Vino beats golden Valverde

Vino is undoubtedly the in-form rider of the Vuelta at the moment. Just 24 hours after an audacious breakaway in the closing kilometre delivered the Astana-Wurth rider his first major Tour stage victory of the season, Vino doubled his tally with a true show of brute strength and attacking guile on Sunday.

Had the Kazakh powerhouse not been so painstakingly pipped to the line by serial rival Valverde on Friday, the 31-year-old would be celebrating three successive victories with this latest scalp atop the Alto de la Cobertoria.

The decisive break came on the final ascent of the day, once the riders had already crossed six peaks in the Asturia region of Spain. With a select group containing all the favourites chasing down solo breakaway Paolo Bettini (QuickStep), Vinokourov and his team-mate Andrey Kashechkin pulled off what was clearly a pre-planned double assault.

Both Kazakh riders accelerated in unison with six kilometres to go and soon built up a lead of twenty seconds. Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne), Carlos Sastre (CSC), Danilo Di Luca (Liquigas) and Jose Angel Gomez Marchante (Saunier-Duval) were the only riders from the streamlined chasing group who could muster a counter-attack as overnight race leader, Janez Brajkovic of Discovery, quickly slipped off the pace.

Having ridden in support of Kashechkin - who, the better placed of the two at just 23 seconds, was eying the gold jersey - Vino stepped up a gear with two kilometres to the summit after it became clear that his friend was tiring - and that Valverde was approaching.

An explosive injection of pace from within the chasing foursome saw Valverde soon soar past Kashechkin, but Vinokourov was not in the mood to see another stage snatched from under his nose him by the Spaniard, and held on to win by 16 seconds. Kashechkin finished five seconds further back, while the trio in pursuit came home 43 seconds adrift.

A tired Brajkovic lost a huge 2min 15sec and now languishes in sixth position, 2min 05sec behind new leader, and race favourite, Valverde. With a 20 second time bonus granted to the stage victor, Vino moved up to fifth place in the GC, 1min 38sec behind Valverde.

Both duelling riders are separated by the Kashechkin-Sastre-Marchante trio; the Kazakh is third at 27", Sastre fourth at 44" and his Spanish counterpart fifth at 56". On the eve of the race's first rest day, the 2006 Vuelta is shaping up to be a classic battle between five in-form riders.

Liquigas rider Pietro Caucchioli moved to the top of the mountains standings after taking maximum points over the first four climbs of the day. The Italian was part of an initial 19-man breakaway, and then a secondary 15-man breakaway, which stayed out in front for over 100 km until the day's main test, the special category Puerto de San Lorenzo.

Three riders - David Arroyo (Caisse d'Epargne), Igor Anton (Euskaltel) and Egoi Martinez (Discovery) - extricated themselves from the leading group on this penultimate climb and stayed out in front until the base of final ascent, when Bettini made his hopeful attack.

On the gentler opening slopes of the Alto de la Cobertoria, Valverde's Caisse d'Epargne team set a fierce tempo which blew the cobwebs from the select group. Lampre's Sylvester Szmyd tried his luck and soon joined a tiring Bettini 20 seconds up the mountain.

But the pulverising double attack by Astana's Kazakh pair set the scene perfectly for Vinokourov's triumph, Brajkovic's collapse and, perhaps most tellingly, Valverde's poise and inner strength.

The only thing standing between the Spaniard and glory in Madrid might well be an inopportune injury such as the broken collarbone that did for his Tour de France hopes. He looks that composed.