jon Izaguirre became the first rider to finish in less than forty minutes with a time of 39.14.
On a course which featured a number of climbs, world time trial champion Tony Martin of Omega Pharma Quick Step smashed the fastest intermediate time and got as much body weight as he could over his front wheel to get as much speed as possible. Martin absolutely floored it through the town and finished in 38.33.74.
With the stage result decided, the battle was on for the overall victory. Michal Kwiatkowski of Omega Pharma Quick Step did a superb time finishing fifteen seconds down on Martin's time and when Valverde finished 1.07 down, Contador needed to come up with something.
And he did. The Spaniard, who has displayed some good form in the spring so far, rode brilliantly and finished second, some seven seconds behind Martin, to take the Basque Tour with a 49 second victory over Michael Kwiatkowski.
Tinkoff-Saxo DS, Philippe Mauduit told his team's website: “Alberto is simply super strong at the moment. He rode elegantly, regularly and with enormous power in the pedals. We knew that he was the best climber here and today he demonstrated that he’s one of the very best time trialists as well finishing only 7 seconds behind the world champion. For Alberto this is another boost of confidence which he needed before going home training to prepare for the Tour de France”, .
Stage 6 Result
1 Tony MARTIN OPQ 38:33
2 Alberto CONTADOR TCS +7
3 Michal KWIATKOWSKI OPQ +15
4 Simon SPILAK KAT +16
5 Jean-Chirstophe PERAUD ALM +35
6 Tom DUMOULIN GIA +38
7 Jon IZAGIRRE MOV +41
8 Alejandro VALVERDE MOV +1:02
9 Tejay VAN GARDEREN BMC +1:05
10 Thibaut Pinot FDJ +1:25
General Classification
1 Alberto Contador, 2 Kwiatkowski +49 3 Peraud +1:04 4 Spilak +1:07 5 Valverde +1:07
Sprints Jersey Winner - Omar Fraile (Caja Rural)
Mountains Jersey Winner - Davide Villella (Cannondale)
Points Jersey Winner - Michal Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma Quick Step)
Team Classification - BMC
Source: DSG
