A powerful long-distance attack by Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) netted the Spaniard his first win of the season ahead of archrival Chris Froome (Team Sky) on the very difficult climb of Hazallanas in the Vuelta a Andulicia - a triumph taken Contador, said later, on pure instinct given he had no clear references on the time gap he had on the Briton.
However, the Spanish rider admitted that he was very satisfied with what he described as a performance “that was a test like the ones I had been doing in the climbs” - in training - “two or three weeks ago.” However, in a sense this was a ‘blind test’in that radio interference from TV cameras on race motorbikes meant he could not rely on his power meter for any clear reference points.
“When there was seven kilometres to go, I said to myself, ‘look Alberto, this is a test just like the ones you’ve been doing up to now and let’s see what can happen.’ And I felt good.”
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“But it was complicated because I had no idea what my power output was. When the TV camera gets too close, there’s interference and you can’t read it well.”
“All I knew was that at the pace I was going, it would be difficult for them to close down the gap and I simply tried to go as fast as I could to the finish.”
Contador’s attack saw the Spaniard open up a gap of 40 seconds at one point on his closest pursuers, reduced to 19 seconds by Chris Froome’s grinding counter-attack.
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