Nicolas Roche (Saxo-Tinkoff) took one of his rare wins when he emerged as the strongest in the first summit finish of this year's Vuelta. On a day when Sergio Henao (Sky) and Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel) both lost plenty of time, the Irishman made it into a strong 4-rider group near the end and powered clear to take the win while Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) fought his way across the line alongside the main favouites to take over the leader's jersey from teammate Janez Brajkovic.

Nicolas Roche had done nothing to hide his big ambitions for this year's Vuelta a Espana, claiming that a top 5 finish would be within his reach. Today he proved that he has a reason to believe in himself when he won the second stage of the race, the first with an uphill finish.

Movistar had prepared everything for a sprint win for Valverde and the team had been riding tempo all the way up the final climb. There fierce pace-setting had reduced the main group dramatically but more than 30 riders still remained in contention at the end.

However, the Movistar plans were derailed when Leopold König (NetApp) attacked with 1,3km to go. Movistar had now used up most of its domestiques and so they had no response when Daniel Moreno (Katusha) and Roche set off in pursuit.

Domenico Pozzovivo (Ag2r) was the next rider to attack and the 4 riders combined forces well inside the final kilometre. Knowing that he had no chance in a sprint, Pozzovivo made a move and appeared to be riding away from his faster rivals.

That was when Roche played his cards, powering clear of his companions and quickly bridging across to Pozzovivo. The Italian was unable to keep up and so Roche could solo across the line to take an impressive solo win.

Moreno was riding strongly to take 2nd, 2 seconds behind, while Pozzovivo followed 2 seconds further adrift. König held onto 4th while Valverde won the sprint for 5th, 12 seconds behind Roche.

Most favourites were present in the main group and so the stage didn't reveal who's going to win the race. However, it showed who won't. Pre-race contenders Sergio Henao and Samuel Sanchez both lost ground and now have plenty of time to make up.

Race leader Janez Brajkovic was another victim while his teammate Vincenzo Nibali stayed in the main group. A small gap opened in the sprint, seeing Nibali lose 2 seconds to Valverde, Diego Ulissi (Lampre) and Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha). It was, however, enough for the Italian to take the lead, 8 seconds ahead of Roche.

He will wear the red leader's jersey on tomorrow's third stage which is mostly flat. However, an uphill finish on a category 3 climb should make for another exciting race when the classics riders and puncheurs are expected to come into play.

A calm start

The Vuelta's first road stage was also its first summit finish. A mostly flat in Galicia ended with the category 1 climb Alto do Monte da Groba and while it was not overly steep, it was expected to give the first indications of the condition of the main riders.

Knowing that a breakaway had little chance of success, few riders planned on going into a suicide move. Greg Henderson (Lotto-Belisol) was the first to attack and he was joined by Alex Rasmussen (Garmin) and perennial escapee Francisco Aramendia (Caja Rural) in what was the day's early move.

A massive gap

The trio combined forced and were allowed to build up a massive gap. Astana had no interest in defending the jersey and so the advantage reached a maximum 13.09 at the midpoint of the stage.

A sprint on the top of the climb was expected and that suited Ulissi well. Hence, Lampre decided to chase and the Italian team put two riders on the front.

A strong headwind

They joined up with Andrey Zeits (Astana) for a long time and the trio gradually brought down the gap. With 40km to go, the advantage was, however, still more than 9 minutes.

At that point the riders turned into a headwind and that spelled the end for the breakaway's chances. When Vacansoleil also put Johnny Hoogerland on the front, the advantage started to crumble.

Battle for position

Hoogerland stopped his effort with 25km to go and once again left all the chase work to Lampre. As they got closer to the bottom of the climb, the battle for position did, however, intensify and all the big team started to organize trains on the front of the peloton.

Argos-Shimano, Belkin and Katusha all led the peloton at different points in this hectic phase but when the peloton turned onto the climb, it was Gianni Meersman (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) who spearheaded the main group. The gap was now less than a minute and the break appeared to be doomed.

The break splits up

Aramendia attacked and left Henderson behind but Movistar had now made their intentions clear. Pablo Lastras was the first rider to pace the peloton and next in line was Jose Herrada.

The Spaniard did an amazing job to not only catch the escapees but to significantly reduce the size of the peloton. One of the first riders to get into difficulty was Brajkovic but the Slovenian managed to rejoin the group.

Sanchez in difficulty

Amets Txurruka (Caja Rural) made a short-lived attack but Herrada's pace was too high to get clear. Drama occurred when Samuel Sanchez was the first big victim of the day.

Sylwester Szmyd moved to the front to take one of his trademark turns on the front and that acceleration spelled the end for Henao. Moments later Herrada was back in control and all was now set for a Valverde win.

That was when König made his move and Brajkovic now fell off the pace for good. Moments later Roche took off, ultimately crossing the line as the winner of the Vuelta's first summit finish.

Result:

1. Nicolas Roche 4.37.09

2. Daniel Moreno +0.02

3. Domenico Pozzovivo +0.06

4. Leopold König +0.11

5. Alejandro Valverde +0.12

6. Diego Ulissi

7. Joaquin Rodriguez

8. Ivan Basso +0.14

9. Bauke Mollema

10. Rigoberto Uran

General classification:

1. Vincezo Nibali 5.07.22

2. Nicolas Roche +0.08

3. Haimar Zubeldia

4. Chis Horner

5. RObert Kiserlovski

6. Rigoberto Uran +0.22

7. Ben Hermans +0.27

8. Alejandro Valverde

9. Rafal Majka +0.32

10. Roman Kreuziger

Points classification:

1. Nicolas Roche 25

2. Daniel Moreno 20

3. Domenico Pozzovivo 16

4. Leopold König 14

5. Alejandro Valverde 12

Mountains classification:

1. Nicolas Roche 10

2. Daniel Moreno 6

3. Domenico Pozzovivo 4

4. Francisco Aramendia 3

5. Leopold König 2

Combination classification:

1. Nicolas Roche 4

2. Alejandro Valverde 20

3. Leopold König 20

4. Daniel Moreno 22

5. Domenico Pozzovivo 43

Teams classification:

1. Radioshack 14.22.18

2. Saxo-Tinkoff +0.08

3. NetApp-Endura +0.46

4. Astana +1.00

5. Belkin +1.03