The eighteenth stage in this Vuelta was a true spectacle. It took a while for the break to form. The speed was surely very high in the peloton. Eventually 25 riders managed to get away, among them Bart De Clercq, Tosh Van der Sande and Adam Hansen.

The final ascent, with summit at thirteen kilometers from the finish, was an important moment. Roche attacked in the front group and got company of Zubeldia. There were a lot of attacks in the GC group but no one really got away.

Bart De Clercq and Adam Hansen were in a chasing group but they were caught by the GC group on the descent of the final climb. Roche and Zubeldia remained ahead and sprinted for the victory. Roche had the best legs and won the stage.

Adam Hansen finished eighth. Dumoulin remains leader with three seconds advantage on Aru.

Lotto Soudal sports director Frederik Willems gives his opinion about today’s stage.

“It was the aim to join the breaks in the upcoming days in order to obtain a stage win. The team was very active today and eventually three of our riders were in the break of the day, which is a pleasant fact of course. It was very difficult to set up an escape because the speed was very high in the first 50 kilometers, everyone knows these are the final days and there aren’t many opportunities left. There are a lot of teams that still want to try something.

"Actually it’s quite a pity that the break with Bart, Tosh and Adam didn’t get more advantage. If that was the case, Bart could make a jump in the GC. But it makes sense that teams like MTN-Qhubeka made sure that the gap wasn’t too big, everyone wants to secure their own spot in the GC of course. We’re going to try to race like today in the next stages and to ride aggressively. We’ll see what happens.”