It was a double-dose of delight for Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d’Epargne) in Sunday’s second stage at the Vuelta a España.

Capping what’s been a spectacular season for Spain’s Green Bullet, Valverde opened up a winning sprint with 200 meters to go in a rising finish into Jaén to claim victory and surge into the overall leader’s jersey thanks to time bonuses.

Valverde – whose season haul includes his second Liège title, the overall at Dauphiné Libéré, the Spanish road champion’s jersey and a stage at the Tour and a run in the maillot jaune – claimed his fifth career Vuelta victory two seconds ahead of Davide Rebellin (Gerolsteiner) and Alessandro Ballan (Lampre).

Valverde gets the yellow jersey.

Photo: Graham Watson

“I was feeling confident. In the Tour, I was able to beat the best in a similar stage and now I am close to home, so I know the roads around here,” Valverde said. “We’ve won a stage and taken the leader’s, just like in the Tour, above all which is my goal here at the Vuelta. Now we’ll see what happens.”

Despite surging into the overall lead, Valverde is already discounting his chances for a run at final victory.

Even before the Vuelta started, he admitted he didn’t have the fitness or motivation to battle the likes of Alberto Contador or Carlos Sastre for the big prize.

“We’ll see how it goes the next few days. I am not even sure I will be able to hold the leader’s jersey going into the first time trial because there are sprinters who can take bonuses,” Valverde said cautiously. “We’ll see how I do in the time trial, then we can maybe reconsider the race.”

Coursing through olive country.

Photo: Graham Watson

Much like he did in the opening stage of this year’s Tour de France, Valverde won the uphill sprint and takes the leader’s jersey.

Although there weren’t any time bonuses in this year’s Tour, there are at the Vuelta.

Valverde used a 20-second bonus at the line to vault ahead of overnight leader Filippo Pozzato (Liquigas), who crossed the line fifth sans moustache, to take the Vuelta’s golden jersey by 13 seconds.

Pozzato slotted into second with Daniele Bennati (Liquigas) tied at 13 seconds down while the attacking Egoi Martinez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) used time bonuses collected on the road to skip into fourth at 15 seconds off the pace.

The 176km second stage from Granada to Jaén featured an early no-hope four-man breakaway, but the final 20km sizzled with a string of searing attacks and counter-attacks.

Caisse d’Epargne slammed the door shut on the final breakaway with four kilometers to go to set up the uphill sprint into Jaén, home to some of Spain’s best olive oil.

Joaquin Rodriguez (Caisse d’Epargne) greased the way for Valverde when he tried in vain to surprise the peloton with a scorching attack with just over 1km to go. He never opened up much of a gap but he forced the others to disrupt their plans and chase him down.

Tinkoff’s Riccardo Serrano sprinted with about 350m to go and Valverde countered in his wake at 200m to go and no one could answer.

Liquigas took up much of the chase work on Sunday.

Photo: Graham Watson

“Joaquin played his card perfectly, because the others had to go to the maximum to chase him,” Valverde said. “Serrano went after him, so I had to start a little earlier than I would have liked.”

Others could only sit back and watch. One of them was Rabobank sprinter Oscar Freire, who finished 99th, just ahead of Bennati, as the two sprinters tailed in as the last riders to finish with the main pack.

“I knew it was going to be hard, hot and the stage was ideal for riders like Bettini and Valverde,” said Freire, who’s hoping to get back to the world championships next month after missing the past two. “We’ll have to see how my form is coming around. I will definitely try on the stage to Toledo and there should be some other opportunities down the road. My form is better than last year and I hope to be ready for the worlds. If I am good, I hope to be able to respond like at the other worlds.”

Breakaway for glory
Sunday’s route was altered, meaning that the peloton would not ride the third-category Alto de las Enebras at 46km. Instead, they tackled the Cat. 3 Puerto de Huelma (at 84km) and extended the day's route to 176km in length.

The finish of Sunday’s stage was also changed. The two 25km laps at Jaen were been replaced by a longer single loop. The finish remained unchanged with a stiff 2km,4-percent climb, followed by a 300-meter drop and then another 800 meters at 5 percent to the line.

Per usual for the Vuelta, it didn’t take long to see the first attacks in Sunday’s first road stage of the 2008 edition.

Martinez goes on the attack.

Photo: Graham Watson

By the seven-kilometer mark, four riders established a gap, with Jesus Rosendo Prado (Andalucia-Caja Sur), Egoi Martinez (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Cyril Lemoine (Credit Agricole) and Mikhail Ignatiev (Tinkoff) making the cut.

