Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) proved that his 2014 season could be much better than 2013 when he won today's queen stage of the Volta ao Algarve on the short, steep Alto do Malhao climb. The Spaniard launched one of his trademark accelerations to leave Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida) and Michal Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) in his wake while the latter reduced his losses sufficiently to defend his overall lead.

After a disastrous 2013 season that only allowed him to take one win, Alberto Contador has postponed the start to his season, returning to the schedule that has given him so much success earlier in his career. In the past, the Volta ao Algarve has been the launch pad for some of his greatest successes and the Spaniard is hopeful that it will be so again in 2014.

Today he got his season off to the best possible start when he won the queen stage of the Portuguese race. On the famous and very steep Alto do Malhao, the Spaniard launched one of his trademark accelerations and left everybody else in his wake.

Contador had used his strong team to set a hard pace in the finale of the race and by the time he launched his attack, everybody was on their limit. This allowed the strong Spaniard to open a gap over his rivals and he crossed the line 3 seconds ahead of world champion and home hero Rui Costa.

Michal Kwiatkowski who had appeared to be unbeatable in the last few days, struggled a bit on the steep slopes but managed to finish 3rd, reducing his time loss to just 10 seconds. This allowed him to defend his overall lead and he sits 16 seconds ahead of Contador ahead of tomorrow's final stage, with Costa being 13 seconds further adrift.

Barring disaster,  Kwiatkowski will win the race overall as the final day offers 155.8km flat stage to Vilamoura. It finishes with four laps on a finishing circuit, giving the sprinters a final opportunity in the 5-day race.

The queen stage

The 164.5km fourth stage from Almodovar to the top of the famous Alto do Malhao was the race's queen stage. After a flat start, things got difficult in the end where the riders were sent up the 2.6km climb (9.6%) two times. In between, they would tackle a very steep category 3 climb which had an average gradient of 13%.

The race was off to a very fast start as several riders were keen to be part of the early breakaway. After 5km, however, 8 riders managed to separate themselves from the bunch and they started to build up a gap.

A battle for points

Pablo Lastras (Movistar), Michael Delage (FDJ.fr), Laurens de Vreese (Wanty-Groupe Gobert), Jimmy Engoulvent (Europcar), Julien Fouchard (Cofidis), Paul Voss (Netapp-Endura), Diego Rubio (Efapel-Glassdrive) and Soufianne Haddi (SkyDive-Dubai) made up the day's break and by the time, Rubio beat Engoulvent and Haddi in the day's first intermediate sprint after 30.6km of racing, they were 2.40 ahead. The gap continued to grow and when Rubio beat Delage and Engoulvent at the second sprint after 72km of racing, they were 4.37 ahead.

This was as much as they would get as the peloton started to up the pace when they hit the hilly zone at the end of the stage. Slowly but surely, the advantage was reduced and by the time they hit the Malhao for the first time, they were only 2.13 ahead.

Horner puts down the hammer

De Vreese was first at the top, beating Voss, Lastras, Rubio and Fouchard in the battle for the points, while behind the peloton exploded to pieces. Chris Horner (Lampre-Merida) set a brutal pace up the climb, cresting the summit a few metres ahead of the main peloton before falling back to the group.

Up ahead, Fouchard, Haddi, and Delage had fallen off the pace, leaving just 5 riders to soldier on. At the 126km mark, their gap was only 26 seconds though and 10km further up they were back in the fold.

Tinkoff-Saxo set the pace

Tinkoff-Saxo was now setting a fierce pace to prepare the win for Contador but Gorka Izagirre (Movistar) managed to take off on his own. He was joined by Bjorn Thurau (Europcar), Oscar Pujol (Skydive Dubai), and Maxim Belkov (Katusha) to form a 4-rider group that dangled 20 seconds ahead of the peloton for some time.

On the short, steep climb with 10km to go, Izagirre and Thurau left their companions behind, with Izagirre being first at the top. Sergio Paulinho led the peloton across the line 10 seconds later as Tinkoff-Saxo continued their fierce pace-setting.

Back together for the final climb

Thurau took off on his own but with 7km to go, all was back together, set for an exciting finale on the Malhao. Tinkoff-Saxo rode hard all the way to the bottom, putting everyone on their limit when the ascent started.

Ricardo Vilela (OFM) launched an attack from the bottom but was quickly reeled in. Instead, Contador lost his fierce attack and Kwiatkowski was the only one to respond.

The Pole fell off the pace and was passed by Costa but the world champion was unable to rejoin the multiple grand tour winner. Contador soloed across the line to take his second ever win on the Malhao and move closer to Kwiatkowski on GC.