Contador secures overall Vuelta Ciclista al Pais Vasco victory ahead of Kwiatkowski

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Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) continued his successful spring stage race campaign with overall victory at the Vuelta al Pais Vasco after an impressive performance in the final time trial that left him just seven seconds slower than stage winner Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-Quick Step).

Contador lead the hilly Basque Country race from day one after going on the attack to win the opening stage. Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) was always a danger and often attacked in the hills but Contador defended his yellow leader's jersey with confidence and then produced one of is best time trial performances for years to win overall.

Contador's crown looked under threat after Michal Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) did an incredible ride but Contador went even faster on the hilly 25.9km course to show why hw is currently the world's number one ranked rider.

Martin won in the time trial with a time of 38:33, with Contador seven seconds slower and Kwiatkowski at 15 seconds. The young Polish moved past Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) to take second overall behind Contador. Jean-Christophe Peraud (Ag2r-La Mondiale) finished third overall at 1:04, with Valverde slipping to fifth at 1:07.

Tejay van Garderen (BMC) was only ninth in the time trial, 1:05 slower than Martin and ended the race sixth overall at 1:56. Teammates Cadel Evans was 11th in the time trial and so finished seventh overall, in the same time as Van Garderen. Britain's Simon Yates (Orica-GreenEdge) was the best young rider, with the neo-pro finishing 12th, 3:17 behind Contador.

"I'm very happy. I’ve been very tired in last two days, but things have finally come through," Contador said.

"It's an honour to win the Vuelta al Pais Vasco for a third time. When I won the time trial in 2005 it was a dream. I could never imagine I would get the win the race three times. I am very happy."

Contador finished second overall in his season debut at the Volta ao Algarve, dominated Tirreno-Adriatico, was second at the Volta a Catalunya and has now added the Vuelta a Pais Vasco to his season's haul. He has shown he can ride aggressively and successfully in the mountains, produce vital time trial performances and has the team to support him. Everything appears on track for him to be at his very best at the Tour de France in July.

"These results give me the confidence to keep working hard towards my major goals: the Criterium du Dauphiné and the Tour de France, I'm very motivated. Now I'm going to take a break, I need it, and then come back to thinking about the Tour."

The time trial brought down the curtain on an intense and highly aggressive Vuelta al Pais Vasco. Tony Martin also headed home on a high after taking his second stage victory of the race. His first came after going on the attack in a long breakaway. The second came at what does best, against the clock. Riding in his world champion's rainbow jersey, Martin had the power to handle the climbs and then even tucked low over the front of his time trial bike on the long straight descent to gain extra seconds.

"It feels good to win," Martin said.

"I've lost time trials before and so to come here and win one stage before the individual time trial is really important for me, for my morale and for my team. We were on the podium every day, we won three stages, so it's been a great race for us."

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