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Spain's Alberto Contador all but won the Vuelta a Espana on Saturday after limiting his losses to Astana team-mate Levi Leipheimer to 31 seconds in the race's penultimate stage, a 17.1km uphill time trial won by the American.

Contador, who will ride into Madrid with 46 seconds ahead of Leipheimer, is now set to become the fifth rider in history to win all three major Tours following Frenchmen Jacques Anquetil and Bernard Hinault, the Italian Felice Gimondi and the Belgian Eddy Merckx.

"I was more worried about winning the overall than I was about taking the stage," Contador said. "I didn't panic when I heard that Leipheimer was ahead of me halfway up the climb.

"But there can always be surprises, and I wasn't sure how it would work out. Finally, I came through OK."

With victories in the 2007 Tour de France and this year's Giro to his name, the 25-year-old Spaniard has underlined his credentials as the cyclist of his generation with a Vuelta win which seemed almost inevitable from the outset.

Holding a 1:17 lead going into Stage 20's race against the clock from the cobbled town of La Granja de San to the Alto de Navacerrada, Contador simply had to keep team-mate Leipheimer in check over the race's final 17.1km of competitive racing, which culminated in a 7km first category climb.

Leipheimer led by 11 seconds at both the 8km and 12km intermediate checks before building on his lead on the 6.7 per cent slopes to the finish.

It was a second time trial win of the Vuelta for Leipheimer following his scalp in Stage 5's flat ITT, a victory which gifted the American his first of two leader's gold jerseys during the course of the three-week race.

Leipheimer, the Olympic time trial bronze medallist in Beijing, beat both Contador and Spain's Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne) by 31 seconds after setting a time of 33:06.

Current Tour de France champion Carlos Sastre of CSC finished 1:02 down to cement his place on the podium in Madrid. The Spaniard's third place in the GC was expected to have been challenged by compatriot Ezequiel Mosquera, but the Xacobeo Galicia rider finished in fifth position seven seconds down on Sastre.

Sastre will ride into Madrid 4:12 down on Contador, with Mosquera in fourth at 5:19 and Valverde in sixth at 6:00.

The race finishes on Sunday with the 102km processional stage from San Sebastian de los Reyes to Madrid, the home town of the seemingly irrepressible Contador.

Felix Lowe / Eurosport