Alberto Contador confirmed that he is the strongest rider in the Vuelta a Espana when he beat Chris Froome after a great duel in the queen stage. The Spaniard says that he has become used to Froome's way of riding and that the Brit launched several strong accelerations.

Tinkoff-Saxo’s team captain Alberto Contador extended his lead in the GC after winning the queen stage of this year’s Vuelta a España dropping rival Chris Froome on the final part of the climb to La Farrapona. The duo had attacked and left the other main favorites in their wake with 5 kilometers to go, and in the last kilometer Contador made the final move that secured him today’s solo win.
 
“Alberto was impressive today. He has attacked on many of the mountain stages, and today he was definitely the strongest. We did a good job today and the team worked really hard, also in the first part of the stage. In fact, the team has done a really good job the last two weeks so they all deserve this stage win today”, says sport director Steven de Jongh after the stage.
 
The 161-kilometer long queen stage featured five climbs – four of them being category 1. A breakaway containing 13 riders got away early but the difficulty of the terrain and overall tempo on the stage quickly diminished the size of the group. De Marchi was the last rider to get caught with 3 kilometers to go.

On the last climb, Froome was the first of the favorites to make a move with 5 kilometers to go. It came after a fierce pace had reduced the group of favorites down to 8 riders on the first part of the final 16,5-kilometer climb to La Farrapona.
 
Alberto Contador was the only one to respond to Froome’s acceleration sitting right in his wheel. The gap to Valverde and Rodriguez steadily increased to over 50 seconds. As the front duo reached the 1-kilometer mark, Alberto launched a strong attack and crossed the finish line 15 seconds ahead of Froome extending the overall lead.

“It a very good day for us," he said. "I was able to distance all riders, some who were closer and others who were further back, like Froome, who seems to recover well and set an incredible pace. I felt strong and I've been able to hold on until I saw my chance and I took the opportunity.

“I have seen the pace of Sky, which I have already experienced this year, especially in the Dauphine . When Froome makes a change of pace, it is difficult to follow him. When I succeeded, the next thing I did was to see that Joaquim and Alejandro were dropped, then I saw that I could stay there and I searched for my moment.

"He attacked at least three or four [times]. Sometimes it doesn’t really show but I can assure you his changes of pace are strong. I’ve come to be used to this duel, I know how he proceeds and I’m happy my legs could sustain it perfectly today.

"Our preparation is different than it was at other moments, the Dauphiné for instance, but I can tell you the race level is strong. We’re producing very high watts. We climbed La Farrapona at a very high average.

“Yesterday we saw the weather forecast and yesterday the asphalt was really difficult with the rain and we decided to start with tires that were better suited to rain. When we saw that it was not raining, we decided to change to a other tires and for that reason I made a bike change.

"There are still many rivals. The race will be complicated and should be controlled, but what gives me confidence is that my recovery is very good and the forces are fairly well despite the many hard days. Now we have a rest day that we will try to benefit from.

"Let’s say this is an important step in order to distance myself from all my rivals. There are still 5 days of racing, lots of things can happen. My rivals are not totally out of contention even though I’ve extended my lead. And I can still have a bad day. I have to keep going day by day.

"I fear some trouble could occur, some race incident. Something unexpected.

“Tomorrow I will rest as much as possible. It has been a hard race, with a first week with heat and this one with lots of climbing. We must recover with our legs up, eat well and think about the five stages remaining. I will enjoy tomorrow with the team, we’ll do one and a half hour of training, about 50 kilometers, including one stop for having a coffee and then go back to the hotel."

 
“This win comes at the right time – just before the second rest day. It motivates Alberto and the whole team that has worked hard in the front of the peloton on all stages. He followed Froome’s move and made the difference on the last part of the climb. Now, we will focus on recovering on the rest day tomorrow and prepare to defend the lead in the final part of the Vuelta”, Steven de Jongh adds.

“We said this morning the best scenario would be that Froome attacks early and Alberto goes with him," manager Bjarne Riis said. "So he just had to stay in the wheel. It was perfect at the end. We were hoping that he’d be able to do so.

"After what I saw yesterday I believed Alberto was the strongest but of course you never know because Froome has been up and down every day. I was pretty confident that he would do a very good race today because it was a very very hard stage.

"At the moment, the gap of 1.39 over Froome is good. If Alberto doesn’t break down, it would be ok. Froome is getting better but Alberto is also getting better. I’m pretty confident but we have to pay attention. There are some hard stages left.”