All hail César in Xorret de Cati

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Gustavo César of Xacobeo-Galicia joined an escape group after just three kilometres and stayed away to the very end. The Spaniard gave his nation its first stage win of this year's Vuelta a Espana, in the second mountain stage of the race. Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne) sprinted out of the chasing group of favourites to take third place on the stage, 40 seconds behind the winner. Marco Manzano of Lampre finished second, 21 seconds down.

Valverde's final sprint was also enough to give him the bonus seconds necessary to pass Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto) for the overall lead. He is now seven seconds ahead of Evans, with Rabobank's Robert Gesink in third, 36 seconds behind the leader.

César was part of an escape group which formed only three kilometres into the stage. For most of the day it looked like the group would stay away to the end, but the final climb ripped both the escape group and the chasers to shreds. César and Manzano were the only members of the early break who managed to stay away at the end, with Davide De La Fuente (Fuji-Servetto) finishing with the top favourites.

There appeared to be some controversy at the end. De La Fuente looked to be a lock-in for third, but seemed to wait and allow his countryman Valverde to take third – and those necessary bonus seconds. Shortly before Valverde sprinted out of the chase group, Gesink moved close to Evans, with the Australian appearing to argue afterwards that he was pushed into the barriers and hindered.  Some reports say that Evans retaliated with a headbutt to the young Dutchman.

Ivan Basso of Liquigas was also in that group, losing no time today. Tom Danielson (Garmin-Slipstream), Damiano Cunego (Lampre) and Ezequiel Mosquera (Euskaltel) all finished about half a minute behind the Valverde group, with Fränk Schleck (Saxo Bank) and Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) coming in about 17 seconds later.

"I'm very happy," Valverde said after the stage. He was pleased both to have taken over the lead and to be heading into his homeland of Murcia tomorrow in the gold jersey.

He decided to attack in the finale because “tensions were high” and his teammate Vasili Kiryienka reported that “some of the favourites were having difficulties.” With that in mind he sprinted out of the group to take third place, the bonus seconds and the lead. “I did not get the gold jersey by chance, we knew I could get it.”

Cesar called his first Vuelta stage win the most important of his nine-year career. “This is very big.” His experience played a big role in the success, he noted.

The 29-year-old had a bad start to the season with a serious crash, but noted, “The crashes are part of the job, and the bad times pass. When times are good, then they are even better.”

Cesar didn't want to rest on his laurels, though. “The team's goals are not yet 100 percent met, because we still have to fight for Ezequiel Mosquera in the overall ranking.”

How it unfolded

Perhaps the riders were afraid of another mountain stage in the high heat, as the day's break group formed almost immediately. The first riders got off after only three km, and by km 32 it had stabilised itself into a seven-man group. Stijn Devolder (Quick Step), Marco Mazano (Lampre-NGC), David de la Fuente (Fuji-Servetto), Rein Taaramae (Cofidis), Julian Sanchez (Contentpolis-Ampo), Gustavo César (Xacobeo Galacia) and Javier Ramirez (Andalucia Cajasur) built up a lead of just over seven minutes.

It was the first time in this year's Vuelta that Dutch Pro Continental team Vacansoleil had not been represented in an escape group.

Along the way, Carlos Barredo (Quick Step), Laurent Lefevre (Bbox Bouygues Telecom), Allan Davis (Quick Step) and Mikel Gaztanaga Echeverria (Euskaltel) all abandoned the race.  The two Quick Step riders were cut down by intestinal problems.

De La Fuente chased mountain ranking points, looking to take the jersey away from David Moncoutié (Cofidis). The Fuji-Servetto rider may have had zero points going into the day, but diligently gathered them at every climb.

Once again, the favourites' teams were willing to let the escapees go. De La Fuente was the best placed of the bunch, and at 13:31 down, he was not a real threat to leader Cadel Evans. Evans' Silence-Lotto team kept an eye on things and led the peloton over the climber's course, which featured barely an inch of flat riding.

In fact, Silence-Lotto could hardly have picked up a better escape group. The seven riders presented no threat to the lead, enabling the Belgian team to take it a little easier on the mountainous stage.

As they all neared the final climb, it looked for a moment as if the peloton was going to pick up its speed and give serious chase. Rabobank and Liquigas gave signs of moving in to help with the lead work, but apparently everyone decided to give themselves a break today.

However, the peloton was luring specators into a false sense of security. As the final climb got serious so did the bunch. Within six km to go, the lead group had fallen apart and the gap shrunk to under two minutes. Caisse d'Epargne led the chase up the brutal final climb.

Taaramae (Cofidis) managed to get away from his companions, finally dropping De La Fuente as all the riders suffered on the 17 to 20 percent gradient of the Alto de Xorret de Cati.

Things weren't helped at all by the team and race cars which had to pull over to the side of the road to let the chasing peloton through. Although, there was barely room as riders rode in single file, weaving their way through.

Evans, Valverde, and Basso stayed in the lead and made their way up the killer climb, catching and passing the remnants of the breakaway. Behind them a few others made their own way up to the tailcoats of the day's early leaders, including Garmin's Tom Danielson and Rabobank's Robert Gesink.

With 3.5 km to go, César and Manzano made their way up to past Taamarae, who by this point was practically standing still after his own day long effort. The Xacobeo rider took off for the final mountain points and kept on alone. Behind him, Manzano was being followed by the three favourites.

Valverde kept up the pressure on his Australian rival, trying his best to get away from the race leader. He fired attack after attack, but was unable to shake Evans.

The final mountain ranking was followed by a short descent, with all the riders going all out on the steep run towards the line. Gesink was able to bridge across and joined Valverde, Evans and Basso in the final bolt for the line.

César went into the final km with a narrow advantage, but it was enough to give him his first ever Vuelta stage win and the first of this year's race by a Spaniard.

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