Leopold König justified the invitation of his NetApp-Endura team to the Vuelta a Espana when he won the first of three big stages in the Andalucian mountains. The Czech made a well-timed attack on the final climb, overtook the lone leader Igor Anton (Euskaltel) and held off a strong sprint from Daniel Moreno (Katusha) while Nicolas Roche (Saxo-Tinkoff) dug deep to take 3rd and the leader's jersey from Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) who in the final kilometre.

Leopold König knows how to make well-timed attacks on big mountain stages. That's how he won the queen stage of the Tour of California and that's what he made on today's 8th stage of the Vuelta a Espana.

The Czech had been in difficulty when Chris Horner (Radioshack) had made a bid to take over the leader's jersey but when the group of favourites came to a standstill, he made it back up to his main rivals. He exploited the tactical battle to sneak off the front in pursuit of lone leader Igor Anton.

A very strong chase group with Ivan Basso (Cannondale), Daniel Moreno, Nicolas Roche, Bart De Clercq (Lotto-Belisol) and Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) formed and Basso dug deep to gain as much time on his GC rivals as possible. The veteran Italian was, however, unable to reel in König who did a fabulous job to keep the chasers at bay.

He made it up to Anton who was unable to match his speed but his win came under threat when Moreno launched one of his trademark sprints. The Spaniard approached rapidly at the end but König managed to cross the line with a 1-second gap over his chaser.

Roche won the sprint for 3rd to pick up 4 bonus seconds. Inside the final kilometre, Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) dropped their rivals and sprinted for 8th while Vincenzo Nibali who had done most of the chase work, paid the price and lost 8 seconds to the Spanish duo.

Roche gained 22 seconds on Nibali and 18 seconds on Horner and that allowed him to take over the leader's jersey. He now takes a 17-second over Horner and Moreno into tomorrow's 9th stage. A finish on the short, steep (30%) climb in Valdepenas de Jaen promises a spectacular race on a stage that has been red-circled by Rodriguez who won the most recent finish on that ramp.

Starting at 16.00 CEST (or just after the conclusion of the GP Ouest France-Plouay), you can follow all the action on CyclingQuotes.com/live.

An aggressive start

The 166,6km stage was mostly flat but finished with the category 1 climb Alto de Penas Blancas. On paper, it appeared to be a good one for a breakaway and so there was a fierce battle to get into the day's early move.

Kevin De Weert (OPQS) attacked as soon as the flag was dropped but the Belgian was quickly reeled in. Later Wout Poels (Vacansoleil) also tried a move but the Dutch climber got nowher.

A crash splits the peloton

A crash at the 13km mark momentarily split the peloton and this allowed a 9-rider group to go clear, only to get brought back a little later. Next up was a 12-rider move but Astana deemed it too dangerous and closed it down.

Georg Preidler (Argos), Matteo Montaguti (Ag2r), Amets Txurruka (Caja Rural) and Juan Jose Oroz (Euskaltel) were the next to go clear but their move was also ill-fated.

The break is formed

Finally, the elastic snapped when De Weert, Dario Cataldo (Sky), Francis De Greef (Lotto), Antonio Piedra (Caja Rural), Rafael Valls (Vacansoleil), Bartosz Huzarski (NetApp), Dominik Nerz (BMC), Matthew Busche (Radishack), Benat Intxausti (Movistar), Alex Howes (Garmin), Christian Meier (Orica-GreenEDGE), Ben Gastauer (Ag2r) and Jorge Azanza (Euskaltel) got a gap. They build up an advantage of 2.17 but Astana did not allow the group any more leeway, Huzarski being a GC threat,

Huzarski decided to drop back and that allowed the gap to grow to 4.30. Paradoxically, Huzarski's NetApp team decided to launch a chase, hoping that König could go on to win the stage.

NetApp brings down the gap

The German team did a good job to gradually reel in the break as Jan Barta and Daniel Schorn both did a huge work. When they hit the coast with 42km to go, the tension in the main group increased and so the battle for position intensified. This automatically brought up the speed and the gap now started to come down quickly.

When the riders approached the final climb, the fight in the peloton was immense. With 18km to go, Cannondale hit the front, trying to make sure that Basso was well-positioned. Maciej Paterski and Cameron Wurf both did a good job on the front to bring the gap down to a minute.

