Today's stage in the Spanish sunshine was from Marbella to Malaga and was one that saw some of the Team Sky riders suffering from a form of food poisoning.
Ben Swift and John Augustine were too ill to start the 157.3km stage and did not sign in, whilst Brit Mark Cavendish, who had said that he was struggling with the heat yesterday, went nearly two minutes down on the climb before fighting to get back into the peleton.
There had been a number of attacks but the main one to get away was a seven man break which involved Biel Kadri (AG2R), Javier Ramirez (Andalucia-Caja Sur), Egoi Martinez (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Mikael Cherel (FDJ), Jelle Vanendert (Omega Pharma-Lotto), Niki Terpstra (Milram) and Serafin Martinez (Xacobeo Galicia).
With 90km to go, their lead was up to nine minutes but with Katusha leading the way, it was reduced to a minute and fifty seconds with just over 40km to go.
The breakaway bunch made it up the first category Puerto del Leon climb and as they approached Malaga, Serafin Martinez was 43 seconds of the chasing back and 1.17 ahead of the peleton.
Through the city, known by many Brits, and with a kilometre to go, Martinez was caught. It was an uphill finish and Omega Pharma Lotto's Phillippe Gilbert went for broke. and finished in a time of 4hr 6 minutes.
Second was Katusha's Joaquin Rodriguez, third was Euskatel's Igor Anton and Liquigas' Vincenzo Nibali in fourth.
The win was enough for Gilbert to take over the red jersey from Mark Cavendish.
Tomorrw, the stage is 183km long and is from Málaga to Valdepeñas de Jaén.