Cycling:Daniel Martin will go in to the final day of the Volta a Catalunya in fourth position after he came home fourth in the sixth and penultimate stage of the event.
Martin remains 35 seconds adrift of Alberto Contador, the triple Tour de France champion who is fighting to clear his name of a doping offence.
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, 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.”
Nicolas Roche was placed 13th on today’s stage and moved up one spot on GC to 39th, while Philip Deignan placed 99th, moving up to 65th overall.