Chris Horner (Radioshack) moved closer to race leader Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) in the Vuelta a Espana when the Italian suffered on today's final climb Amaron Formigal. Having almost halved his deficit, the 41-year-old American feels that he may win this year's edition of the Spanish grand tour.

Chris Horner has impressed the entire cycling world with his splendid riding in this year's Vuelta a Espana but when Vincenzo Nibali matched his accelerations on the Collade de la Gallina with apparent ease, it appeared as though the 41-year-old American was up against a superior rival.

That all changed today when Nibali was brought into difficulty by a strong acceleration Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha). Having initially hesitated a bit, Horner saw his opportunity and went full gas, ultimately gaining 22 seconds on the race leader and reducing his deficit to just 28 seconds.

Nibali is infamously for his bad days in a grand tour. If another one occurs in the Asturian mountains later in the week, Horner now feels that he may win the race overall.

“When one guy misses just a little bit, that makes the difference," he said. "I’m a little closer now. Maybe on one of the big stages if Nibali is missing something again, I can try to win the Vuelta.”

The race was extremely aggressive with numerous attacks being launched throughout the day. In the end, the accumulated fatigue of three hard days of racing broke Nibali. Rodriguez was the first of the favourites to cross the line, followed by Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) who had initially stayed with Nibali until launching a fierce acceleration to overtake Horner just before the line.

“Attacks came from everyone," Horner said. "Astana did a good job controlling the race, then Movistar took over to keep the break close. But on the last climb it was all fireworks.  When Rodriguez went, I hestitated for a moment, but then [teammate Robert] Kišerlovski gave a big effort. I heard on the radio some were in trouble so I did what I could."

"Valverde came up to me and we just went.  It was a perfect climb for ‘Purito’ [Rodriguez] and he had the most to gain on GC so he had a little bit of room. He’s been ranked number 1 in the world, so when he got a gap and we hesitated, he was gone.”

Tomorrow is the second rest day and Horner has a clear plan for the day.

“Tomorrow I will sleep and eat, plus train a little on the trainer," he said. "It’s a big four days still to come.”

Racing resumes on Wednesday with a flat stage. Starting at 15.00 CEST you can follow that stage on CyclingQuotes.com/live.