Just the day before, race leader Michal Kwiatkowski had battled to the point of exhaustion to keep his race lead over Contador as the Spaniard attacked on the final climb to the finish at Cittareale and left everyone else struggling to keep pace. Good old El Pistolero won that day after his team-mate Roman Kreuziger had blown the race open with a ferocious attack, riding the majority of the climb in the big-ring before finally burning out. Contador took over and grinding up behind him, 10 seconds later was Kwiatkowski, doing just enough to retain his overall lead over the two time Tour de France winner by 16 seconds.
It was all to play for on the final climbing stage before a flat stage and a short time-trial to finish the race. This was a stage that finished up a wall of a climb to Muro di Guardiagrele. Short, but so steep that it hit 30 percent at times and which one climber described as now knowing what it's like to ride up the banking of a velodrome.
Knowing the potential power output of Kwiatkowski up a short, sharp climb as well as his ability against the clock on the final day, Contador must have known he couldn't leave it to the Muro di Guardiagrele. He may not lose Kwiatkowski and if he did it may not be enough to give him the buffer he required going into the time trial. So the Spaniard did what we all love to see, he went early, took the race to his Polish rival and blew it wide open.
Contador attacked on the second to last climb, bridged across to the early break on the descent and into the valley below, and then, on that last stining climb, left those still with him behind and rode solo for the victory. He beat Simon Geschke into second place by only six seconds, but he beat a potential Tour de France rival in Niaro Quintana -- second last year in France -- by a whopping nine seconds shy of two full minutes. And the man that mattered in this race -- Kwiatkowski? Contador put 6 minutes, 3 seconds into him.
The time trial was thus a formality. Won by Adriano Malori; Contador finishing 29th, 19 seconds behind Kwiatkowski who finished 7th, but winning his first Tirreno-Adriatico by 2 minutes, 5 seconds over Quintana. The young Pole, a star in the making who still had a fine race to go with other big wins already this season, had to settle for a 18th place overall.
The gauntlet has been thrown down. Froome will remain the favorite come July, but for the sake of wide open competition through the whole three weeks, I hope this is the kind of racing we can expect from El Pistolero.
Tirreno-Adriatico final overall
1. Contador in 2h28'45"
2. Quintana +2'05"
3. Kreuziger +2'14"
4. Peraud +2'39"
5. Moreno +2'54"
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18. Kwiatkowski +5'38"
29. Sagan +11'11"
53. Wiggins +28'49"
