Barredo climbs to stage victory

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Carlos Barredo (Quick Step) emerged from the mist to take a well-deserved stage victory at the legendary summit of the Lagos de Covadonga, while Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Doimo) passed his first examination as overall leader of the Vuelta. The Italian came under sustained pressure from the aggressive Ezequiel Mosquera (Xacobeo-Galicia) on the final climb, but he held his nerve to limit his losses and keep hold of the red jersey.

Barredo arrived at the foot of the mountain as part of a six-man breakaway that had a lead of seven minutes over the peloton, and he wasted no time in shedding himself of his companions to make the most of his buffer. After Martin Velits (HTC-Columbia) launched a speculative attack on the early slopes of the climb, Barredo responded with change and edged clear of the Slovak. The remnants of the breakaway were left strewn across the mountainside, while the race for the red jersey began to crank up in earnest further down the road.

From there on in, it was a simply a question of Barredo maintaining his tempo on a climb he knows well. "I know the climb so well that at that point I was afraid I'd overdo it with my acceleration away from the break, so I tried to adequately use my remaining forces," he said.

The Spaniard refused to panic when he lost 30 seconds in one kilometre after Roman Kreuziger (Liquigas-Doimo) came to the front of the Nibali group early on the climb, and instead he resolutely kept tapping out a sensible rhythm. As the race for the red jersey fizzled and sparked behind, Barredo lived on in a world of hurt of his own and admirably stuck to his task all the way to the summit to take a splendid stage win, his first in a Grand Tour.

Hailing from nearby Oviedo, Barredo was particularly emotional on winning in the region. "I got my first road bike as the result of a bet I made with my father, who told me that if I could ride from our house to Lagos de Covadonga and back on my mountain bike, he'd buy me a road bike," he said. "Today, so many years later, I've won here. That's why today is the greatest win of my career from a sentimental point of view."

The race for red

The overall classification had another shake up on the final climb, although there was no decisive shift of power in a race that continues to intrigue. Ezequiel Mosquera was the most aggressive of the overall contenders and his much-anticipated attack came 6km from the summit, when he countered a move by Carlos Sastre (Cervélo).

For a moment, it looked as though the race was about to take an epic twist, as Mosquera moved clear through the low-lying clouds and the red jersey simply seemed to vanish into the mist behind him. Mosquera opened out a lead of 15 seconds when he kicked again and Nibali appeared to be on the ropes.

The Italian was simply biding his time, however, and calculated his effort to perfection. Nibali carried the weight of the jersey magnificently and took responsibility for the chase. While Mosquera was dancing up the road ahead, Nibali was solidly seated and steadily eating up the ground in front of him, with only Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha) and the impressive Peter Velits (HTC-Columbia) able to follow.

The final kilometres of the climb included a brief downhill section where Nibali took a number of risks to limit the gap and almost crashed into a wall for his troubles. It was a thrilling pursuit match, as Mosquera sought not only to put time into Nibali, but also to pick off the remnants of the break in the vain hope of making the top three on the stage and picking up a time bonus that might put him into red. Nibali clearly realised that his 50-second lead over the Spaniard was in a precarious state as he hurtled towards the line.

At the summit, while Mosquera knew his seventh place wouldn't yield the overall lead, he must surely have thought that he had done enough to make serious inroads into Nibali's advantage. Instead, with shades of Stephen Roche at La Plagne in the 1987 Tour de France, Nibali emerged from the mist just 11 seconds behind, with Rodriguez and Velits on his wheel. Mosquera may have again shown that he has the ability to jump clear of Nibali, but once more the Spaniard failed to stretch out that advantage in the closing kilometres.

Overall, Mosquera now lies in third place, 39 seconds behind Nibali, but at the finish the Italian appeared nonplussed by the threat that he poses. "I was more concerned about Sastre's attack than Mosquera's. I've never been scared of Mosquera," he said bullishly. "Look, he did 5km of climbing flat out and what did he gain? 11 seconds. That's no big deal for me."

