Cycling:Specialist climber Igor Anton of Spain exaggerated his suffering on stage 11 of the Vuelta a Espana today before launching a counter attack to take his second solo win of the race and regain the overall lead.
Ezequiel Mosquera was second, three seconds behind, on the race's only Pyrenean stage with Xavier Tondo making it an all-Spanish podium.
After appearing to struggle midway on the final ascent to Pal when he was dropped by Mosquera, Anton then attacked and roared past Mosquera with a kilometre.
The 27-year-old told reporters he had played up a momentary crisis in order to make his rivals over-confident.
"I was feeling a bit rough on the final climb and so I played it very cool and hung back when the attacks started," Anton said. "At first I didn't count on a stage win, I just wanted to hang on to what I'd already got.
"But then halfway up I started feeling a lot better, and saw that other riders like (overnight leader Joaquim) Rodriguez and (Italian Vincenzo) Nibali were in trouble.
"So I got past them, and then managed to catch Ezequiel just in time to get the stage win."
The Euskaltel-Euskadi rider, who briefly lost the leader's jersey on Tuesday, is 45 seconds ahead of Nibali in the overall standings and 1:04 in front of third-placed Tondo as the race heads into two flat stages.
Ireland’s Nicolas Roche remains inside the top 10 after coming home 14th in today’s stage.
Leading positions after Stage 11(Vilanova i la Geltru — Andorra, 208.4km): 1 Igor Anton (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 5hrs 25mins 44secs, 2 Ezequiel Mosquera (Spa) Xacobeo Galicia at 0.03, 3 Xavier Tondo (Spa) Cervelo Test Team at 0.10, 4 Marzio Bruseghin (Ita) Caisse d'Epargne at 0.15, 5 Rigoberto Uran (Col) Caisse d'Epargne at same time, 6 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo at 0.23, 7 Frank Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank at same time, 8 David Moncoutie (Fra) Cofidis, le credit en ligne at same time, 9 Inigo Cuesta (Spa) Cervelo Test Team at 0.32, 10 Carlos Sastre (Spa) Cervelo Test Team at same time, 11 Ruben Plaza (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne at same time, 12 Tom Danielson (USA) Garmin-Transitions at 0.41, 13 Peter Velits (Svk) Team HTC-Columbia at 0.51, 14 Nicolas Roche(Irl) Ag2R-La Mondiale at same time, 15 Mikel Nieve (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi at 0.53
General classification after Stage 11:1 Igor Anton (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 47hrs 37mins 15secs, 2 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo at 0.45, 3 Xavier Tondo (Spa) Cervelo Test Team at 1.04, 4 Joaquin Rodriguez (Spa) Team Katusha at 1.17, 5 Ezequiel Mosquera (Spa) Xacobeo Galicia at 1.29, 6 Marzio Bruseghin (Ita) Caisse d'Epargne at 1.57, 7 Ruben Plaza (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne at 2.07, 8 Rigoberto Uran (Col) Caisse d'Epargne at 2.13, 9 Nicolas Roche(Irl) Ag2R-La Mondiale at 2.30, 10 Frank Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank at same time, 11 Peter Velits (Svk) Team HTC-Columbia at 2.37, 12 Tom Danielson (USA) Garmin-Transitions at 2.53, 13 Carlos Sastre (Spa) Cervelo Test Team at 3.03, 14 Vladimir Karpets (Rus) Team Katusha at 3.16, 15 Tejay Van Garderen (USA) Team HTC-Columbia at 3.27