Omega Pharma Quick Step's Zdenek Stybar won the seventh stage of the Vuelta a España, just beat World Champion Philippe Gilbert by an inch.
Marco Pinotti (BMC), Christian Knees (Sky) and Francisco Javier Aramendia (Caja Rural) escaped 11km into a 205.9km stage from Almendralejo to Mairena de Aljafare.
Another stage of no ranked climbs saw two intermediate sprints and the first after after 117kms was won by Christian Knees.
With the trio still a minute clear, Aramendia took the second sprint after 174km.
There were massive crowds in Seville as the trio came through with a 25 second lead. Past the bull ring and out of town, the peloton engulfed Knees and Aramendia, leaving only Pinotti clear with a lead of fifty metres with 15.7kms to go.
The BMC rider was quickly caught and Radio Shack took to the front before Garmin-Sharp's Dan Martin went down with 11.2kms remaining after apparently hitting something in the road.
Martin got back on his bike, whilst up the road, Argos Shimano were now leading the charge for the finish line.
Philippe Gilbert and Zdenek Stybar then attacked going into the final five kilometres. Three kilometres later and the duo were still seventeeen seconds clear.
The peloton were closing in, so Gilbert and Stybar sprinted for the line. It was a photo finish which was award to Zdenek Stybar in a time of 4.51.27 ahead of Gilbert and Wagner.
Speaking to La Vuelta,com after the stage, Stybar said It was just full gas. I was in a very good situation because we were going for a sprint for Gianni Meersman.
"But with 100km to go, I called my team car and told the directeur sportif that shall there be a breakaway, I wanted to give it a try, which would make it comfortable for the team too. However, before doing anything, I wanted to see the course first as we passed once on the finishing line. As we did it, I was sure there would be a breakaway. I was ready to move.
"I thought more guys would escape but there was only Philippe Gilbert and myself. Fabian Cancellara tried as well but didn’t bridge the gap. In the last kilometer, I tried to stay cool. I felt the peloton not far behind us. I knew it was all or nothing. To beat the world champion was very difficult but I perfectly launched my sprint. It doesn’t matter if I won by one centimetre or one millimetre, I’ve won!"
Astana's Vincenzo Nibali keeps his leader's jersey ahead of Chris Horner by three seconds and eight seconds ahead of Nicholas Roche.