Contador beat back the likes of teammate Andreas Klöden and reigning world time trial champion Bert Grabsch (Columbia-High Road) on a fairly challenging 33.7km course in the hills along the Algarve Coast to snag his first win of the season and secure the overall leader’s jersey.

With only Sunday’s hilly finale on tap, Contador is poised to win the first race of his 2009 season debut and remind everyone why he already has three grand tour victories under his belt.

“I am very content to win here at my season debut. I felt a little in debt to my teammates yesterday for not being able to win the stage in the sprint (against Toni Colom), so at least I could manage to win a stage,” Contador said. “I hope the season continues like this.”

Contador’s work to improve his time trialing is paying off and it showed in the undulating course that Contador criticized as being too long for the first race of the year.

“It was really hard, up and down all day,” he said. “To tell the truth, it was too long for so early in the season.”

Contador used that distance to carve a striking victory and took more than 30 seconds out of second-place finisher Sylvain Chavanel (Quick Step).

Starting second-to-last, Contador stopped the clock in 44 minutes, 5 seconds on the course that featured a third-category climb midway through from Castro Marim to Tavira.

Chavanel was sitting in the hot seat with 44:38 after nipping Kloeden by three seconds to post the best time. Earlier, Grabsch posted a fast time at 45:13 only to be bettered by teammate Tony Martin with 45:09.

Contador flew across the line with a confidence-boosting victory and carries a lead of 1:06 to Chavanel going into Sunday’s final stage. Ruben Plaza (Liberty Seguros) slots into third at 1:07 back.

Garmin-Slipstream’s David Millar stopped the clock for ninth at 1:18 slower with Danny Pate coming through 16th at 1:44 off the pace. Millar slots into 10th at 2:11 back and Pate 13th at 2:29.

Overnight leader Colom, who started with a slender four-second lead to Contador after nipping him in Friday’s summit finish, lost 1:27 to Contador and slipped to sixth overall at 1:23 back.

Contador’s victory will only raise inevitable questions about who is going to be the leader of the stacked Astana team for the Tour de France.

The grand tour triple-crown winner is certainly holding up his end of the bargain to stake the claim as being the man to carry the team colors come July.

“This is the first step toward the Tour. It’s the first of four races I am going to do before preparing for July,” Contador said. “So to start with a victory gives you confidence and it only helps.”

When asked about Armstrong’s return, Contador didn’t give too much away.

“Lance’s return is good for cycling. He’s more than a rider, he’s a big star. Everyone is talking about cycling and that’s important for the sport,” he said. “There will be a huge expectations for every race he starts.”

Contador is driving his own interest, however. Portuguese fans started chanting, “Contador! Contador!” as he strode atop the winner’s podium.

He fired off his trademark pistol shot (something he couldn’t do at the finish line because he was tucked in his aero-dynamic position) and promised more for the upcoming season.

“This race is important to start the season off on the right note,” he said. “It’s always nice to win. I always try to win every chance I can.”

The 35th Volta ao Algarve concludes Sunday with the fifth and final stage, a 168.6km hilly run from Vila do Bispo to Portimao.

The route skirts the western coast of the Algarve for the first two hours of racing until turning inland to tackle the Cat. 2 Alto da Fóia, at 902m, the highest point in the Algarve region.

From there, it’s fast and mostly downhill 60km run to Portimao. It will be hard to imagine anyone getting much of a head start coming over the Fóia, especially Astana controlling the race for Contador.