Hesjedal wins Vuelta's Velefique mountain battle, Valverde leader

Canadian Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Slipstream) triumphed in the Vuelta a España's mountaintop stage finish on the Alto de Velefique Friday. He finished ahead of Spaniard David Garcia (Xacobeo Galicia) and the classification favourites on the 13.3-kilometre climb to become the first Canadian to win a stage of the Vuelta.

After coming second in stage 10 on Tuesday, Hesjedal's expression was one of relief at getting the win on a tough stage finish.

"It was really difficult," said Hesjedal. "You never know what's going to happen after a rest day. We knew it was going to be a hard day."

Though often victorious in his mountain bike days, it has been two years since Hesjedal won a race. He was Canadian time trial champion in 2007. It was Garmin's second consecutive win in the Vuelta a España after Tyler Farrar's sprint win Wednesday.

Spaniard Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne) kept the race leader's gold jersey he took on four days ago on the mountain stage to Xorret del Catí. He survived the attacks by Ezequiel Mosquera (Xacobeo Galicia) and Robert Gesink (Rabobank) who were looking to gain back lost time.

However, Gesink was the only overall favourite to gain time today, he finished in third at 10 seconds ahead of Valverde's group. Gesink gained an eight-second bonus for third and is now 18 second behind Valverde and 11 seconds behind Australia's Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto).

American Tom Danielson (Garmin-Slipstream) is fourth at 51 seconds and Italian Ivan Basso (Liquigas) is fifth at 53 seconds.

The 179.3-kilometre stage started and ended with the 13.3-kilometre Alto de Velefique climb. It also took in the Calar Alto and Castro de Filabres climb, leaving 16 kilometres to the base of the second ascent of Velefique.

The stage started in Almería, where the riders passed yesterday's second rest day. There were 175 starters and five non-starters:
Farrar, Marco Marcato (Vacansoleil), Vitaliy Buts (Lampre-NGC), Alberto Fernández Sainz (Xacobeo Galicia) and Linus Gerdemann (Milram).

Hesjedal forms successful escape

An early escape which formed before the first climb shaped the stage. Hesjedal, Garcia, Javier Ramírez (Andalucía-Cajasur), Oscar Freire (Rabobank), Alexander Vinokourov (Astana), Bingen Fernández (Cofidis), Julien El Farès (Cofidis), Borut Bozic (Vacansoleil), Julián Sánchez (Contentpolis-Ampo), Pierrick Fédrigo (Bbox Bouygues Telecom) and Stuart O'Grady (Saxo Bank) rode clear 27 kilometres into the stage.

Spaniard Arkaitz Durán (Fuji-Servetto) chased solo and joined the 11-man group nearly 20 kilometres later. He was the highest placed rider overall in the escape. He started the day 5:48 behind race leader Valverde, so team Caisse d'Epargne had to watch the escape's advantage.

"We always want to be in the break, and it was good for us," said Hesjedal. "The group worked well together and I had enough time by the start of the last climb."

The 12-man escape group increased its advantage and held seven minutes over the first ascent of Velefique.

Vinokourov, who won the Vuelta on his last attempt of the race in 2006, lost contact with the escape group on the Calar Alto climb at kilometre 109. The others continued up the 26.7-km climb with only an advantage of 4:20 over the Caisse d'Epargne-led chase.

The Spanish team never looked in doubt over the first two climbs of the day. It controlled the time advantage perfectly over the first two climbs to ready leader Valverde for the final ascent of Velefique.

The 11 escapees led with 6:30 at the top of the Calar Alto climb.

Spaniard Garcia, winner of a stage last year in Ponferrada, started to accelerate to the top of Castro de Filabres. Ramírez responded and took maximum points ahead of Cofidis' Fernández and El Farès. The main group topped the climb 4:43 later, leaving 29.3 kilometres to race.

Garcia started the Velefique first, 30 seconds ahead of the other escapees and four minutes on the group of Valverde. Liquigas (for Basso) and Rabobank (Gesink) came to the front with Caisse d'Epargne immediately as the climb started.

The escape exploded by 10 kilometres to race. Garcia led by 30 seconds on Hesjedal and Sánchez, and 3:29 on the classification favourites.

Hesjedal joined Garcia four kilometres later and the two formed an uneasy relationship that lasted to the finish line. Garcia got word that his Xacobeo Galicia teammate Mosquera had attacked and he refused to work with Hesjedal.

Gesink fires ahead of favourites, Hesjedal holds

Mosquera, fourth in the last year's Vuelta, forced a chase and thinned the favourites group. Valverde's teammates Vasil Kiryienka and Daniel Moreno continued to chase. The lead duo had 53 seconds on Mosquera and 1:10 on Valverde's group at three kilometres to race.

The duo's lead to Mosquera continued to drop over the next kilometre and it looked like one of the classification favourites would win the stage. Gesink attacked with 1.5 kilometres to race and immediately joined Mosquera. Valverde, Danielson, Evans, Damiano Cunego (Lampre-NGC), Juan José Cobo (Fuji-Servetto) and Samuel Sánchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) chased.

Hesjedal and Garcia had 22 seconds on Gesink/Mascara and 36 seconds on Valverde with one kilometre to race. Hesjedal saw Gesink was closing in and started his push for victory in the last 500 metres. He held off Garcia by one second and Gesink by six seconds.

Vino abandons comeback

Vinokourov and Astana teammate José Luis Rubiera (Astana) abandoned the stage shortly after the final ascent of Velefique started. Vinokourov started his comeback in cycling with team Astana at the Vuelta a España, a race he won in 2006. He blood doped during the 2007 Tour de France and served a subsequent two-year suspension.

Germany's Paul Martens (Rabobank) and Italy's Francesco Tomei (Lampre-NGC) abandoned earlier in the stage.

More mountains ahead

The Vuelta continues this weekend with two mountaintop stage finishes. Saturday stage covers 172.4 kilometres and ends with the Sierra Nevada, 16.9 kilometres long and an average of 5.5 percent gradient. Sunday's stage covers 157 kilometres to La Pandera, 8.4 kilometres and an eight percent average.