Four days after taking the lead in the opening stage of the Vuelta a España, Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) is back in the red.

The Colombian climber failed to win the summit finish at the Alto de Jabalambre lookout, but revealed himself to be the strongest of the GC climbers, at least for now.

Lopez powered up the last 4km after an equally ferocious attack by Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), who was crowned king with an equally ferocious move.

"Today was important because the time trial is coming up," Lopez told reporters after the race. I knew the start of the climb wouldn't be too difficult, so I decided to wait until the top group was left behind."

"I only got a few seconds to see how they would react, but it's better than nothing.

There is also the not-so-big issue of recapturing the red jersey. Lopez now leads the overall standings by 14 seconds over Roglic, while Nairo Quintana (Movistar) has dropped from second to third, nearly a minute behind Lopez.

Astana's leader downplayed the importance of losing time in the second stage, when Quintana and Roglic, Rigoberto Urán (Team EF), Nicolas Roche (Sunweb), and Fabio Al (UAE Team Emirates) made a late breakaway.

"It was a small mistake, but there is still a long way to go in this Vuelta and it could have been an advantage in the long run," he argued, suggesting that Astana could hand over responsibility for controlling the race for a few days to Sunweb.

Lopez was tight-lipped about whether he would go on the attack again as soon as possible, but Friday's Mas de la Costa climb (4.1 km, 12.3% average) looks like a light climber for him. Then, of course, there is stage 9 through Andorra to Cortal Duncan.

"I've spent every day I could and today went well, so I want to have a great day tomorrow," he insisted. I thought about going for the stage win, but it was complicated because no one was riding hard to pull away from the back and a lot of guys were still up front on GC."

"I didn't expect to make a breakaway today, but the strategy could change again from here. Let's see what we can do."