Alberto Contador impressed the entire cycling world by distancing Chris Froome in today's mountain stage of the Vuelta a Espana just weeks after fracturing his tibia in the Tour de France. However, the Spaniard plays down the significance of his time gains, underlining his bad preparation for the race.

Alberto Contador managed to distance several GC riders in the latter part of Valdelinares, but remained cautious about drawing conclusions and said he is not yet as good as he would like.

“I’ve seen the opportunity so I took it," he said. "When I realized that Froome was a bit behind, I felt like trying to drop him off. I lack condition to be able to maintain my rhythm at the maximum but I’m very happy with where I am now. I don't know exactly what the differences weere but the important thing is not to catch a cold and to rest."

“Whenever you have the legs, we have to try”, said Alberto Contador to explain his attack. “I don’t know what the differences were but I have not prepared the Tour of Spain as a target but came here to get back into competition and very late, without a good condition. I hope to improve day by day, but I'm aware that there are other riders that have prepared the race with great care. Perhaps they hadn't a good day today but the Vuelta has just begun".

About the consequences of the stage, he didn’t want to talk too much or consider it a psychological blow before the time trial.

“It's always important to be ahead and if it is because you have left your opponents behind, it is even better, but I don’t give it much importance. We haven't even done half of the Vuelta and this was only a the first starter of the mountains. We have all the Vuelta ahead of us," he stated.

Looking at Tuesday’s time trial, he didn’t want to make any hypotheses but noted that others will be better than him.

“I don’t know how I'll be in the time trial. That is where we will really see what condition everybody is in. In a normal stage you can perhaps hide a little more, but in a time trial it's all about you and your form. Let's see, I hope to do a good race, although I think there will be better riders than me."

“It was a very good day for Alberto and I think everyone saw a very strong Contador in the final," sports director Steven De Jongh said. "It was a bit of a nightmare in the rainy finale and we saw a lot of riders standing completely still.

"The first hour was very hard, we did over 47 km/h. It was never easy today, it was fast and they kept going full gas but we can be satisfied with today's result and now it's time to recover for the time trial Tuesday."

“The weather made the last climb really difficult today," Oliver Zaugg said. "The rain started on the descent before the final climb and made it really difficult to climb up to the mountain finish. Now I think we're all looking forward to a rest day".