Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) finished 4th in today's time trial of the Volta ao Algarve to move into second on GC ahead of tomorrow's queen stage. Even though he lost time to overall leader Michal Kwiatkowski, the team celebrate his performance that they regard as one of his best since his comeback from suspension.

Ever since coming back from his clenbuterol ban, Alberto Contador has struggled in the time trials. For some reason, he has struggled to regain the kind of strength that saw him beat Fabian Cancellara in a flat time trial in the 2009 Tour de France.

Contador showed some signs of improvement in last year's Tour de France but his performances were still far off the ones he showed when the discipline was regarded as one of his main assets. Hence, Team Tinkoff-Saxo were curious to see how he would perform in today's 13.6km flat time trial in the Volta at Algarve.

And they had plenty of reason to celebrate as the multiple grand tour winner finished 4th and was only beaten by Michal Kwiatkowski, Adriano Malori and Tony Martin who are all great specialists in the discipline. As another one of the team's GC riders, Rafal Majka, also did well to take 25th, sports director Philippe Mauduit was over the moon.

“I think Alberto did a very good time trial and one of his best in a long time so obviously, I’m happy about that," he said. "But also Sergio (Paulinho) and Rafal (Majka) did solid time trials today and especially Rafal really has to dig deep every time he gets the chance to do a time trial in order to develop his skills in stage races."

Contador himself was more cautious but still pleased with his ride.

"The sensations were not great but given that we are in the early season, it was good," he said. "It will be a surprise if Kwiatkowski doesn't win this race."

Contador is now 2nd on GC, 32 seconds off Kwiatkowski's overall lead, and the team promises to go on the attack in tomorrow's queen stage to the top of the Alto do Malhao where Contador is a past winner.

"Now Alberto’s second overall with a time difference of 32 seconds so I guess it's more or less needless to say that we have to rock the boat hard tomorrow to take the top spot of the podium,” Mauduit said.

You can read our preview of the race here.