Anton comes up aces in Andorra

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Igor Anton (Euskaltel-Euskadi) took a dramatic victory on stage 11, the Vuelta a España's first summit finish, and moved back into the leader's red jersey. The 27-year-old Spaniard timed his attack to perfection on the finishing ascent to Andorra for his second stage win of the Vuelta.

The main animator of the concluding ascent to Andorra, Ezequiel Mosquera (Xacobeo-Galicia), finished three seconds behind Anton for second place while a surging Xavier Tondo (Cervélo Test Team) crossed the line in third, a further seven seconds down.

"It’s a great outcome with the stage win, the red jersey and the time bonus," said Anton. "Now I can't lie anymore: I'll fight for the final victory at the Vuelta. I'm not afraid of anything, except of experiencing a very bad day. If I don't win in Madrid, it’s no big deal. I'm already happy with how I'm going.

"I haven't had my best day today. I've had better feelings at Jaen and Xorret de Cati but it turned out well at the end because I have measured my efforts pretty well."

Anton revealed his team's strategy in planning out their season with Samuel Sanchez focusing on the Tour de France while Anton would make his bid for a run at the Vuelta a España.

"It’s been a bit of a gamble at the beginning of the year when we planned the season with team manager Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano. We decided that I'd skip the Tour de France after doing the Vuelta five times and the Tour twice. Samuel Sanchez was designated for the Tour while it was time for me to acquire again the pedalling style I had in 2008 at the Vuelta.

"For now the gamble is a success. Samuel has had a great Tour de France and I'm going well at the Vuelta. I've realized last year that I was too tired at the Vuelta. We see today that it’s an advantage not to have done both. Riders like Mosquera and myself are going better than Menchov and Rodriguez who have done the Tour. But this is not the end of the Vuelta. Many other things can happen. My team is ready for working hard to preserve the red jersey."

Mosquera makes his move

The race exploded into life on the 10km ascent to the finish line. With 4.6km to go, Ezequiel Mosquera (Xacobeo-Galicia) launched a blistering attack and blew the race apart. Only race leader Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha) and Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Doimo) could initially follow his acceleration but they soon wilted under the impetus of the Spaniard’s rhythm. Rodriguez was first to go, weaving all over the road, while 2.5km from the line, Nibali, too, could no longer hold the Spaniard's wheel.

Meanwhile, Igor Anton (Euskaltel-Euskadi), who was at first unable to respond to Mosquera’s attack, found his second wind and staged a sensational comeback. He ripped past Rodriguez first and then Nibali to bridge to the leader. Just prior to the red kite, Anton kicked again and this was enough to take the victory in spite of a desperate pursuit from Mosquera.

Runner-up Ezequiel Mosquera was pragmatic about the outcome of the stage. "This is a great victory for Igor [Anton]. He is more explosive than me for winning at the top of a hill but I've climbed well. It’s been an important day for the overall classification. I would have preferred to win but I'm happy with how I'm going."

The morning's race leader Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha) lost nearly a minute with his 18th place finish and dropped to fourth overall. Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Doimo), who started the stage in third overall only four seconds out of the lead, showed his first signs of weakness on the finishing climb and finished sixth, conceding 23 seconds to Anton. Although the Italian moved up to second overall, he now trails the impressive Anton by 45 seconds. Tondo moves into third place overall at 1:04.

"The rhythm in the climb was a bit too high for me," said Nibali. "I was at my limit. I preferred to set my own pace than try to follow Mosquera. It’s been a difficult climb for me, but not only for me. Rabobank worked hard and Menchov has paid the price as well. This is only the first big climb of the Vuelta. We can't draw any conclusions yet."

Tondo, like Anton, didn't follow Mosquera's attack but instead rode his own pace to the finish for third place. "I know this ascent to Pal very well," said Tondo. "With the headwind, I thought it was better not to follow Mosquera, Rodriguez and Nibali when they accelerated. I preferred to keep my own rhythm and finish strongly.

"I caught Nibali, I finished third on the stage and I'm very happy because Igor Anton was unbeatable anyway. I'm only one minute down on him on GC and there is still a long way to go at the Vuelta."

Fantastic finale to Andorra

The 208.4km stage from Vilanova i la Geltrú to Andorra opened with a flurry of attacks, but after Philippe Gilbert (Omega Pharma-Lotto) won the first intermediate sprint at 45.2km the peloton eased its pace. Six kilometres later Johann Tschopp (BBox-Bouygues Telecom) and Mikael Cherel (FDJ) attacked to form the break of the day and since neither were general classification threats, Cherel best placed at 46:12 down, the duo were given plenty of leeway.

The escapees stretched their lead to nearly 15 minutes as they rolled through the feed zone with 100km remaining but the teams of the general classification contenders began to steadily chip away at their lead. The Katusha team of race leader Joaquin Rodriguez was joined by Rabobank at the head of the peloton and with 50km to the finish Tschopp and Cherel's lead had fallen below 10 minutes.

Rabobank continued with its spirited pace-making efforts and managed to dramatically reduce the escapees' advantage. As the peloton crossed the line of the second intermediate sprint at 17km to go, the leading duo's lead stood at 1:10.

As a greatly diminished field approximately 50-strong hit the base of the last climb with 10km remaining, the break's advantage had crumbled to a slender 30 seconds. The first attack from the field came from the irrepressible Dmitry Fofonov (Astana) as the Kazakh rider easily crossed the gap to Tschopp and Cherel. The Frenchman soon cracked and was absorbed, while Fofonov and Tschopp, too, were brought back by a Katusha-led field with 7km remaining.

Tschopp's teammate Nicolas Vogondy immediately launched a counter-attack, but the Frenchman was absorbed with 5.6km to go under the impetus of Katusha's Vladimir Karpets. By this time, an elite selection had formed at the head of the race and a notable absence was Rabobank's Denis Menchov, whose team had done the bulk of the work to bring back the break.

"It was a team management decision to get the team to work," said Menchov. "They did a good job. It was good to try, I think. My knee was okay. That is not the reason why I couldn't follow at the end. I just think that after the Tour, it’s difficult to ride well here."

As the climb approached its steepest gradient, Xacobeo-Galicia put two riders on the front to soften up the remaining contenders and their team captain Ezequiel Mosquera launched an impressive attack inside of 5km to go. Only Joaquin Rodriguez and Vincenzo Nibali were able to react to the Spaniard's fierce acceleration, but both soon succumbed to Mosquera's bid for victory leaving the Spaniard alone at the front approaching 2km to go.

Euskaltel-Euskadi's Igor Anton, however, provided fireworks of his own in the stage finale as he bridged to Mosquera in sight of the flamme rouge and immediately dispatched his compatriot to take both the stage victory and the leader's red jersey.