Major Tour contender Igor González de Galdeano showed he is on top form for the Tour de France with a stunning victory in the National time trial at Salamanca.

Igor - who defeated Armstrong by six seconds on the stage three time trial in the Grand Prix du Midi-Libre and recently triumphed in the Tour of Germany - is backed by an impressive team for the Tour: Joseba Beloki, Marcos Serrano, Jose Azevedo and, to the delight of Germans fans, Jorg Jaksche.

The podium was completed by Toni Tauler (Kelme) and Alvaro González de Galdeano, who was 26 seconds down on his brother, while Joseba Beloki (ONCE Eroski) was fourth and Benjamín Noval of Relax finished fifth.

Galdeano was all smiles on the podium and the fact his brother Alvaro was there was an added bonus after his extraordinary ride.

"It is a dream come true - to stand next to my brother on the podium of the national championships."

The Tour contender suffered triple misfortune over the course."First I suffered a front puncture, then my rear tyre punctured too - the bike was a disaster - I had to change it." At the intermediate point Tauler led Igor González by 39 seconds.

It was during the first kilometers of the course when the problems arose, but in the second turn of the circuit, Galdeano was able to regain the lost time.

The smiling Galdeano said, "I felt stronger as the race went on - enough to pull back time on Toni Tauler."

Santos González, last year’s champion, could not recover from the injury he suffered this season and ended up in seventh position, more than a minute down from the winner.

Inevitably the questions to that small race in France next week. Galdeano said, "There is no doubt that my recent victories are good for morale. My objective this year is the General Classification in the Tour de France."

Click here to see Anita’s pictures of Galdeano from the Tour of Germany.