Contador climbs to queen stage victory

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Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank Sungard) stamped his authority on the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya as he crossed the finish line alone atop the hors catégorie Coll De Pal summit finish to win stage three and take over the general classification lead.

Michele Scarponi (Lampre-ISD) edged Levi Leipheimer (RadioShack) for second place as both finished 23 seconds behind the Spaniard. Daniel Martin (Garmin-Cervelo) won a three-way sprint for fourth place 12 seconds later ahead of Chris Horner (RadioShack) and Alex Cano Ardila (Colombia Es Pasion-Cafe De Colombia).

"I am very happy, because it is a complex climb and you have to know how the wind blows," said Contador. "At 5km to go there were still 50 riders, and I knew that this was the hardest part, so I attacked. Then Leipheimer come across and I attacked again until I reached the finish line."

Contador assumed the leader's yellow jersey from Gatis Smukulis (HTC-Highroad), who finished nearly 17 minutes off the pace as his Classics physique was not suited for the mountainous 183.9km parcours. Leipheimer holds second overall, 23 seconds behind Contador while Scarponi lies in third equal on time with the RadioShack rider. With Leipheimer and Scarponi both tied on time, the sum of their stage placings acts as the tie breaker, giving the advantage to Leipheimer over Scarponi.

"I will try to keep the jersey because it is a very important race, has a great reputation and I do not have it in my palmares," Contador said. "It will be difficult, because we still have four days remaining and a lot of kilometres."

The climbing started early in the stage as the peloton began the category 1 climb to Alt De Coubet only 8km after the start. Soon after the climbing commenced Colombia's Nairo Quintana (Colombia Es Pasion - Cafe De Colombia), the 2010 Tour de l'Avenir champion, took off alone, pursued by Dutchman Steven Kruijswijk (Rabobank). Two kilometres from the top Kruijswijk made contact with Quintana and the pair held a slender lead on the peloton as they crested the summit.

Johnny Hoogerland (Vacansoleil-DCM) and Sébastien Minard (AG2R La Mondiale) escaped from the peloton on the descent and soon made contact with the leading duo. Two more riders, Jose Vicente Toribio (Andalucia Caja Granada) and Thomas Peterson (Garmin-Cervelo), also bridged across to form a lead group of six which soon began to put plenty of distance between itself and the peloton.

The six escapees pushed their lead out to more than seven minutes after 60km of racing, but the peloton kicked into gear and began to chip away at their advantage.

The break worked well together but eventually began to splinter on the day's third of five categorised climbs, the first category Alto De La Comella, 22km from the finish. Quintana and Kruijswijk dropped their four breakaway companions and approaching the summit the Colombian shed the Dutchman. Quintana crossed the summit 15 seconds up on Kruijswijk while the peloton had all but erased their lead as Chris Horner (RadioShack) led the field over the summit 10 seconds later.

Quintana pressed on alone in the lead, but was caught just prior to the penultimate Alt De La Massana climb.

Contador's Saxo Bank Sungard team set a strong tempo on the penultimate climb which split the peloton into two groups. All of the general classification favourites crested the summit in the first group, except for Carlos Sastre (Geox-TMC) and overnight race leader Gatis Smukulis (HTC-Highroad).

A 50-rider strong peloton reached the base of the 8.5km finishing climb together with Saxo Bank Sungard still prominent at the head of affairs.

The lead group stayed together for the first few kilometres until Alberto Contador made a powerful attack 5km from the summit finish. Only Levi Leipheimer (RadioShack) was able to follow the Spaniard's surge as the peloton detonated behind them, but the American couldn't maintain Contador's pace and was dropped. Michele Scarponi (Lampre-ISD) bridged to Leipheimer, but the duo could not close the gap to Contador, who put 23 seconds into the pair by the finish line.

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