Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) went on the attack in his first mountainous race of the season when the Volta ao Algarve hit the climbs in today's second stage. The Spaniard was distanced by Michal Kwiatkowski but remained satisfied, considering that his main rivals all have more race days in their legs.

Alberto Contador is known as a fierce competitor who always rides to win, and it was no different when the Volta ao Algarve hit the mountains in today's second stage. The multiple grand tour winner used his team to set a hard pace and whittle down the field, thus setting up their captain for an attack on the final climb.

Contador made his trademark acceleration but was unable to get rid of Michal Kwiatkowski. Instead, the Pole countered the move and crested the summit as the lone leader.

Contador joined forces with Rui Costa and Eduard Prades in a chasing trio but they were unable to reel in Kwiatkowski. Instead, the Tinkoff-Saxo leader had to settle for 3rd, a position he also occupies in the overall standings.

The Volta ao Algarve is Contador's first race in 2014 and this made him satisfied with today's result.

“It's a good result on the second day of competition, against riders who have been competing for more days," he said. "The winner has already won in the Challenge de Mallorca and has that rhythm, and Rui Costa also had 8 or 9 days of competition right now. You can notice that, especially when the heart is a bloc.

"Every day I’ll go better in this tour. Considering this is the first of the year, it’s okay. Kwiatkowski attacked at the top and crested the summit with 3 or 4 seconds. Behind, the problem was that we had no good organization, but were more concerned with attacking each other than working together to catch him.
 

Contador faces an important test tomorrow when the riders will tackle the 13.6km time trial. However, he admits that Kwiatkowski will be hard to beat in the race against the clock.

“It was important to catch him to avoid to lose time, but there was no good understanding, no 100% cooperation . Now he is at 12 seconds, a very small difference, but also very large, because we know
that he is a very strong time trialist and tomorrow it’s better for him than any for any other”,
 

On Saturday, it is time for the queen stage to the Alto do Malhao that Contador has won in the past. However, he refuses to look too far ahead.

"[I will be better] because it will be the fourth day of competition. First let's see what happens tomorrow and then will see what happens on Malhao. In the ITT there will be not big differences as it is only 13 km and with a tailwind, although the last part is technical and there is a last km of pavé. We have to go day by day, but everything will be open until Malhao. Being third means that there are still options."

Sports director Philippe Mauduit praised the team for the work that had set up Contador's attack.

“The guys did a fantastic job out there," he said. In the finale, we managed to explode the bunch by putting pressure in the front of the field and it was really a close call on the finish line but Kwiatkowski is now a few seconds ahead of us before tomorrow’s time trial. Here, Tony Martin is the big favorite to win and because of the flat and slightly downhill course, Alberto cannot be expected to win but surely, he’s fit, very motivated to do well and knows the course.”

You can read our preview of the race here.