Spain's Aitor Garmendia won the individual mountain time trial third stage of the Tour of Catalunya.

But runner-up Robert Heras did enough to take the overall race lead from his US Postal team-mate George Hincapie.

Team Coast rider Garmendia produced a fine display of explosive climbing to be fastest over Wednesday's short but demanding 10.8km course.

He beat the early mark set by Lithuania's Raimondas Rumsas to take the stage victory in a time of 22 minutes 16 seconds.

Heras, who is leading the US Postal team in Lance Armstrong's absence, came within six seconds of the winning time, while Rumas finished third.

Heras' performance was enough to see him take the overall lead with a 15-second advantage over Garmendia.

Rumsas lies in third, 22 seconds further back.

Heras was on schedule to take the stage victory at the halfway mark.

But Garmendia had maintained a strong rhythm over the tough final three kilometres and Heras did not have enough in reserve to snatch the win.

The US Postal rider now looks on course for his first race victory since the 2000 Tour of Spain.

And his impressive form augurs well for this year's Tour de France, where he will once again be given the job of escorting team leader Lance Armstrong through the mountain stages.

There was also frantic activity behind the scenes on Wednesday to save Thursday's stage from possible industrial action by some cyclists.

Race organisers believe they have managed to salvage the stage, which was in jeopardy after Spanish riders threatened to join a national strike called by the country's trade unions.

Spanish television have already said they will not broadcast the stage, which features a mountain-top finish in Andorra and three first category climbs, because of the industrial action.

The race finishes on Sunday with a 115.9km run from Montacado I Reixac to Barcelona.

Tour of Catalunya

Third stage leading results:
(10.8km individual time trial, Sant Climent de Taull to Boi Taull)

1. Aitor Garmendia (Spa) Team Coast 22 minutes 16 seconds
2. Roberto Heras (Spa) US Postal 6 seconds behind
3. Raimondas Rumsas (Lit) Lampre-Daikin 18secs
4. Benjamin Noval (Spa) Relax-Fuenlabrada 24secs
5. Leonardo Piepoli (Ita) iBanesto.com 36secs
6. Jose Luis Rebollo (Spa) Relax-Fuenlabrada 40secs
7. Fernando Escartin (Spa) Team Coast 47secs
8. Vladimir Karpets (Rus) Itera 52secs
9. Mikel Zarrabeitia (Spa) ONCE 56secs
10. Inigi Cuesta (Spa) Cofidis same time

Overall standings:

1. Roberto Heras (Spa) US Postal 15 hours 32 minutes 3 seconds
2. Aitor Garmendia (Spa) Team Coast 15 seconds behind
3. Raimondas Rumsas (Lit) Lampre-Daikin 37secs
4. Mikel Zarrabeitia (Spa) ONCE 53secs
5. Fernando Escartin (Spa) Team Coast 1:02
6. Leonardo Piepoli (Ita) iBanesto.com 1:04
7. Luis Perez (Spa) Team Coast 1:14
8. David Plaza (Spa) Team Coast 1:26
9. Benjamin Noval (Spa) Relax-Fuenlabrada 1:27
10. Vladimir Karpets (Rus) Itera 1:28