Joaquim Rodriguez in red after Frank Schleck soloes to victory

Luxembourg veteran Schleck (Trek Factory Racing) dropped fellow escapee Rodolfo Torres (Team Colombia) on the seventh and final climb of a pulsating 185km stage from Luarca to secure his first Grand Tour scalp since 2009 in the Tour de France.

It was Trek third victory of the Vuelta and the first for a Luxembourg rider since Schleck’s own father, Johny, in 1970.

“I came here with intentions for the general classification but I was involved in a couple of crashes,” said Schleck, who missed out on July’s Tour because of injury.

“We had to change the team’s tactics and focus on stage wins because I had lost a lot of time. The team put a lot of pressure on me but it was a good day for me today.”

Schleck was the elder statesman in a group of 10 riders which formed on the first climb of the stage before building up a maximum lead of 22 minutes over the pack.

Schleck, 35, admitted he was “very nervous” about Colombian Torres after the pair broke clear of their fellow escapees on the penultimate climb of the day.

“I knew a lot about the other guys in the break but not so much about him,” Schleck said. “It was tough to win the stage. All the hard work and all the injuries – today it’s now worth it.”

While Schleck celebrated his first pro win since 2011, further down the road - around nine minutes to be precise - the battle for the red jersey took centre stage as Spanish veteran Rodriguez (Katusha) continued his fine form with a timely dig in the final kilometre as the gradient peaked out at a mind-boggling 30%.

Italian race leader Aru (Astana) dug deep to limit his loses to just two seconds over the finish line - but the result swapped the riders' roles as Rodriguez moved onto the top of the standings by the one slender second by which he trailed Aru after his own victory in Sunday’s previous stage.

The big winner of the day, however, was Dutchman Tom Dumoulin, who rallied to limit his losses to just 27 seconds on the final mountain-top finish of the race. The rangy Giant-Alpecin time trial specialist will now be tipped to overturn his 1:51 deficit in Wednesday's ITT in Burgos to set up a champagne finale in the closing stages of the race.

Dumoulin said his performance was “much better than expected” on the third – and hardest – of three back-to-back summit finishes.

“I didn’t feel so good on the penultimate first-category climb but to lose 28 seconds at the finish was really good because everything is still very open,” 24-year-old Dumoulin said.

“It will be very difficult and there will be some hard stages in the last week of the race. But it’s looking good now and everything will depend on the time trial.”

Polish climber Rafal Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo) finished 10 seconds behind Aru alongside Nairo Quintana (Movistar) to retain his third place on GC, 1:35 down on Rodriguez. Dumoulin is fourth while Team Sky’s Mikel Nieve rose above Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEdge) to fifth place ahead of Tuesday’s rest day.

Polka dot jersey Omar Fraile (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) broke clear from the gun alongside Carlos Verona (Etixx-QuickStep), Pierre Rolland (Europcar), Schleck and Torres.

The leaders were soon joined by Moreno Moser (Cannondale-Garmin), Larry Warbasse (IAM Cycling), Cyril Lemoine (Cofidis), George Bennett (LottoNL-Jumbo) and Tsgabu Grmay (Lampre-Merida) as a 10-man group formed off the front of the pack.

With the gap ballooning in excess of 20 minutes, Spaniard Fraile picked up maximum points over the first five climbs to all but secure the kind of the mountains title in his maiden Grand Tour.

By the end of the day, Schleck would be the 25-year-old Fraile’s nearest opponent in the polka dot standings – some 52 points shy of his insurmountable tally of 82 points.

The break fragmented on the descent of the Alto del Cordal 35km from the finish when American Warbasse was first to be distanced. On the Cat.1 Alto de le Cobertoria Fraile, Frenchmen Lemoine and Rolland, Italian Moser and Ethiopian Grmay all cracked to leave four riders in the lead.

Spaniard Verona and New Zealand’s Bennett were next to follow suit as Schleck led Torres over the summit with a lead of almost 11 minutes over the peloton still intact.

While Torres set the early tempo on the final climb of the Alto Ermita de Alba it was the more experienced Schleck who opened up a gap with 3km remaining.

Despite a slight wobble on the steep ramps in the final half kilometre, Schleck kept his cool to cross the line 1:10 ahead of Torres, who ended the stage closer to third place Moser than the Luxembourg victor.

All the escapees bar Lemoine and Grmay managed to stay out in front of the rest of the field, with Warbasse taking eighth place just over six minutes down.

Dutchman Dumoulin had been earmarked as the danger man ahead of the stage, his rivals aware of his time trialling abilities and mindful of the need to consign him to a hefty handicap ahead of Wednesday’s ITT.

But it was the white jersey of Dumoulin who led the pack of main favourites up the final climb, sitting in the wheel of Aru’s lieutenants Mikel Landa and Diego Rosa while the red jersey toiled towards the back of the select group.

Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) was first to pop with 2.5km remaining, soon to be followed by former race leader and double stage winner Chaves.

When Rodriguez upped the tempo in the closing kilometres, Dumoulin was distanced but managed to limit the gap to a few bike lengths.

Aru struggled when Rodriguez made his decisive kick with 800 metres remaining – although the Sardinian eventually found the strength to round Majka and Quintana in pursuit of Rodriguez.

But it was the sight of Dumoulin – battered but not down – coming home just 27 seconds behind ninth-place Rodriguez that will have many making him the favourite to wear the red jersey into Madrid next Sunday.

COMING UP: A much-needed rest day is followed by the all-important 38.7km time trial in and around Burgos, which is lumpy in parts but flat enough for specialist Dumoulin to drive a large wedge between him and his more climbing-oriented red jersey rivals.