Colombian Esteban Chaves has finished fifth on the 18th stage of the Vuelta a Espana to retain his overall position moving into the final three stages.

On a day that the big players were keen to attack race leader Tom Dumoulin (Giant – Alpecin), the two-time stage winner maintained positioning with the elite group of contenders, even putting in a number of attacks himself on the final climb.

In the end, the day was contested by the surviving breakaway, Chaves sprinting to second from the bunch to take fifth on the stage and remain seventh overall.

“The plan was to try and maintain the general classification after yesterday’s time trial,” sport director Neil Stephens said. “We got onto the final climb and they started to attack a little so Esteban thought he would give it a dig too.

“Everyone was suffering right on the limit, he gave it a test to try his legs out and in fact coming into a little pinch with three kilometres to go he was up there as a couple of others got lost. Even in the final he had enough to run second in the bunch sprint.

"All around it was a really hard day for the boys working today, but they did everything they had to for Esteban and we are looking forward to fighting on for the rest of the Tour.”