Anton wins on climb to Valdepeñas de Jaén

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The steep climb to the finish of stage four at Valdepeñas de Jaén inspired some aggressive racing for a second day at the Vuelta, with Basque climber Igor Anton proving he was the strongest, with a long and powerful surge to the line.

With huge crowds packed along the roadside and the gradient hitting 23% at one point, the one-kilometre climb to the line was a Spanish equivalent of the Mur de Huy used in the Fleche-Wallonne classic.

Anton attacked half way up the climb and quickly got a gap as he spin a gear to fight the gradient. He faded insight of the line but hung on to win ahead of Italy's Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Doimo) and Peter Velits (HTC-Columbia).

Just behind them were Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha) and Philippe Gilbert (Omega Pharma-Lotto). Gilbert won and took the race lead on the climb to the finish in Marbella on Monday but had to dig much deeper to hold onto his lead this time.

He kept the red jersey but was so tired; he almost fell into the barriers after crossing the line.

The USA's Tejay Van Garderen (HTC-Columbia) again impressed despite the tough finale of the stage, finishing sixth, at eight seconds. Nicolas Roche (Ag2r-La Mondiale) also rode well and was eighth at 12 seconds. Frank Schleck (Saxo Bank) was 13th and Denis Menchov (Rabobank) also hung on to finish in the front group but were 19 seconds down on Anton.

Gilbert now leads Anton by ten seconds in the general classification, with Rodriguez third, also at ten seconds. Nibali is fourth at 12 seconds and Velits is fifth at 16 seconds. Van Garderen is sixth overall, at 29 seconds.

The big loser of the day was Spain's Carlos Sastre Cervelo TestTeam). The 2008 Tour de France winner threw his hat into the ring as a possible overall contender before the start but struggled on the late climb of the stage. The little Spaniard cracked before the summit, and with nobody to help him chase, he lost time as a select front group dived down to the finish and then blasted up to he finish.

Spain still had something to celebrate, with Anton gave the host nation its first victory at this year’s Vuelta.

“I did the right thing by coming here one and half month ago to reconnoitre the end of today’s stage,” Anton said.

“I knew I had to stay relaxed on the downhill of the Alto de Valdepeñas even though I was worried by the attacks of Vincenzo Nibali and Luis Leon Sanchez. Fortunately they were brought back and my teammate Mikel Nieve did a fantastic job, helping me stay in the best position before the finishing climb.”

“I remembered the finale of the Flèche-Wallonne where I made the mistake of attacking too early this year. It was a useful defeat because I’ve learned what not to do in these circumstances. I didn’t panic when I saw Uran and then Rodriguez attack. I calculated my effort pretty well, although I was afraid of Nibali passing me at the very end.”

Despite his success, Anton played down his chances of overall victory at this year’s Vuelta.

“My goal for the Vuelta was to win a stage. Rodriguez is very strong and I think he’s the favourite for the overall victory. I have the condition to do something good but I haven’t won any small stage race yet. I must improve gradually first.”

Another hot day in the saddle

Yet again the riders spent another hot day in the saddle under the Spanish sun. And it didn't take long for a group to get together as the peloton tried to handle the heat.

Only 16 km into the day, Guillaume Bonnafond (AG2R), Sergio Carrasco Garcia (Andalucia-CajaSur), Dario Cataldo (QuickStep) and Dominik Roels (Milram) took off and successfully formed the move of the day. The foursome quickly built up a lead of up to seven minutes.

The stage started out flat, but after 25 km the climbing started. The first ranked climb of the day was the Alto de Zafarraya, which baked under a temperate of 32°C as the four opened a 5:40 gap.

The Omega Pharma-Lotto riders did their duty for overall leader Philippe Gilbert and lead the chase the whole day. The gap started coming down by the time the leaders hit the day's second climb, the Alto de Montefrio. With less than 40 km to go, Katusha joined in the work, convinced that the difficult late climb and then the steep finish would be too tough for Gilbert but perfect for second-place Joaquim Rodriguez.

The last ranked climb of the day was the Alto de Valdepeñas de Jaén, a long climb which crested only 7.8km before the finish. The climb made the first significant cut of the day, as the peloton split, not once but several times. A 23-man front group formed, which included Gilbert, Fränk Schleck, Denis Menchov, Igor Anton, Vincenzo Nibali and Rodriguez – but not Sastre.

The group caught the four escapees on the climb, and shot down the decent, with Sastre leading the chase group. But as Anton and the others fought for the stage victory, Sastre continued to lose time all the way to the finish.

Sastre tried to shrug of the time loss but his overall chances at the Vuelta seem compromised after just four stages.