Spaniard Alberto Contador celebrated his recovery from life-threatening brain surgery by winning the fifth stage of the Jacob's Creek Tour Down Under in Willunga Saturday.

But his better-credentialed Liberty Seguros teammate Luis Sanchez will take an almost unassailable lead into Sunday’s final stage in Adelaide.

And the best local hero Stuart O'Grady can finish is third, as he trails Sanchez by 47 seconds, while Queenslander Allan Davis splits them at 35 seconds off the pace.

Saturday’s 147km stage, which included a torturous 3km climb to the top of Old Willunga Hill, was expected to blow the race apart and so it proved.

Contador and Sanchez work it

Photo: Graham Watson

But it was Sanchez who grabbed the initiative by attacking on the final climb, dragging Contador along with him, and establishing a winning break, which they held to the finish.

The Spaniards celebrated well before the line, riding abreast for the last 150 meters before Sanchez, 21, allowed his teammate to “win” the stage.

With Davis coming in third, at 22 seconds behind, and another Spaniard Javier Ramirez Abeja fourth, it was a clean sweep by the Liberty Seguros outfit.

Sprint leader McEwen got into an early break

Photo: Graham Watson

Contador, 22, dedicated his victory to his team and family and told of his life-threatening illness through interpreter Neil Stephens. The young Spaniard said he had his first seizure in a tour last May and then another 15 days later, while he slept. Contador said he suffered a lot of bleeding inside his brain and passed out while on his bike. The same thing happened at home, and he was rushed to hospital for surgery. After 20 days in intensive care he was able to pull through but still carries the scars of his ordeal.

Contador added that he and Sanchez were good friends, having ridden together as amateurs, and had decided beforehand that Contador would win the stage, as Sanchez already had a stage win under his belt and was assured of carrying the leader's yellow jersey to the finish.

O'Grady, riding for Cofidis, said his rivals’ numbers told the story of yesterday's stage.

“In the end, once again, it was a numbers game,” O'Grady said. “They had four guys up there, they send two up the road, the other two sit on, and smash us in the end – pretty easy mathematics, really.”

Nonetheless, O'Grady said he was happy with his overall result, considering he had stuffed a lot of training into the past month.

“My major objective was to try to put some time into the Belgian guy (Johan Van Summeren of Davitamon Lotto) to try to finish on the podium,” he said.

“I'm really rapt. Talk about cramming training in. I've had a lot longer off season than usual. I really didn't think my form was going to be up to scratch here.

“My head was willing to win, body was saying otherwise, so I'll be really happy to finish off on the podium.”

O'Grady said he would attempt to pick up as many intermediate sprint seconds as possible in Sunday’s 81km street stage to try to hold third place.

He leads Van Summeren by only one second, while Ramirez Abeja is a further three seconds behind in fifth place.

Australians David McPartland (United Water) and Simon Gerrans (AG2R) are in sixth and seventh places respectively, at 0:53 and 1:04 off the pace.