Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) have confirmed the early indications that he is getting back to his best level by taking a convincing win in the Tirreno-Adriatico queen stage. The Spaniard made one of his trademark accelerations inside the final kilometre of the final climb and even though Nairo Quintana (Movistar) tried his best, he had no response to the multiple grand tour winner. Behind, Michal Kiwatkowski (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) fought hard and managed to defend his overall lead.

Alberto Contador had a disastrous 2013 season when he only managed to win a single race but from the start of the 2014 season, the Spaniard has indicated that he may return to the level that has allowed him to win multiple grand tours. Today he confirmed that assessment when he took a convincing win in the Tirreno-Adriatico queen stage.

Contador and his Tinkoff-Saxo team played a beautiful tactical game when they sent Roman Kreuziger up the road on the final climb to force the Omega Pharma-Quick Step team of race leader Michal Kwiatkowski on the defensive. While Wout Poels chased hard for the Belgian squad, Contador saved his energy for a final fierce acceleration.

Nairo Quintana was the first of the race favourites to make an attack and only Contador could respond to the fierce acceleration. The duo quickly caught Michele Scarponi (Astana) and Robert Kiserlovski (Trek) who had been in pursuit of Kreuziger.

The Czech decided to wait for his captain but there was no cohesion in the 5-rider front group. Scarponi and Kreuziger briefly escaped but from behind, Richie Porte (Sky) was now powering up the climb at full speed.

The Australian was riding an incredible tempo with a splintering group in tow and he went straight past the 5 escapees. Inside the final kilometre, a 9-rider group had formed with Porte, Contador, Quintana, Kreuziger, Scarponi, Kiserlovski, Chris Horner (Astana), Kwiatkowski, and Daniel Moreno (Katusha).

Porte didn't even look back but just rode hard on the front as he tried to whittle down the field even further. When Kreuziger fell off the pace while riding in second, he forced Contador to make an acceleration to get back to Porte that only Quintana and Scarponi could match.

Porte continued on the front but he had no response when Contador made his final acceleration. Quintana was the only one to even try but he couldn't keep up with the Spaniard who soloed across the line to take what looked like an almost easy win. Quintana held onto second while Daniel Moreno (Katusha) made one of his trademark accelerations to pass several riders and finish 3rd.

Kwiatkowski crossed the line in 7th with a time loss of 10 seconds and that was enough for him to defend his overall lead. He is now 16 seconds ahead of Contador ahead of tomorrow's second of two brutal mountain stages. The first part of the 157km are easy but in the finale, the riders will go up the Passo Larciano climb which precedes the brutal final. Italy's steepest road, the Muro Guardiagrele, comes right at the end, summiting just 600m from the line, and with its 30% gradients it has the potential to do some real damage.

The queen stage

After an opening team time trial an two easier day, it was finally time for the climbers to kick into action on the fourth day of racing. The riders had to tackle a mammoth 244km stage from Indicatore to the top of the Selvarotonda Cittareale climb. The final 14km climb was preceded by a long flat stretch and two major climbs in the final part of the stage.

Unlike the previous days when the early break had taken off from the gun, there was a big fight to get into the day's early break. After 5km of racing, things were still together as attacks kept getting launched in the opening part.

The break takes off

After 8km, 6 riders managed to get clear when Lloyd Mondory (Ag2r), Alexey Lutsenko (Astana), Filippo Fortin (Bardiani), Matthias Brandle (IAM), Alexandre Pichot (Europcar), and Maxim Belkov (Katusha) took off. The peloton was content with its composition and after 12km, they were already 2 minutes ahead.

The gap continued to grow until it reached 7 minutes at the 38km mark. At that point, Omega Pharma-Quick Step decided that it was time to control the situation and the Belgian team brought the gap down to 3 minutes. That was too early, however, and they again stepped off the gas to allow the time gap to grow back up to 6 minutes where it was kept stable for most of the day.

Gesink abandons

The riders reached the hilly zone where it was announced that Robert Gesink (Belkin) had abandoned the race. At the top of the day's first climb, the gap had even come up to 7 minutes as the peloton decided to take it easy up the first tough ascent of the race.

At the top, Fortin beat Lutsenko and Brandle to protect the KOM lead of his teammate Marco Canola. However, that cost him the final bit of energy and when the group hit the next climb, he fell off the pace.

The break splits up

The gap had now come down to 5.45 as Pichot also got dropped from the front group. The remaining four escapees marshaled on but got bad news from their teams cars when they were informed that Movistar had started to chase.

The Spanish team hit the front and for a long time Eros Capecchi and Jonathan Castroviejo swapped turns on the front. They started to peg back time, and the gap was down to 2.14 with 52km to go.

Evans shows signs of weakness

The peloton briefly split on a descent where Cadel Evans (BMC) was one of several riders to fall off, indicating that the Australian was not on a good day. However,  things came back together as Movistar stabilized the gap between the 1- and 2-minute marks for a long.

Up ahead, Belkov fell off the pace with 43km to go and he was back in the fold 6km further down the road. With 27km to go, the escapees hit a descent and Mondory rode so hard that he escaped on his own.

Mondory crashes

The Frenchman had bad luck to crash in a corner and although he was unhurt, he was passed by Brandle and Lutsenko. He decided to sit up and wait for the peloton while the front duo continued with their 1-minute lead.

As the battle for position in the peloton intensified at the bottom of the final climb, the gap came down quickly and on the lower slopes, it was all over for the escapees. Movistar put Igor Anton on the front and the Spaniard set a fierce pace that saw the peloton splinter to pieces.

Pirazzi takes off

One of the first riders to fall off was Evans while Stefano Pirazzi (Bardiani) made his expected attack with 9.3km to go. The Giro king of the mountains did a good job to open up a 25-second gap while Anton continued his pace-setting.

With 7.5km to go, Movistar played their next card when they sent Benat Intxausti off in pursuit of Pirazzi. This force Omega Pharma-Quick Step on the defensive, with Poels hitting the front to get things under control for Kwiatkowski.

A strong trio

With 6.5km to go, Saxo-Tinkoff played the Kreuziger card and he quickly caught Intxausti. With 6km to go, the duo joined Pirazzi to make it a strong front trio.

While Poels continued his pace-setting in the peloton, Intxausti was the first to fall off the pace in the front trio. Kreuziger set a fierce pace and with 3.5km to go, Pirazzi could not keep up with him either.

The attacking starts

Kreuziger was now 27 seconds ahead of the peloton but now the attacking started in the small group of favourites. Ben Hermans (BMC) was the first to try but he was quickly brought back.

Instead, Robert Kiserlovski (Trek) and Scarponi took off and the duo got a nice gap while the favourites were looking at each other. This was when Quintana decided to launch his first acceleration, and only Contador could respond. This set the scene for the exciting finale from which Contador emerged as a deserved winner.