Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) was one of the big winners on the third stage in the Pyrenees in this year's Vuelta a Espana. The Spaniard gained 28 seconds on race leader Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) and with improved feelings, he is now confident that he may win the race overall.

After Vincenzo Nibali's dominant tide up the Collada de la Gallina, Alejandro Valverde was almost admitting defeat, stating that a podium spot in a grand tour would be a nice result. Today's unexpected drama in which Nibali faded and lost time to his main rivals have made the Spaniard believe that he may win the Vuelta for the second time in his career.

His Movistar had played an active role throughout the stage. Having originally put four riders into a futile 29-rider group, the team missed the 9-rider move that ultimately went clear. The Spaniards kept the gap under control and in two different moves made Jose Herrada, Sylwester Szmyd and Benat Intxausti bridge across to the front group.

With three riders up the road, the team chose to give the domestiques their chance to seek glory but the team had actually planned otherwise.

"I already defended myself well yesterday, but the good weather today did even better on me," he said. "Our intention was not letting the break go too far and contesting the stage win myself, but once we got three riders into the escape and saw Herrada doing very well, we let him play his chance. In the end, his rivals were stronger and sadly he couldn't crown it."

On the final climb, Valverde was the first rider to attack but quickly fell back to the main group. It was the subsequent acceleration by Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) that made Nibali struggle. While several riders jumped ahead, Valverde appeared to be in similar difficulties but he was just waiting for the race leader to show his usual power. That never happened and so Valverde finally showed his strength by launching an attack that almost brought him back up to Rodriguez and he even overtook Chris Horner (Radioshack) along the way.

"I tried to move at the start of the final part of the climb to see what happened, but there was a strong headwind and I realized it was impossible," he said. Purito (Rodriguez, ed.) jumped and I waited for Nibali to respond, but he sat on his saddle and I chose to go on full steam to reach Horner and get as far as possible. We didn't get the bonus seconds, but those 28 seconds are still good."

"Today's stage brought some more gaps because the two stages prior to today were really hard, with cold, rain, long distances and such hard climbs. Legs are a bit stiff in those days and we profited from that. I was feeling good after sticking to the main guys yesterday, but today's feeling is even better."

While Valverde fought for the GC, his teammates battled for the stage win. Szmyd and Intxausti quickly fell out of contention but Herrada fought valiantly to bridge across to lone Warren Barguil. Ultimately, he had to settle for 5th and was quite dissatisfied with the way the finale had played out.

"In my opinion, the break split because a TV camera had some riders on its wheel," he said.  "We were twelve on the final climb, there was a split due to that and, even though I could get back on a long slope, when you're riding through such suffering, every single effort you make is crucial."

"It had been a full three days of 100% efforts - although today's seemed the easiest stage of the Pyrenees trio, we knew it would hard; actually, it was the only stage that made some significant gaps. With a rest day tomorrow, we had to try. The Vuelta is going really great even though it was sad not to be able to win today. I'm trying to stay as close to Alejandro as possible and I'm happy with the race so far. We will fight for the overall victory every minute left in this race."

The riders will enjoy a rest day tomorrow before getting back in action with a flat stage on Wednesday. Starting at 15.00 CEST you can follow that stage on CyclingQuotes.com/live.