Vuelta Stage 3: Chris Horner becomes oldest Grand Tour stage winner, and oldest man to lead one of them

Chris Horner of RadioShack-Leopard is the new leader of the Vuelta a Espana, attacking towards the end of today's final, 4 kilometre Category 3 climb to the finish at Mirador de Lobeira. The 41-year-old from Oregon - the oldest rider in this year's race - also takes the overall lead.

Horner, who turns 42 on 23 October, is also the oldest rider ever to have won a stage in any of cycling's three Grand Tours - the Giro d'Italia, the Tour de France, or the Vuelta - and to lead the General Classification in one of them.

Launching his attack from 1 kilometre out, Horner held on to take the stage win by 3 seconds from a select chasing group led home by Movistar's Alejandro Valverde and Katusha's Joaquin Rodriguez.

On a day when crashes and the wind blowing in off the sea combined with a twisting parcours put some riders into difficulty, with a split occuring at one point as Movistar upped the gas, the race was back together as the peloton came through the coastal town of Vilagarcía de Arousa ahead of that final climb.

Orica-GreenEdge and Vacansoleil-DCM were forcing the pace, the peloton becoming strung out behind them as they began the ascent, with the latter team's Juan Antonio Flecha managing to break clear.

Then, Italian champion Ivan Santaromita of BMC Racing made his move with 2.5 kilometres left, and had a lead of around 10 seconds as he went under the flamme rouge and into the final kilometre.

With the big names watching each other closely, the oldest man in the race, RadioShack-Nissan's Horner, seized his opportunity and attacked as he too went under the flamme rouge.

The bunch led by Valverde was closing him down quickly, but Horner held on to win by 3 seconds.