Another stage for Astana

After Alexandre Vinokourov's double success, the Portuguese was the strongest rider out of a 15-man breakaway on an uphill finish in Cantabria.

As the group whittled down, the Olympic silver medalist burst clear with around 800m to go and finished two seconds ahead of Davide Rebellin with Xavier Florencio third.

After the rest day, several riders set out on the 199km journey from Aviles intent on a breakaway and the 15-man group eventually made an escape stick after around 40km.

They built up a lead of nine minutes just after halfway and the presence of Caisse d'Epargne's Vladimir Karpets, 15th on GC at 7:50, meant CSC had to do the chasing to protect Carlos Sastre's position in the overall standings.

The lead had been whittled down to under four minutes by the time the leaders reached the third category climb of the Alto del Mirador Ciudad, which was the signal for a host of attacks and counter-attacks from the likes of Iban Mayo, Michael Rasmussen and David Millar.

But the group only began to slim down over the final 1500m with the former world junior champion claiming his first stage win in a Grand Tour with the peloton arriving 3:54 behind with gold jersey wearer Alejandro Valverde safely in the pack.

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