Zdenek Stybar beat world champion Philippe Gilbert in a photo finish to win Friday's seventh stage of the Vuelta a Espana with Nicolas Roche remaining in third position overall.
The pair made a late bid for victory on the 206-kilometre route from Almendralejo to Mairena del Aljarafe, attacking with 10km to go.
And Czech rider Stybar (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) was able to hold off the challenge of Gilbert (BMC Racing) by a tyre's width. A charging peloton was led in one second behind by Robert Wagner (Belkin), who was third, while Briton Andy Fenn, a team-mate of Stybar's, was sixth.
Italy's Vincenzo Nibali (Astana), who won May's Giro d'Italia, retained the overall leader's red jersey by three seconds from American Chris Horner(RadioShack) with Ireland's Nicolas Roche (Saxo-Tinkoff) third after his 27th place finish.
Roche also continues to lead the Mountains Classification.
Roche's cousin Dan Martin finished 116th today after suffering a nasty crash late in the stage and slips to 43rd overall.
Saturday's eighth stage is the 167km route from Jerez de la Frontera to a summit finish at Estepona Alto Penas Blancas.
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