Alberto Contador (Team Saxo-Tinkoff) narrowly missed out on his first stage win in this year's Tour as he was narrowly beaten by Chris Froome in today's hilly time trial. Having been fastest at all intermediate checks, he lost his advantage on the final descent and claimed that he had taken a cautious approach due to yesterday's crash.

Chris Froome was expected to crush the opposition in today's final time trial of the Tour de France. While the Brit took the win, he was, however, far less dominant than most had predicted.

Alberto Contador got very close to taking away the win from the Brit as the Spaniard finished 2nd, only 9 seconds slower than the race leader. Contador had even set the best time at all three intermediate checks but lost his lead on the final descent.

Admitting that he was disappointed to miss the win with such a narrow margin, he kept focus on the bigger picture. He had expected to lose far more time to his British rival and so was ultimately happy with the outcome of the stage.

 “It was good and I'm happy because it's good to be close," he said. "But of course it is a shame to miss the win by such a small margin. Froome is at an impressive level both uphill and in the time trial and when I saw that he was close at the final time check,I was totally convinced that he would beat me even though I still had a better time than him at that point."

Contador crashed on the descent yesterday and as he headed down towards the finish, rain started to fall. He claims to have been a bit more cautious which may ultimately have cost him the win.

“On the last descent it started to rain and I decided to take it a little easier as I had a crash yesterday," he said." I'm actually glad that the knee does not hurt me much and that motivates me for the coming days."

“I don't know how much Froome risked," he added. "All I'm saying is that I did not want to risk anything because yesterday I crashed and I did not want to do it again. Rather lose a little time, because I have a really swollen knee and it could not have taken another blow as it would then have been very difficult to start tomorrow."

Unlike all the other GC riders, Contador and his teammate Roman Kreuziger chose not to make a bike change for the final power section and it has been claimed that that decision may have cost him the win. Contador disagrees.

“I am very happy with the bike”, he said. “I have a mechanic, Faustino, who is a real machine and he prepared a bike that could not be better. I am very happy with the choice I made."

Contador moved into 2nd on GC but is now 4.34 behind Froome. He could be forgiven to focus on securing his runner-up position but with three difficult stages in the Alps coming up, he still targets the win.

“We must try to see if we can climb to the top step of the podium but it is true that  Froome is impressive," he said. "But there are still two tough days, and when you're second, it is easier to move into first. Froome is very strong but I can still use my great team to give me a hand."

Contador faces his first big challenge in tomorrow's stage that includes two ascent of the legendary Alpe d'Huez. Starting at 12.15, you can follow the stage in its entirety on CyclingQuotes.com/live.