Alberto Contador, making his second start of the 2011 season, had a nail biter of a day on a stage highlighted by bad weather and a wild bunch sprint.
Contador finished high up in the finale in 15th, but was on the unfortunate side of a two second time difference between 12th and 13th places. It wasn't a major issue, however, as Juan Jose Cobo (Geox-TMC) and Jerome Coppel (Saur-Sojasun) were the only two possible GC threats to make the tiny split, which was led home by U23 World Champion, Michael Matthews. Contador's result, only two seconds back, was an excellent one though, because a number of overall hopes were caught out in the tough finish.
Afterwards, the three-time Tour de France champion was happy to have made it across the line with no major problems.
"It was a really hard and dangerous day. It looked like it would be easier, but it was complicated by the rain. The last part of the stage was very dangerous, but we got through the day without falling. At the end I do not know if there were time differences, but we managed to finish ahead."
Contador would soon find out that there were indeed some time differences. The first twelve managed two seconds over a group of 28. The time gaps began to go up from there, and some riders were certainly caught out and will likewise not have any chance for the overall. Tom Danielson was 20 seconds in arrears of Matthews, Christian Vande Velde a further 11 seconds back, and Carlos Sastre and Igor Anton were 37 seconds behind the young sprinter.
Former winner of the Vuelta Murcia, Denis Menchov, finished in the same group as the Pinto native. It was the new Geox-TMC captain that impressed Contador.
"On a day like today, you cannot see too much, but the rider who was involved in the race at all times was Menchov."
Looking back on the day, the five-time Grand Tour winner admits that the bad weather was only trumped by a wild final drop to the line.
"It was a cold and rainy day, but the [worst part] was the danger of the last descent," he said.
The embattled new Saxo Bank signee feels that tomorrow should be a very different beast. The climbers will come to the fore, but things could get rough again if the weather remains on the bad side, as the day finishes with a technical eight kilometer descent.
"Tomorrow will be different, but also complicated because the stage ends with a descent of eight kilometers If we have a bad day like today, there will be more time differences from the descent than on the climb."
Contador has surprisingly never won the Vuelta a Murcia, but considering his solid Volta ao Algarve performance and a likely improvement since then, he will certainly be a major threat for top general classification honors. This is even more the case considering tomorrow's difficult day of climbing and Sunday's 12.4 kilometer race culminating time trial.