Tour of the Basque Country: Alberto Contador seals overall victory as Tony Martin wins TT
Alberto Contador held off a late challenge to confirm an impressive overall victory at the Tour of the Basque Country.
Last Updated: 13/04/14 10:16am
The Spaniard ran second in the closing time trial, setting a powerful time just seven seconds shy of stage winner and time trial world champion Tony Martin (Omega Pharma - Quick-Step).
That allowed Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) to fend off the attentions of Michal Kwiatkowski after the young Pole elevated himself five places up the general classification over a long and technical 25.9-kilometre test.
Undeterred, the end result saw the yellow jersey of Contador put a further eight seconds into Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma - Quick-Step) to win the race overall by a commanding 49 seconds.
Second overnight, Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) could only manage the eighth quickest time around Markina-Xemein, a result which dropped him to fifth overall, 1:07 behind his great rival Contador. Jean-Christophe Peraud (AG2R-La Mondiale) was another rider to leapfrog Valverde, snatching the final spot on the podium amid a significant reshuffle.
A searing opening split had seen Martin put a large chunk of time into his rivals, with the German eventually clocking an unbeaten time of 38 minutes and 33 seconds.
Simon Yates (Orica-GreenEdge) put an impressive cap on the WorldTour event, winning the Best Young Rider jersey en route to 12th overall.
