For the second day in a row Lotto Belisol rider Adam Hansen joined an escape. The 18th stage was 186,5 kilometers long and took the peloton from Burgos to Peña Cabarga.

While Hansen only had one companion yesterday the front group today consisted of 15 riders. Egoi Martinez, Vasil Kiryienka, Amets Txurruka and Angel Vicioso were some of his fellow escapees. On the route were five climbs. On the first three, each time of third category, the front group stayed together, but on the Alto del Caracol (2nd cat.) it fell apart.

Hansen could return from the background. Together with Clarke and Kiryienka he rode at the head of the race until Kiryienka began a solo. The final climb to Peña Cabarga was 5,9 kilometers long with an average gradient of 9,2%. After Hansen had fallen back again, he then started to pick up riders and became third in this mountain stage 1 minute and 18 seconds behind winner Kiryienka.

“It’s a mixture of emotions. Of course I’m very happy with this third place in a mountain stage, only the team and I wanted more. I made some tactical mistakes and yesterday’s break cost me a lot of energy. But with a third place in hand I won’t complain. It wasn’t really the plan to attack again today, but I’m really eager to win a stage here. I was riding in the front when a group took off of which I thought it would make it to the finish and I decided I had to be in it,” Hansen said.

“When Kiryienka attacked on the penultimate climb Simon Clarke went with him and the others just looked to each other. I made the jump, but I spent too much energy. Kiryienka kept the pace really high and immediately we were dropped. When we had to let others pass us by Clarke and I stuck together and eventually we could come back to the chase on Kiryienka a few kilometers before the final climb. I could move up and am happy with my climbing today.”

“Yesterday was very hard and I spent a lot of energy. We were only two (Hansen and Aramendia, LTB), I had really hoped more riders would have joined us. I knew that was a difficult situation, but you never know. This year it’s been a very difficult Vuelta anyway. We had two days of very cold weather. The shift between the hot weather and the cold weather was hard. But it’s coming to an end, only three stages left. I’ll definitely be at the front at the start tomorrow. Saturday’s stage is extreme and for the real climbers. I’m feeling good about the fact that I’m so close to completing my 7th Grand Tour in a row. It doesn’t matter if you finish one or seven Grand Tours it’s always nice, but it’ll be very special to finish this one.”