Ireland's Nicholas Roche leads the Vuelta a España after finishing third on the 66km stage from Jerez de la Frontera to Alto Peñas Blancas (Estepona).
Roche said to La Vuelta.com after putting on the leader's red jersey: "There was an opportunity to attack in the last two kilometres. It was the ideal moment. I was at the front with very strong guys: Ivan Basso, Thibaut Pinot and Daniel Moreno.
"I wasn’t thinking of winning the stage, I only had the red jersey in mind. I’ve never worn a leader’s jersey in a Grand Tour before. I was only eight seconds down. It was so little. I had to go for it. I gave everything. It’s mission accomplished. It makes me very happy.
"It would be very optimistic to say that I’m going to defend until Madrid. It’s tight. I hope to get more opportunities like that but for now, I want to enjoy and celebrate with my team.
"It’s been an incredible week for me with my first stage win in a Grand Tour, my first leader’s jersey. Tomorrow it’ll be a different stage for different kind of riders but Monday’s stage is a very difficult one. Shall I wear the red jersey for three days, it would already be a lot."
After a couple of stages for the time trialers and sprinters, this stage which started without Dan Martin who was forced to withdraw following his crash on stage seven, was one for the climbers and the first main break formed after 35 kilometres and comprised of Dario Cataldo (Team Sky), Kevin De Weert (Omega Pharma-Quick Step), Ben Gastauer (AG2R), Rafael Valls Ferri (Vacansoleil), Francis De Greef (Lotto), Jorge Azanza (Euskaltel), Alex Howes (Garmin-Sharp), Bartosz Huzarski (NetApp-Endura), Thierry Hupond (Argos-Shimano), Christian Meier (Orica GreenEGDE), Matthew Busche (RadioShack Leopard), Dominik Nerz (Cannondale), Antonio Piedra (Caja Rural) and Beñat Intxausti (Movistar).
They built up a lead of 4.30 with Nerz becoming the virtual leader on the road, which dropped to 2.12 with twenty kilometres to go and in front of big crowds.
The climb to the Alto Peñas Blancas was 14.5kms long and the gap had dropped to a minute as the escapers started on mountain. Chris Horner sent his Radio Shack team-mates including Fabian Cancellera to the front on gradients of 13%.
Ferri, Nerz and Cataldo were left on the front before Ferri was caught with 7.3kms. Two kilometres later and Nerz and Cataldo sat up and shook hands and allowed themselves to be engulfed by the peloton.
Igor Anton was the next to attack, going down the left of the peloton then breaking clear. Argos Shimano's Warren Barguil tried to chase him with four kilometres left until Radio Shack took over yet again with Chris Horner setting the pace.
Horner was joined and passed by Ivan Basso, Nicholas Roche, Moreno, and Leopold Konig of Wild Card team Team NetApp-Endura.
Into the final kilometre and Koenig went after Anton and passed him. Koenig kept going and won in 4.09.45 beating Daniel Moreno by a second and Nicolas Roche by five seconds.
Roche had put in a superb ride and he now leads the race by seventeen seconds from Chris Horner of RadioShack Leopard and Daniel Moreno of Katusha.