Vinokourov's golden ride

The American Danielson (Discovery Channel) claimed his first victory in a Grand Tour, breaking out of a lead group on the Alto de Monachil and pipping Vino to the line after being caught 6 kilometres from the finish at Granada.

The duo finished one minutes and 10 seconds in front of third-place Samuel Sanchez and a full 1'39" in front of Alejandro Valverde's group, enough to give the Kazakh a nine second lead in the general classification and the gold jersey thanks to 12 bonus seconds.

Vinokourov's Astana team-mate Andrey Kashechkin launched an attack as a group of favourites, including Vino, Valverde and third-place overall Carlos Sastre, reached the start of the Monachil ascent 30-km from the finish line.

Angel Gomez Marchante, who now lies fifth in the GC, joined Kashechkin right away, before Vino stunned Valverde five kilometres into the climb and blew down the road.

"We saw Valverde was suffering and isolated from his team mates on the climb and I opened up the throttle," Vinokourov told reporters.

Valverde said he had suffered badly on the final climb.

"When Vinokourov went away on the descent, I didn't have the legs to follow. I'll try and get the jersey back tomorrow, on the Pandera," the 26-year-old said.

After reaching the summit 21-km from the finish line, Vino dropped Marchante and Kashechkin on a swift descent at speeds up to 72-km/hour and caught up to Danielson with 6-km left to ride.

The American and the Kazakh shared the work until the final sprint, when Danielson overtook Vinokourov near the line and took the uncontested victory.

"Today was a victory for our tactics on the climb with my team mates, and victory of brute strength and speed on the descent."

Vinokourov has already won two stages at this year's Vuelta, and is attempting to win his first Grand Tour after he was barred from racing in this year's Tour de France for a doping suspension against his Astana team.

There are three stages left to ride until the final stage arrives in Madrid, including Thursday's 18th stage with an uphill finish at the HC Sierra de la Pandera and Saturday's 27.5-km time trial.

"Really I don't think the Tour of Spain will be decided until after Saturday's final time trial near Madrid," Vino said.

Vinokourov turns 33-years-old on Saturday.