Alberto Contador finished 4th on stage 3 of Vuelta a Catalunya together with a decimated group of favorites just behind stage winner Pozzovio. The selection was made when Tinkoff-Saxo took to the front to set a punishing pace in the decisive part of the race with two climbs left to tackle.

Contador and the rest of the GC favorites managed to take back time lost to the breakaway on stage 1. Alberto Contador reclaimed 19 seconds on race leader Pierre Rolland (Europcar), who had gained time in a breakaway previously in the race. After crossing the finish line of stage 3 in a group of seven favorites, team leader Alberto Contador explained that Tinkoff-Saxo had utilized every opportunity at its disposal.

“We gave the maximum we had on the flat parts of the stage, on the climbs as well as the descents. At the end, a small group reached the finish and I don’t think there was anything more one could ask from us. There wasn’t anything more either that we could have done. I’m happy because the feeling I have is quite good, the team is in good shape and taking into consideration this is the last race before the Giro, it is good to try something”, says a content Alberto Contador to the Tinkoff website.

“This wasn’t one of the toughest stages of the Volta a Catalunya but the team did an extraordinary job from the top of the first mountain pass. They rode as hard as they could in order to try to create the possibility to fight for GC victory after the breakaway of the first day”

The somewhat short but undulating 156km stage to Girona featured no less than six categorized climbs along the way. With the GC favorites facing a difficult task to regain time lost to the breakaway on stage 1, Alberto Contador and his teammates took to the front. And after more than 30km of hard pacesetting from a Tinkoff-Saxo team in full vigor, it was up to Contador to finish the job.

After initial attacks, a group of five, including Contador, Richie Porte and Rigoberto Uran, formed and on the descent towards Girona, Andrew Talansky and Daniel Martin regained contact. A late attack from Domenico Pozzovivo secured him the win with three seconds to the remaining six favorites, who reached the finish line 19 seconds ahead of the chasing group containing Valverde, Froome and Pierre Rolland.

However it had apparently been difficult to maintain the time gap over the second chasing group, which at some point was close to a minute.

“We were in the leading group and the rest of the riders didn’t collaborate much in order to pull away from the ones left behind, including Rolland. I also understand that the other riders in the leading group defended their own interests and carried our their own strategies. It is understandable”, explains Alberto Contador after the stage.

Tinkoff-Saxo’s leading sports director in Catalunya, Steven de Jongh, was pleased with the team effort although he had hoped for a bit more.

“I’m happy overall with the work of the team. We hoped for a little bit more support from the final group. It would have been an opportunity to take back some time but that is the race. We can’t change it. We have our tactics and the other teams have their tactics, so we have to respect that. We wanted to make the race hard in order to gain time on the leaders and that’s exactly what we did. Our guys did well and Alberto was positioned where he had to be. He was in front and from the top of the climb about 30 km from the finish. Our squad did a good race”, underlines Steven de Jongh, who expects to see action increase tomorrow:

“Tomorrow is another tough stage and I think the GC hasn’t been decided yet. We will keep trying and we will keep fighting until the finish line of the last stage.”