US cyclist of Radioshack team Christopher Horner celebrates his victory in the 186.8 kms-long tenth stage of the Spanish cycling tour between Torredelcampo and Alto de Hazallanas, Jaen, Spain, yesterday. (EPA)

AFP/Madrid

American veteran Chrsitopher Horner moved back into the leader’s red jersey after winning the 10th stage of the Tour of Spain yesterday.

It was the RadioShack rider’s second stage win of this year’s Vuelta following his third stage success that also saw the 41-year-old wear red for a day, before losing it to Italy’s Vincenzo Nibali.

The Astana rider finished second on the punishing mountainous 187km stage from Torredelcampo to Alto de Haza Llana, which included 18 percent ramps in the final stages, losing 48 seconds to the American with Spaniard Alejandro Valverde third at just over a minute back.

Horner broke clear on his own in the final kilometres and quickly edged out a significant gap as the other overall contenders marked each other’s responses.

Eventually Nibali kicked for home and got clear of the other chasers, but by now Horner was already well on his way to victory.  Horner leads Nibali in the overall standings by 52 seconds with Valverde third at 1min 08sec. Overnight leader Daniel Moreno lost over two minutes to drop outside the top five. Today is the first of two rest days before tomorrow’s individual 39km time trial around Tarazona.

Meanwhile Spanish two-time Formula One world champion Fernando Alonso has agreed to rescue financially troubled Basque cycling team Euskaltel Euskadi from collapse, the team said yesterday. “Euskaltel and Fernando Alonso have reached an agreement in principle which guarantees a new future for the cycling team,” the team said in a statement.

“Over the next weeks, negotiations between the parties will conclude with Fernando Alonso acquiring the company owning Euskaltel Euskadi, BCPT,” it said, without giving further financial details. The Basque cycling team announced in August that it would shut down at the end of the year because it could not find a sponsor.

The team’s main sponsor, telecommunications company Euskaltel, had said it was looking for another sponsor to help with the running costs of the team after local government withdrew its 3.5 million euros ($4.6 million) of public funding due to spending cuts.

Euskaltel filled that funding gap themselves for this season, taking their contribution to seven million of the team’s nine-million-euro budget.  However, it had said that level of investment was unsustainable.