In the best sense of the term, Nibali has been calculating in the past two days, and he says it comes as a result of learning from experience. "I didn't make the same mistake today as I did in Andorra of following Mosquera and burning myself up," he said. "I just looked to keep my overall lead. I want to live it day by day. I think tomorrow will be similar to today, but I'm confident in my team. I want to arrive at the time trial with about the same advantage I have now."

For his part, Mosquera agreed with Nibali's assessment that did a lot for relatively little gain. "I attacked from too far," Mosquera claimed afterwards. "But on the descents near the finish, I didn't want to take any risks and lose time, so in that sense, I'm happy." The Spaniard maintained that his objective is to finish on the podium rather than take overall victory, although he also took time to ponder Nibali's relative isolation on the final climb. "I'm convinced that I will be able to take time out of Velits and Tondo so as to finish on the podium," he said. "Tomorrow there are more climbs, it will be complicated for Liquigas."

The early exchanges

The stage began without Euskaltel-Euskadi duo Igor Anton and Egoi Martinez, as well as Rabobank's Oscar Freire, but once the racing got underway, the pace was searing. The opening half-hour was covered at 53kph as a variety of breakaways attempted to forge clear and Liquigas-Doimo refused to let them go. This high early pace would eventually put paid to the Vueltas of Beñat Intxausti (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Arthur Vichot (FDJ) and José Luis Arrieta (AG2R-La Mondiale), who in his 21st Grand Tour abandoned of his own volition for the first time (his then Banesto team withdrew en masse from the 1998 Tour de France.)

Eventually a break did manage to go clear and stay away, when Martin Velits (HTC Columbia), Greg Van Avermaet (Omega Pharma-Lotto), Carlos Barredo (Quick Step), Pierre Cazaux (FDJ), Nico Sijmens (Cofidis) and Olivier Kaisen (Omega Pharma Lotto) forged ahead 70km into the stage. In spite of the driving rain and treacherous roads, they managed to open a maximum advantage of 9:30 over the peloton and maintain an average speed of 45kph for the first three hours of racing.

On the run-in to the final climb to Lagos de Covadonga, Caisse d'Epargne somewhat inexplicably came to the front of the peloton and started the pursuit. The men in black's overall hopes were dashed by crashes yesterday but they remained determined to have an impact on the race, even if none of their number were to make any impression on the climb itself. On the lower slopes of the final mountain, the gap was seven minutes and more than enough for Barredo to attack in the knowledge that the stage win would be his.

The climb to Lagos de Covadonga

While stage honours were always liable to be carved up by the sextet in front, the scene was set for a gripping battle for the overall placings. Xacobeo-Galicia set a hyperactive pace at the front of the main peloton on the lower slopes of Lagos de Covadonga and it had shrunk rapidly in size by the time Liquigas duo Oliver Zaugg and Roman Kreuziger took over. Kreuziger slowed the pace ever so slightly and appeared to be doing an expert job in controlling affairs for his leader Nibali. "Roman did the maximum effort at the right time," Nibali said after the stage. "He's been brilliant."

Finally, the big attack on the Italian came inside the last 6km, when Sastre put in a dig. His move was countered easily by Ezequiel Mosquera, but it did serve to put Kreuziger in difficulty and leave Nibali alone with Rodriguez on his wheel. When Mosquera went alone, the group of favourites splintered further, with Xavier Tondo (Cervélo) deposited out the back and Nicolas Roche (Ag2r) and Fränk Schleck (Saxo Bank) also distanced. Peter Velits would ultimately gain most by moving up to fourth overall, while Roche and Schleck each dropped a place in the overall standings.

Mosquera initially appeared to be opening up a huge gap, but as it turned out, Nibali had enough strength of legs and presence of mind to dose out his effort and limit the damage. While Joaquin Rodriguez managed to stay on his wheel all the way to the line, the Catalan never looked likely to repeat yesterday's heroics of dropping Nibali and their dual looks set to continue on tomorrow's tough day to Cotobello. Meanwhile, Mosquera's devil-may-care attacking today may not have yielded large gains, but it did highlight his potential to be play a significant role in the final destination of the red jersey.

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