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Mollet del Valles - Triple Tour de France champion Alberto Contador, fighting to clear his name of a doping offence, is set for Tour of Catalunya victory on Sunday after maintaining his 23-second lead in the penultimate stage.
The Spaniard, who learned on Thursday that the International Cycling Union would appeal against the Spanish federation's decision to exonerate him, finished safely in the main pack in the stage won by compatriot Jose Rojas.
Contador failed a dope test for the banned anabolic agent clenbuterol during last year's Tour but has denied any wrongdoing and said it came from contaminated meat.
With one short, flat stage remaining from Parets dels Valles to Barcelona on Sunday, and a 23-second advantage over American Levi Leipheimer to his name, the Saxo Bank rider said he was pleased to have got through a deceptively difficult stage.
"It was a hard day, very fast until a break could actually get away, then things calmed down," Contador told reporters.
"At least we got some help controlling the race from other teams, which wasn't the case yesterday.
"This is proving to be a tough race, when there are breaks, they always contain riders who are threats to my lead.
"The stages are so long too, this is going to be a good workout for upcoming races on my calendar."
Contador said he was not prepared to think of himself as the overall winner yet even though Catalunya's hardest stages were behind him.
"Tomorrow will be fast as well, and I'm pretty sure there will be some more attacks."
"You have to be extra-careful, too, when the race route goes into a large city like Barcelona."
"As ever, I'm taking this on the day by day."
After four podium finishes in previous stages, Rojas was delighted with his bunch sprint victory.
"The last kilometre was very complicated, there was a lot of pushing and shoving in the pack, but I kept calm and managed to stay out of trouble," he said.
"Now I want to see if I can make it two out of two wins with another victory tomorrow."
The Movistar sprinter secured the win ahead of Thursday's victor, Portugal's Manuel Cardoso, with Friday's stage winner, Samuel Dumoulin of France in third.
Results from the sixth stage of the Volta of Catalunya, a 184.5km ride from Tarragona to Mollet del Valles:
Sixth stage:
1. José Joaquin Rojas (ESP/Movistar) the 195 kms in 4:22:19
2. Manuel Cardoso (POR/RadioShack) same time
3. Samuel Dumoulin (FRA/Cofidis) same time
4. Daniel Martin (IRL/Garmin) same time
5. Diego Milan (ESP/Caja Rural) same time
6. Daniele Pietropolli (ITA/Lampre) same time
7. Ruben Pérez (ESP/Euskaltel) same time
8. Kenny Dehaes (BEL/Omega Pharma) same time
9. Rémi Cusin (FRA/Cofidis) same time
10. Michal Golas (POL/Vacansoleil) same time
Overall standings:
1. Alberto Contador (ESP/Saxo Bank) 26 h 50:47.
2. Levi Leipheimer (USA/RadioShack) at 23secs
3. Michele Scarponi (ITA/Lampre) same time
4. Daniel Martin (IRL/Garmin) at 35.
5. Chris Horner (USA/RadioShack) same time
6. Rigoberto Urán (COL/Procycling) at 38.
7. Ivan Basso (ITA/Liquigas) same time
8. Xavier Tondo (ESP/Movistar) same time
9. Cadel Evans (AUS/BMC) at 50.
10. Kevin Seel Draeyers (BEL/QuickStep) at 1:12.
