Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) showed growing form when his fierce acceleration on the Aramon Formigal climb put race leader Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) into difficulty. Having gained time on all his main rivals, the Katusha leader promises to keep fighting all the way till the end.

At the end of yesterday's stage, Joaquim Rodriguez admitted defeated when he was interviewed by Cyclingnews, stating that the superiority of Chris Horner and Vincenzo Nibali made the final podium spot his main objective. 24 hours later, his fierce acceleration put Nibali into difficulty.

Rodriguez used teammate Giampaolo Caruso's fierce pace-setting as a launch pad for an attack and quickly opened up a big gap. Using teammate Vladimir Gusev who had been part of the early break, to keep the pace high in the headwind, he managed to keep his rivals at bay all the way to the line, finishing 1.41 down on stage winner Warren Barguil (Argos).

Having gained 3 seconds on Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), 6 seconds on Horner and 28 seconds on Nibali, Rodriguez is now 4th overall, 2.29 behind Nibali and 1.15 from a podium spot. Having realized that Nibali is vulnerable and knowing that hard stages are coming up in the final week, Rodriguez is now showing way more confidence than he did at the end of yesterday's stage.

“I'm very satisfied," he said. "I think I will fight for my goals until the end. Today the weather was much better than during the last days. So I felt in good shape and with the team we tried to do something during the stage. The team was perfect today. In the final I attacked to gain some time over my rivals, of course mostly Valverde who is my closest rival on GC. The third week is about to start, we will have some hard stages ahead."

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.