Prior to yesterday’s Liège-Bastogne-Liège Alberto Contador (Saxo-Tinkoff) had had a season of solid performances but few victories and in the Flèche Wallonne last week he gave a rather lacklustre performance.

Ahead of Sunday’s race, Contador had played down his own prospects of winning. Thus his willingness to attack and assume a leading role in yesterday’s race came as something of a surprise.

Constantly close to the front at La Redoute, Contador was very active on the Cote de Colonster, helping to initiate the move which subsequently saw Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Sharp) break clear. Subsequently Contador formed part of a six-rider attack in pursuit of Hesjedal which might, with a little more cooperation, have stayed clear of the bunch at least as far as Saint-Nicolas.

"I was feeling a lot better than I thought and I'm pleased I've finished the first part of the season with a good performance," Contador said afterwards to Radsportnews.com.

"In my judgement the Cote de Colonster represented a good opportunity for me, so I tried to initiate a move but it didn't quite work out. When I realised that nobody else wanted to cooperate with me chasing down Hesjedal, [I decided] it wasn't up to me to do all the work."

"Still, it's been a good way to end this part of the season, I'm satisfied that I managed to do what I could."

Alberto Contador will now take a break from racing before returning to action at the Critérium du Dauphine. After that, he moves on to target his main objective of the 2013 season; the Tour de France.