A Fast Finish To Stage 18 Of The 2018 Vuelta
Stage Results and Tomorrow’s Stage Preview
Image courtesy of pexels.com
We knew today was going to be a stage for the sprinters and it didn't dissapoint. Stage 18 of the 2018 Vuelta a Espana was a 186km ride of almost no hills from Ejea de los Caballeros to Lleida, with Belgium sprinter Jelle Wallays of Lotto Soudal taking the win with Sven Erik Bystrom UAE Team Emirates close behind.
Link to stage eighteen route map
A group of three riders made the first break of the day only 3km into the stage and by the 40km mark had extended their lead to over 2 minutes. The group consisted of Wallays, Bol and Bystrom and was keen to take the break all the way through to the finish of this stage. Although the peloton rode to keep them close, the group still had a 1 minuted 40 second break with only 20km to go. With 7km left in the stage, they were still clear of the main group but lost Bol as he faded in the final moments.
With 2km to go Wallays and Bystrom only had 20 seconds on the peloton and it looked like they would catch the group with Peter Sagan leading the charge, but just missed to leave Wallays and Bystrom the victory to the day and Sagan in third.
Overall classification after stage Eighteen
Both Yates and Valverde finished safe in the main peloton with Yates keeping his 25 second lead moving into the final two mountain stages of the tour. He will hold onto the leaders jersey at least for anouther day.
- Simon Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott at 73 hours 2 minutes 37 seconds
- Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team at 25 seconds
- Enric Mas (Spa) Quick-Step Floors at 1 minute 22 seconds
Tomorrow - Stage 19 From Lleida to Col de la Rabassa
Stage 19 of the 2018 Vuelta takes a complete turn around from the previous downhill, sprinters stage. Stage 19 will be a 155km uphill slog from Lleida to Col de la Rabassa which sits at 2,000m.
The route for the stage will be a rolling uphill climb for most of the stage until the final 18km where riders will start to climb up the Col de la Rabassa. The climb is a a 17km hill where the second half of the climb will flatten out a little but will still average 6.3% incline for race to the top of the Col de la Rabassa. With time bonuses of 10, 6 and 4 seconds for the first three riders it will be an interesting stage to watch to see if anyone mounts an attach on the Red Jersey hold Yates.
I'll be covering each stage of the Vuelta A Espana, giving a breakdown of each days stage, my previous post for @cyclefeed were the results of stage seventeen of this years Vuelta, so feel free to have a look:
https://steemit.com/cycling/@run.vince.run/the-race-is-hotting-up-for-the-final-week-of-the-2018-vuelta-stage-17
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Please Note all maps are made by myself using Strava
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