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Australian Cadel Evans moved into the lead of the Vuelta a Espana after Italian Damiano Cunego won the first mountain stage of the race.

Lampre leader Cunego timed his attack perfectly, jumping clear of a thinned peloton with three kilometres of the 205km stage eight to spare, and catching lone leader David Moncoutie (Cofidis) in the final kilometre.

The Frenchman, who had ridden over the previous seven peaks of the stage in a group of six escapees, did not have the legs to follow Cunego, coming home in the mist 33 seconds adrift.

Dutchman Robert Gesink (Rabobank) took third place a further three seconds behind before Silence Lotto's Evans led a select group over the line, 44 seconds behind the stage winner.

The group contained race favourites Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne), Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel) and Ivan Basso (Liquigas).

Notably absent where Astana's Alexandre Vinokourov and Tour de France runner-up Andy Schleck of Saxo Bank.

The Kazakh rider, back after a two-year ban for doping, cracked on the final climb of the day, the unclassified Alto de Aitana, losing more than nine minutes while Schleck abandoned 88km into the race after suffering stomach cramps.

Evans now leads Valverde by a slender two seconds in the overall classification after overnight leader Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank) was distanced on the penultimate climb of the day, the second category Alto de Tudons.

Andy Schleck's older brother Frank compounded the misery for Saxo Bank after he rolled home a massive 10:42 off the pace.

Despite requiring a double bike change at a critical moment in the stage, Spain's Sanchez recovered and lies third overall, at 8 seconds. America's Tom Danielson (Garmin-Slipstream) is fourth, at 13 seconds.

Moncoutie will consider himself desperately unlucky after he came so close to adding a second Vuelta career stage win to his name.

Attacking before the first climb of the day, the Cofidis team leader was the driving force behind a six-man group which built up a lead of 15 minutes over the peloton by the time the riders went through the feeding zone.

But fierce work on the front of the peloton by the Caisse d'Epargne team of Valverde saw the lead slowly whittled down as the final ascent to Aitana approached.

First to be swept up were Milram's Paul Voss and Rabobank's Pieter Weening, soon followed by Frenchmen Sebastien Hinault (AG2R) and William Bonnet (Bbox Bouygues Telecom)

Dutchman Johnny Hoogerland (Vancansoleil) and Moncoutie set a fierce pace on the early part of the final 21km climb.

Hoogerland twice tried his luck at going alone but was both times pegged back by Moncoutie who used his experience and picked the right moment to launch his own solo attack.

The win looked all but certain with 3km to spare until Liquigas pair Sylvester Szmyd and Basso upped the tempo on the front of the chasing group.

Cunego, the 2004 Giro d'Italia winner, then used this opportunity to cast his die, shooting off the front like a bullet with 2km remaining.

With Moncoutie starting to hunch his shoulders and crumble, Cunego became the safe bet for victory, catching the Frenchman with 800m to spare and riding on comfortably to secure the first Vuelta scalp of his career.

While assuming the king of the mountains jersey will be scant colsolation for Moncoutie, the Frenchman will find it hard not to admit that Cunego's win was deserved.

Stage 9 of the race is a 189km slog from Alcoy to Xorret del Cati which features seven climbs and will be another decisive test for the race contenders.

The Vuelta Stage 9 LIVE at 3pm on Monday on British Eurosport (Sky 410 / Virgin Media 521); Also available on your PC via the Eurosport Player - click on the link under the picture to subscribe.

Felix Lowe / Eurosport