Even though he slipped back six seconds to Chris Horner (RadioShack-Leopard) and lost the red leader’s jersey to Horner by three seconds on Friday at the Vuelta a España, Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) is ready to do battle as the peloton negotiates the daunting Angliru climb on Saturday’s penultimate stage.

Nibali finished the 181km stage from San Vincente de la Barquera to Alto Naranco above the Spanish city of Oviedo 20 seconds behind winner Joaquím Rodriguez (Katusha), but more importantly the Italian champion ceded six valuable seconds to American rider Chris Horner, and with them went the red jersey.

Nibali refused to throw in the towel after the stage, though. Making short but determined comments to Gazzetta dello Sport after Friday’s summit finish, Nibali vowed to fight on despite admitting that he was hurting all over.

"I'm broken, I hurt all over," Nibali said. “A surrender? Let's see. After a massage and dinner I will be back! My condition is good and my legs are fine. I intend to Die Hard until the end!"

"Day in and day out for the last three weeks Vincenzo has shown he is consistently the strongest in the race, but now at the end there is one rider who is a stronger individual. The race isn't over today because we lost the red jersey, there's still one stage left, and if you look back to the beginning of the Vuelta, we all said that the entire bike race would come down to the final day on Angliru," said Astana Pro Team Director Sportif Giuseppe Martinelli on the team website.

"I'm happy with today's results, I'm happy with Vincenzo's performance today and for the last 19 days of racing. Here we are on the day before Angliru and we are three seconds behind the race leader. The Vuelta will be decided tomorrow, just like we said it would," Martinelli said.