Chris Horner (RadioShack-Leopard) threw down the gauntlet on the final climb on stage 8 of the Vuelta a España today when he tried to leave behind race leader Vincenzo Nibali. In the end he managed to gain a meagre one second on the Italian rider as Roche (Saxo-Tinkoff) emerged as new race leader.

“The climb wasn’t quite steep enough and Nibali was watching my wheel real close,” Horner explained on the RadioShack-Leopard website. “Every time I attacked, he followed. Then of course Roche put in a great attack. It seems like he and I are the ones who trade off on getting a little bit of freedom every few days. Maybe my turn is next. He’s riding really well.” 

“You saw today how strong the RSLT guys are riding but I just couldn’t get the gap after I tried at 3km to go,” Horner continued. Then Roche put up a big move with two other guys. When Nibali went it took me a bit to get back to him, but then he ran out of steam and I wasn’t going to chase Roche down.”