Contador says his legs hurt like anyone else's in Giro d'Italia

Alberto Contador showed once again that in this year's Giro d'Italia, he is above all of the general classification contenders in the mountains. His vicious attacks on Mount Etna and today on the Grossglockner have left his closest rival, Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas), 3'09 behind in second place. Despite that, Contador maintains that the race isn't over yet, with still more than a week and plenty of vertical meters before the final time trial in Milano.

Contador indicated that his attack wasn't planned ahead. "The race was very animated and I couldn't answer all the attacks, so I went after Rujano." The Venezuelan was one the first ones for a serious move. He sits almost six minutes back in 17th place, so gets a little more leeway from the top riders.

But once Contador crossed the gap to Rujano, the others had to follow suit. "I saw that Nibali and then Scarponi were dropped," Contador said. Scarponi tried to answer the strong acceleration by Contador, only to quickly let his head drop in disappointment and pain - he simply couldn't follow. Rujano stayed in his own pace, briefly dropping behind Scarponi but then moving back up to the maglia rosa.

Contador didn't mind having Rujano for company, as long as the others were dropped. "Today was an important day to make a difference in the overall and although I suffered a lot, it was well worth the pain," Contador said.

Despite his domination, Contador saaid the Giro isn't over yet. "Yes, I took a nice advantage ahead of the next stages, but there is still a lot of road left." Contador had no thoughts on the Zoncolan or the Crostis mountains. "Now I prefer to think about resting in the hotel - tomorrow is another day."

The Spaniard confirmed that he did not have much of a strategy today. "I hadn't planned anything, but a very good race situation developed and so I decided to do something similar to Etna. Rujano was very strong so I went with him, to create the maximum time gap possible."