Radioshack in control

At the bottom of the climb, Radioshack took control. Markel Irizar and Gregory Rast did the early work but it was Fabian Cancellara who did an outstanding job on the first 6km of the climb. The Luxembourgish team had red-circled this stage as the one to take back the leader's jersey.

In the front group, Azanza was the first to attack while Meier, Piedra and Intxausti were quick to drop off. Moments later Cataldo decided to up the pace even further and only Nerz and Valls Ferri were able to keep up while Busche and De Weert followed a little further behind.

Valls Ferri in difficulty

Valls Ferri was momentarily dropped but the Spaniard did a good job to claw his way back to front duo when they hit an easier section of the climb. All the remaining escapees were gradually picked up by Cancellara.

Busche and Azanza were caught just as they hit a steeper section and this spelled the end for Cancellara. The Swiss was replaced by his teammate Busche who participation in the break had been part of a bigger plan.

Kreuziger and Mollema in difficulty

The American did an outstanding job to reduce the size of the bunch. Gradually, some of the bigger names started to get into difficulty and many were surprised to see Roman Kreuziger (Saxo-Tinkoff) and Bauke Mollema (Belkin) drop off rather early.

Valls Ferri fell off the pace and was picked up by the Busche-led peloton. With 5km to go, it was also over for Cataldo and Nerz and so all was set for a finale involving the GC riders.

Anton attacks

With 4,5km to go, Anton attacked. David De La Cruz (NetApp) set off in pursuit but was overtaken by Warren Barguil (Argos-Shimano). A little later Eros Capecchi (Movistar) and Ivan Santaromita (BMC) made moves - passing De La Cruz in the process - but Horner shut everything down.

Instead, Horner made his own attack and quickly overtook Barguil. Tanel Kangert (Astana) tried to respond but was unable to do so. Instead, Bart De Clercq (Lotto), Basso and Nibali bridged across but a little later Rigoberto Uran (Sky) closed the gap with the rest of the main favourites in tow.

The peloton slows down

Anton was still alone in the lead and the peloton now came to a virtual standstill. That allowed some of the dropped riders to get back on, König being one of those.

The Czech exploited the hesitation to launch his own attack. Pinot set off in pursuit and he was later joined by Moreno, Roche, De Clercq and Basso.

Astana in defence mode

Kangert now set the pace in an attempt to protect Nibali's lead but when the Estonian had used up his last energy, the race leader himself had to take over. He set a hard pace but was unable to reel in the escapees.

König passed Anton with 500m to go, and the Basque was unable to keep up. Basso had done all the work in the chase group but had no chance to respond to Moreno's fierce acceleration when he started his sprint 300m from the line. The Spaniard almost took his second stage win of the race but ran out of metres, instead allowing König to be crowned king of the Alto de Penas Blancas.

Roche won the sprint for 3rd while Rodriguez and Valverde battle for 8th. Nibali struggled at the end and lost a few seconds and that allowed Roche to take over the leader's jersey.

Result:

1. Leopold König 4.09.46

2. Daniel Moreno +0.01

3. Nicolas Roche +0.05

4. Thibaut Pinot

5. Ivan Basso

6. Bart De Clercq +0.08

7. Igor Anton +0.13

8. Alejandro Valverde +0.19

9. Joaquim Rodriguez

10. Rigoberto Uran +0.23

General classification:

1. Nicolas Roche 31.39.30

2. Chris Horner +0.17

3. Daniel Moreno

4. Vincenzo Nibali +0.18

5. Leopold König +0.29

6. Haimar Zubeldia +0.30

7. Alejandro Valverde +0.31

8. Rigoberto Uran +0.42

9. Rafal Majka +0.52

10. Joaquim Rodriguez +1.03

Points classification:

1. Daniel Moreno 68

2. Nicolas Roche 54

3. Michael Matthews 53

4. Alejandro Valverde 45

5. Maximiliano Richeze 40

Mountains classification:

1. Nicolas Roche 15

2. Leopold König 12

3. Daniel Moreno 12

4. Nicolas Edet 8

5. Winner Anacona 5

Combination classification:

1. Nicolas Roche 4

2. Daniel Moreno 7

3. Leopold König 13

4. Chris Horner 19

5. Alejandro Valverde 20

Teams classification:

1. Saxo-Tinkoff 94.01.21

2. Radioshack +0.13

3. Movistar +0.58

4. NetApp-Endura +1.42

5. Astana +2.09