Valderde snares Vino

Vinokourov will be kicking himself. Having suffered on Wednesday's opening day in the mountains, the Kazakh powerhouse rode an authoritative stage as the Vuelta returned for a second summit finish. Springing from the leading group with under two kilometres to spare, Vino looked to have made the day's decisive attack and was clearly on course to deliver jinxed team Astana a first major Tour stage win after a simply torrid season of scandal and disappointment.

But Valverde was having nothing of it. The Caisse d'Epargne race favourite made a pulsating counter-attack with the finish line in sight, reducing the Kazakh's ten second lead in the blink of an eye and roaring past his rival with just 50 metres to go. So demoralised was Vinokourov that he sat up and let a further four riders pass him by: he now knew just why the Alto del Morredero earned his name 'the place of the dead'.

Those four riders included 23-year-old rookie Brajkovic, the new surprise race leader after gold jersey Danilo Di Luca (Liquigas) lost almost two minutes on the final 18-km ascent. The Italian drops to ninth position in the GC. Discovery's Brajkovic, racing his first major Tour, leads Valverde by five seconds in the overall standings. CSC's Carlos Sastre is third (+10) after finishing the 154-km stage in second place, four seconds adrift of his compatriot.

Another Spaniard, Saunier Duval's Jose Angel Gomez Marchante crossed the line two seconds back in fourth place, one second ahead of Brajkovic and his Discovery team-mate Manuel Beltran. Marchante retains his fifth place in the GC behind Astana's Andrey Kashechkin, who finished the stage in eighth place, at 16 seconds.

Friday's stage started with the ubiquitous attacks from Relax riders and Bouygues Telecom's Walter Beneteau. After a few false-starts, the day's defining break took place with 25 km on the counter when Lampre's David Loosli and Staf Schierlinckx of Cofidis jumped clear of the peloton, with Credit Agricole's Laszlo Bodrogi in pursuit. Once a trio was formed, the riders quickly built up a monumental lead which broke the 12-minute barrier.

But dogged work by Liquigas, Caisse d'Epargne and Astana over the sweeping valley ahead of the final ascent saw the trio's lead cut to seven minutes. Once the 15% gradient of the opening section of the climb arrived, both Schierlinckx and Bodrogi were blown away. Swiss rider Loosli, however, showed his tenacity and, recovering on the downhill mid-section, still held over a minute advantage with three km left to ride.

By this point, Di Luca had already been dropped by the select chasing group while 2005 de facto winner, Denis Menchov, had completely cracked. The Russian was not alone for the likes of Tour de France champion-elect Oscar Pereiro and Tour polka dot jersey Michael Rasmussen had also hit the wall.

Trying to put a disappointing season behind him, Vinokourov was the architect of the chasing group and at one point, he led a group of seven riders clear of the race favourites in pursuit of Loosli. A series of attacks from Valverde and Euskaltel's Iban Mayo brought the pursuers back together before Brajkovic and Vinokourov tried their luck under the two km banner.

Loosli was caught and past after riding more than 100 km out in front, and while Brajkovic slowed his pace, Vino rode on alone in pursuit of glory. With 500 metres to spare, the Kazakh looked to have secured his first stage major stage win since his 2005 blitz on the Champs Elysees. But he did not count on the brilliance of Valverde, who showed his pedigree with a ruthless ride to the finish.

Having been ruled out of the Tour with an unfortunate collarbone break, Valverde is keen to make amends and record his first major Tour win in his home country. Showing the form he did on Friday, few would bet against him.