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Contador, the 2007 Tour winner, is now second overall, six seconds behind new yellow jersey holder Rinaldo Nocentini, while Armstrong is eight seconds off the pace in third after the stage from Barcelona to Andorra.

Earlier in the week, Armstrong made strong hints he will aim for an eighth Tour de France crown, but Contador's move on the 224km stage up to the tiny Principality puts the Spaniard's ambitions back in the spotlight.

"Things didn't really go according to the plan we mapped out before," said Armstrong.

"I was a little surprised, but it doesn't matter. Like I said yesterday, I expected him to assert himself in the race and he did that."

While Contador finished the stage 3:26 behind Nocentini, Armstrong and his group came over the finish at 3:47, but there were no spectacular performances from the race's main yellow jersey contenders.

Contador looked strong when he launched an attack inside the stage's last two kilometres, while Armstrong was content to stay in touch with yellow jersey rivals Cadel Evans of Australia, Andy Schleck of Luxembourg and Spain's defending champion Carlos Sastre.

"When you've got a guy away, like I've said all along, you just got to stay on one wheel," said Armstrong.

"Schleck put in some good moves, Cadel put in some good moves, but you gotta just stay on the wheel - that's bike racing.

"It's not a very steep climb, so the speed was quite high."

But the seven-times Tour de France winner said he was feeling good after the steep 10.1km climb up to Andorra's Arcalis ski station.

"I feel good, it was a fine day, I think overall we're fine as a team," said cancer-survivor Armstrong.

"It may be tough, it's high and the elevation hurts, but I don't feel as tired as I thought I'd be."

Team manager Johan Bruyneel said he had not given the team a specific plan to attack and said Contador had acted on his own initiative.

"We didn't have a specific plan to attack, our plan was to maintain our collective strength first and wait for attacks from the others," said Bruyneel.

"Alberto counter-attacked after an attack, our plan had been for the riders to communicate and respond.

"No one had specific instructions to go out and attack," he added.

"I had no race radio at that time or TV, so it was something they decided themselves."