Team HTC-Highroad's Michael Albasini survived a long breakaway in the 2011 Vuelta a Espana earlier today in the stage to Ponferrada, winning the long sprint from his twenty breakaway companions. The win comes after multiple attempts by Albasini to win a stage over the last week.

"We've been trying really hard to get stage wins here," Albasini told Roadcycling.com and Roadcycling.mobi after the stage and added "and we'll be hunting for wins all the way to the end of the season."

"It was a difficult day," Albasini continued and concluded "There was one first category climb that was very tough, but I got over that okay and then I felt very confident for the sprint. I made sure that I controlled all the different attacks because I knew I was one of the fastest guys there."

"So far this Vuelta he was in a break two times, but he got nothing," Team HTC-HighRoad Sport Director Jan Schaffrath commented and added "Today he went again and it worked."

According to HTC-HighRoad sports director colleague Jens Zemke "We thought there was only one word for today: Survive. But we knew there would be a breakaway and perhaps it would go to the finish and Alba said, 'maybe I go again.'"

"The team is great here," said Zemke. "The spirit is there."

"I thought he might be tired from the other attempts and also the great work he did on the front yesterday for John [Degenkolb]," added Schaffrath, "but the break went early and he was so focused. He looked good the whole day over the two first category climbs and we knew when he got over the second one that he was in with a chance. He's a good sprinter so it was perfect for him out of a small break."

In the overall Vuelta a Espana rankings Team Sky's Bradley Wiggins leads Vincenzo Nibali of Team Liquigas-Cannondale by a mere 4 seconds while Sky teammate Christopher Froome is 7 seconds back. Jakob Fuglsang of Team Leopard-Trek is in 5th position and GC hopeful Janez Brajkovic of Team RadioShack is 11th, 2 minutes behind Wiggins.

Watch Vuelta a Espana video highlights from all stages of the Vuelta in our video section.