Alberto Contador ignored speculation about a possible UCI appeal against the decision to clear him of any doping offense to finish 10th in the Tour of Catalunya's opening stage earlier today.

The Spaniard finished in the main pack, 28 seconds behind solo winner Gatis Smukulis of Latvia and Team HTC-HighRoad on the hilly 166.9 stage starting and finishing in the coastal town of Lloret de Mar.

Experienced Italian sprinter Alessandro Petacchi led in the bunch to come second with Spain's Jose Rojas third.

23-year-old Smukulis took off in the first hour of racing on the 166 kilometer stage, and was joined by three other riders.

Smukulis shook off all the other breakaways close to the finish in Lloret de Mar before he powered across the line in solo fashion.

"I'm really surprised that I could win today," stage winner Smukulis commented after the finish and continued "I'm in good shape for the Classics, but these sorts of long breaks don't normally work out."

"There were a lot of attacks, it was a fast start, and then we got away on a bit of a downhill."

"I worked hard to open up the gap in the first half of the stage and then concentrated on keeping my strength for the final part of the day, which I knew would be tough."

"The last 20 kilometers were flat or downhill and that made a real difference, otherwise for sure they would have caught us," Smukulis concluded.

"I'm just concentrating on racing, and not thinking about anything else," triple Tour de France winner Contador told reporters before the start when asked about the doping controversy.

"Catalunya is a very tough, prestigious race, and a lot of my usual rivals in the Tour de France are here, too," Contador said.

"The Andorra stage on Wednesday is the hardest and will play a large part in deciding the overall winner."

Cleared by the Spanish federation last month of any doping offence, both the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) and World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) could yet appeal against the decision.

The UCI's deadline is March 24 and WADA has a further three weeks to decide after that.

Meanwhile, Contador continues to rack up victories, the latest coming in the Tour of Murcia this month.

"Alberto always races to win, but he hasn't raced that much this season," Team Saxo Bank-SunGard team owner and manager Bjarne Riis commented as he waited for the start in warm sunshine on Lloret de Mar's seafront.

"It's hard to say what'll happen here, Catalunya's got a strange route this year, it's a week long and it might end up being won on points."

As for the pending appeal, Riis agreed that Contador and his Saxo Bank-SunGard team had no option but to sit tight.

"We can't do anything," he said, shrugging his shoulders.

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