Alejandro Valverde tried to attack Alberto Contador in today's second stage of the Vuelta al Pais Vasco but the race leader stayed glued to the wheel of his compatriot. Despite the stage being billed as one for the sprinters, Contador had always expected Valverde to give it a try on the final climb.

It was all about controlling and defending the overall lead for Tinkoff-Saxo during today’s 155.8 kilometer long second stage of Vuelta Pais Vasco between Ordizia and Dantxarinea.
 
But it was a group of quite big name riders forming today’s breakaway including Maxim Montfort (Lotto-Belisol), Jan Bakelandts and Tony Martin (Omega-Pharma Quick Step) and for a long while the gap was kept around two minutes. As the finale was tailor-made for the sprinters and none of the escapees were a threat for Alberto Contador’s lead, the sprinter teams started their engines in the peloton entering the final 35 kilometer of the race.
 
As the gap hit one minute, Tony Martin decided to give it a go, left the front group and continued on his own going in to time trial mode crunching away towards the finish line and took a sensational stage win.
 
Behind, Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) didn’t miss the opportunity to launch an attack on the final, short and steep climb but Contador was on his tail immediately defending his leader’s jersey superbly.

"Alejandro attacked me," he told Biciciclismo. "If I had been in his situation, I would have done the same. We had seen in the past that there could be splits and I have tried to stay very careful.

"It has been a hard stage because it was a strong break and we could not let them get too far away. The team has done an exceptional work and has successfully controlled the gap which never went beyond three minutes. It was not a transitional stage as it was very demanding.

"14 seconds is not a big gap, and we just have to take it day by day."

“As the leading team we took responsibility of the rhythm of the pack from the start of the stage and towards the finale, the sprinter teams wanted to bring Martin back but they were too late," sports director Philippe Mauduit said. "From our point of view, I think Alberto responded well to Valverde’s accelerations and he defended the jersey in great style. We had a feeling that Valverde wanted to try something and we would probably have done the same thing. So we respect him for trying.

"Tomorrow’s stage will be a bit flatter than today but with a challenging finale."