Rodriguez and Nibali face off in Vuelta time trial

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Joaquin Rodriguez will fight to defend his red leader's jersey at the Vuelta a Espana today but the Katusha rider needs to produce the ride of his life to stop Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Doimo) taking the lead and setting up overall victory.

The Italian lost time on the climb to Cotobello on Monday but is much better in time trials than the little Spanish climber. He is confident he can gain at least a minute and perhaps even more on the windswept 46km course around Peñafiel, in the Castile and León region, north of Madrid, that includes long sections of straight roads.

In the overall classification, Rodriguez leads Nibali by 33 seconds, with Ezequiel Mosquera (Xacobeo Galicia) third at 53 seconds and Fränk Schleck (Saxo Bank) much further back in fourth at 2:16.

"I've seen the course and I like it," Nibali told Gazzetta dello Sport. "There are a lot of straight sections where you really need to push a gear. At worst I think I can gain a minute, but if it's windy and I'm at my very best, I think I could even gain three minutes."

As race leader, Rodriguez starts last in the time trial, rolling down the start ramp at 4:45 local time in Spain. Nibali starts three minutes earlier at 4:42.

Cancellara favourite for stage victory

The battle for the red leader's jersey will be the tense finale to the stage but the fight for stage victory will begin early in the day.

The 46km time trial around Peñafiel will be Fabian Cancellara's last test against the clock before the world time trial championships in Australia and the current world champion is the huge favourite to win the stage.

Cancellara is well down in the general classification and so starts early in the afternoon at 1:54 local time.

Valentin Iglinskiy (Astana) is the first rider off at 1:41, quickly followed by Mark Cavendish (HTC-Columbia) at 1:48. Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Transitions) starts at 1:58, his teammate David Zabriskie starts at 2:03. David Millar is off at 2:31, Christian Vande Velde at 3:16 and Tejay Van Garderen (HTC-Columbia starts at 3:53.

Other names to watch for, as they fight for a place in the top ten overall, are Luis Leon Sanchez (4:19), Carlos Sastre (4:23), Tom Danielson (4:29), Nicolas Roche (4:33), Frank Schleck (4:36) and Ezequiel Mosquera (4:39).

Nibali and Rodriguez follow them at 4:42 and 4:45 respectively. Less than hour later, we will know who will pull on the race leader's red jersey.

The early riders will go off at one-minute intervals. The final top twenty go off every two minutes, with three minutes between the final four riders.

Cyclingnews will cover the whole of the time trial live.