Martinez was the only rider in the break to have won a stage at the Vuelta, earning that distinction in the 11th stage of the 2006 edition of this race, the year he also won the KOM jersey while racing with Discovery Channel.

With about 50km to go and with the gap down to under three minutes, Martínez shot away from his three escape partners to try his luck by himself.

Rosendo Prado wasn’t about to let a chance of a lifetime ride away without a fight and he dug deep to bridge across. Lemoine and Ignatiev were about 35 seconds behind with the peloton another three minutes back.

Rosendo joins up with Martinez.

Photo: Graham Watson

With Martinez and Rosendo Prado hammering at the front, the gap grew to 3:45 with 35km to go, enough to finally prompt the peloton out of its heat-induced stupor.

Quick Step finally put some fresh legs on the front to trim the gap to under one minute with 20km to go, enough to prompt Martinez to give it one more stab for glory.

Rosendo Prado - who was the Vuelta’s farolillo rojo or red latern last year - took some consolation by leading the way over the day’s lone rated climb and taking the Vuelta’s first best climber’s jersey.

His reward was some quality time on the winner’s podium and kisses from the podium girls.

“I was really hoping we could make it all the way to Jaén in the breakaway. The first climb was good, but on the second time, I saw that the escape was dead,” he said. “I hope to improve on my last place from last year. I have a little more room for progression than the other. I was last year in last year’s Vuelta, but I finished last with pride.”

Chaotic finale
There were dozens of attacks and counter-attacks in a wild final 20km of the race over a series of unrated climbs and drops.

Luis Pasamontes (Caisse d’Epargne) shot out of the pack to chase Martinez on a steep climb, drawing out Bouygues Telecom, Quick Step and a Rabobank, but the peloton was hot on their heels.

Ardila and Zandio take a dig.

Photo: Graham Watson

Mauricio Ardila (Rabobank) and Xavier Zandio (Caisse d’Epargne) then pounced as the group came back. Nicholas Roche (Credit Agricole) swept past the leading duo as there were a series of attacks on a string of short climbs on the final approach into Jaén.

With 15km to go, Roche dangled about 12 seconds off the front as about 16 riders chased just a few seconds clear of chasing peloton. Grisha Niermann (Rabobank) bridged out to latch on to Roche.

On another steep, unrated hill, David Moncoutie (Cofidis) counter-attacked and Roche grabbed his wheel. Neirmann died.

Rabobank teammate Marc de Maar (Rabobank) bridged out with Evgeni Petrov (Tinkoff), Nick Nuyens (Cofidis), Dani Moreno (Caisse d’Epargne) and Iñigo Landaluze (Euskaltel) sneaking across with 8km to go.

Just as that potentially dangerous group was caught, Yaroslav Popovych (Silence-Lotto), Gianni Meersman (FDJeux) and Matej Jurco (Milram) tried their luck with 7km to go.

Caisse d’Epargne, feeling good about Valverde’s chances, shut it down with less than four kilometers to go.

Monday’s stage
The 63rd Vuelta continues Monday with the 168.6km third stage from Jaén to Córdoba in a rolling stage that gets interesting in the final kilometers.

The Cat. 3 Alto de San Jerónimo with 26km to go typically gives hope to head-bangers looking to fend off the sprinters.

The last time the Vuelta came through Córdoba was in 2006, when Paolo Bettini made it over the climb and won in a bunch sprint to help him ease his way into his first world title.

In 2005, Leonardo Bertagnolli won out of a seven-man breakaway that pulled clear over the San Jerónimo.

63rd Vuelta a España
Stage 2: Granada to Jaén, 176km
Winner: Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d’Epargne) finished two seconds ahead of Davide Rebellin (Gerolsteiner) in uphill sprint to win fifth career Vuelta stage win
GC leader: Valverde takes the leader’s jersey on time bonuses, now 13 seconds ahead of overnight leader Filippo Pozzato (Liquigas)
Points: Valverde takes a 25-20 lead to Rebellin
KoM: Jesús Rosendo Prado (Andalucía-CajaSur) won first-place points over the day’s lone third category climb to claim first climber’s jersey
Combined: Egoi Martínez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) leads ahead of Rosendo Prado
Team: Caisse d’Epargne
Peloton: No abandons; Staf Scheirlinckx (Cofidis) didn’t start.