Nieve solos to first Grand Tour stage win

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The Vuelta a España took another dramatic twist after a day of aggressive racing culminated with the climb to the finish at Cotobello in the spectacular Asturias region.

Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha) took back the race leader's red jersey from Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Doimo) at the conclusion of stage 16 after Fränk Schleck (Saxo Bank) made everyone in a select group of overall contenders suffer more than they had at any time during this year's Vuelta.

Schleck was looking for a prestigious stage victory but Basque climber Mikel Nieve (Euskaltel-Euskadi) took his first professional victory atop the Cotobello after jumping across to the break of the day earlier in the stage and then by holding off Schleck with a fine performance on the climb. The Basque team had been stunned by Igor Anton's crash and subsequent retirement while leading the Vuelta but Nieve's victory brought back the smiles to everyone in the team.

"After Igor Anton's crash we felt it was the end of the world," said Nieve. "Our sports directors told us we had to get through Sunday's stage and put our minds back in the race before fighting again. I knew the climb to Cotobello, I had done it at training in August with Igor [Anton] and Samuel Sanchez. It helped me a lot today. The encouragements of the crowd and above all my sports directors helped me forget the suffering."

Schleck finished second, 1:06 behind Nieve, but was also smiling after an impressive performance. The 30-year-old Luxembourger started the Vuelta with little racing in his legs and doubts about his form and dedication during his final weeks with Saxo Bank. However, while other riders have faded, he has come good and is becoming more and more of a top-three contender.

"I tried to attack and I've succeeded," said Schleck. "Unfortunately there was one rider who remained ahead and he was too far to be caught. I would have liked the stage win but I've re-gained some time over all the other GC contenders, so it's a positive day after all."

Throwing caution to the wind, Schleck attacked eight kilometres from the summit of the Cotobello and a further strong surge in the last two kilometres saw him gain 30 seconds on all the overall favourites.

Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Doimo) lost even more time in the final kilometre and so lost the red jersey to Rodriguez. The Italian is now 33 seconds down, with Ezequiel Mosquera (Xacobeo-Galicia) third overall at 53 seconds, while Schleck moved up to fourth overall at 2:16.

"It felt like a repeat of the second to last stage of the Giro [d'Italia] en route to the Passo Tonale when our adversaries started fighting from kilometre O onwards," said Nibali. "I knew it was going be a demanding day and I thought about the idea of losing the red jersey.

"The very end of the climb was perfectly suited for attacks from climbers like Rodriguez and Mosquera. I've paid a bit for the efforts I've made in the past few days. I tried to handle the situation as well as I could."

Nibali still has Wednesday's 46km time trial to pull back the time, but this Vuelta is far from over, a sentiment held by new race leader Joaquin Rodriguez.

"My lead (33 seconds) over Nibali on GC isn't big enough before the time trial at Peñafiel," said Rodriguez. "Nibali is great time triallist, he's better than me. The fight for the red jersey isn't a duel now. Ezequiel Mosquera isn't a bad time triallist. I'll have to ride the best time trial of my life. Tomorrow we'll go and see the course during the rest day.

"If I limit my loss [in the time trial] to one and a half or two minutes, it could work. Every second will count before the last mountain stage [on Saturday]. The hills of Bola del Mundo are very steep."

Three major climbs

With three major climbs on the jagged stage profile culminating with the 10km ascent to the finish at Cotobello, stage 16 was widely considered to be the decisive mountain stage in this year's Vuelta.

As a consequence the racing started fast and nervous in Gijon, with a string of breakaway attempts. Denis Menchov (Rabobank) surprisingly won the first intermediate sprint after getting in a dangerous attack but then Cofidis and Katusha worked hard to chase them down. The French team was riding to defend David Moncoutie's climber's jersey, and the veteran Frenchman repaid them by being the first over the summit of the Alto de Cabrunana at kilometre 46.

With the points in the bag and his grip on the blue polka-dot jersey even tighter, Moncoutie sat up and was caught by the peloton. However there was only a brief respite before the break of the day formed. Luis Leon Sanchez (Caisse d'Epargne) was the biggest name in the move and he was joined by Thomas Peterson (Garmin-Transitions), Marco Marzano (Lampre-Farnese Vini), Matthieu Sprick (Bbox Bouygues Telecom), Sebastian Langeveld (Rabobank), Alexander Dyachenko (Astana), Juan Jose Oroz (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Kevin de Weert (Quick Step), Ludovic Turpin (AG2R La Mondiale) and Frederik Willems (Liquigas-Doimo)

The breakaway split on the first category Puerto de San Lorenzo climb at kilometre 101, with Sanchez first over the summit as he pushed to try and gain as much time as possible before the climb to the finish. However, Mikel Nieve (Euskaltel-Euskadi) managed to surge across to the break thanks to the help of teammate Juan Jose Oroz with a perfect display of team tactics and sacrifice.

Saxo Bank was working hard on the front to set up Frank Schleck and the lanky Luxembourg national champion tried to go across to the front group on the Alto de Cobertoria climb at kilometre 142. He was caught by a select group of chasers, including race leader Nibali, but it was a clear signal of intentions for the last climb to the finish.

Fireworks on the Alto de Cotobello

As expected the final climb to Cotobello proved decisive for both the breakaway and for the select group of overall contenders.

Nieve soon accelerated away from the rest of the break at the base of the climb while Frank Schleck made two violent attacks to go clear alone on the climb with eight kilometres remaining to the finish. Nieve knew he had to fight all the way to the finish to hold off the overall contenders, while Schleck knew he had to gain as much time as possible if he wanted to move into the top three overall.

Schleck had his jersey wide open and often danced on the pedals as he gave it his all. He was joined by Tom Danielson (Garmin-Transitions) at one point and then later by Carlos Sastre (Cervelo TestTeam) but in an impressive display of climbing strength both failed to hold onto his back wheel when he accelerated again.

Race leader Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Doimo) seemed comfortable tucked in behind teammate Roman Kreuziger as they tried to limit their losses to Schleck but when Ezequiel Mosquera (Xacobeo Galicia) attacked in the final two kilometres and Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha) went after him, Nibali was in trouble and unable to follow.

"I was at my limit all day but I think the other GC contenders also suffered a lot," said Mosquera. "The rhythm imposed by Roman Kreuziger put all of us at the limit. He prevented all of us from attacking. At the end, I tried to save something from today's stage. The outcome isn't too bad. Considering how much I've suffered, I can't complain."

"I realized that the attacks from Sastre, Danielson and Roche wouldn't go far because Kreuziger was doing a wonderful job for Nibali," said Rodriguez. "When Mosquera attacked, Kreuziger followed again but I saw that Nibali couldn't react and I went flat out. The strongest rider in today's stage was definitely Kreuziger."

Schleck was unable to catch Nieve before the finish but finished second on the stage, moved up from seventh to fourth on general classification, proving he really is a top-three contender. Schleck moved past Xavier Tondo (Cervelo TestTeam), Nicolas Roche (Ag2r-La Mondiale) and Peter Velits (HTC-Columbia) and is now 2:26 behind Rodriguez. Nibali is 33 seconds behind Rodriguez in second, with Mosquera third at 53 seconds.

With nine rider still within five minutes overall, the Vuelta is far from decided with Wednesday's 46km time trial and Saturday's climb to the summit of Bola del Mondo still to come.