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Astana captain Alberto Contador rode into the leader's gold jersey at the Vuelta a Espana after winning on the notorious Alto del Angliru.

The former Tour de France winner dropped his chief rivals Carlos Sastre (CSC) and team-mate Levi Leipheimer four kilometres from the summit in a wonderful display of climbing ability, while Caisse d'Epargne's Alejandro Valverde recorded an impressive second place.

Euskaltel's Egoi Martinez, who had hitherto held the gold jersey, rolled in over seven minutes off the pace, while their captain Igor Anton crashed out.

Contador now leads the Vuelta by 1'07" over Leipheimer, with Sastre at 3'01". Ezequiel Mosquera of Xacobea now lies 4'19 adrift, with Valverde at 4'40".

The Astana team controlled the peloton for almost the entire day, keeping the day's breakaway trio of Christophe Kern (Credit Agricole), Martin Tjallingii (Skil-Shimano) and Matej Jurco (Milram) on a leash of around ten minutes on a tortuous day that took in the third-category Alto de Ortiguiero, as well as the Puerto de Arnicio, Alto de la Colladona and Alto del Cordal, before taking on the Angliru.

Anton saw his race come to a premature end as he crashed on the descent of the Cordal, while Astana's all-star squad kept a punishing pace at the front of the peloton, which saw the likes of world champion Paolo Bettini dropped at the very foot of the Angliru.

Sergio Paulinho and Andreas Klöden whittled the size of Contador's group down to around 20, while Kern, who bravely attacked from the breakaway 20 kilometres from home, was finally caught.

Leipheimer then took over at the front, and all but demolished the lead group with a ferocious tempo. Oliver Zaugg, Mosquera and Robert Gesink were distanced, and then so too was the man Contador perhaps feared most - Tour de France winner Sastre.

Leipheimer then pulled off the front to leave Contador on his own alongside the Caisse d'Epargne duo of Valverde and Joaquin Rodriguez.

One initial attack from Contador revealed Valverde to be on his limit, and when Rodriguez attacked five kilometres from home with Contador immediately jumping on his wheel, Valverde was finally dropped.

Contador wasted no time in immediately pressing on past Rodriguez, and pressing on for the summit alone, through tortuous passages of up to 24% in the Cuena de los Cabres.

Sastre managed to fight his way back to the wheel of Leipheimer, while Valverde did the same, hauling himself level with Rodriguez, before passing him toward the top of the Angliru.

Contador hauled himself over the summit and hurtled over the short downhill section before crossing the finish line 42 seconds ahead of Valverde, with Rodriguez a further 16 seconds back.

Leipheimer managed to limit his losses to 1'05" on his team captain, while Carlos Sastre rolled in 1'30" off the pace.

Sunday's 14th stage takes the peloton 158 kilometres from Oviedo to Fuentes de Invierno.

MF / Eurosport