Alejandro Valverde lost his second place in today's stage of the Vuelta a Espana when he was unable to follow Chris Froome in the finale of stage 18. However, the Spaniard insists that his British rival had only been smarter, not stronger.

The overall fight in the 2014 Vuelta a España stays and will likely remain alive for the last mountain stage in the race (Ancares, Saturday) after the penultimate hilltop finish - Castrove (Cat-2), climbed twice at the end of a really fast 157km - left really small gaps between the four top riders in the GC. Alejandro Valverde and the Movistar Team went for the stage win all the way right from the start, with Erviti, Malori, Herrada, Moreno and Castroviejo working hard to control all breaks - the latter  even made part of a short move - in an entire opening hour and a half at speeds over 50 kph.

The three-man escape that was given green light would be eventually controlled and neutralized right after the first passage through the line; then, Amador, Castroviejo and Gorka Izagirre protected Valverde and led him onto the final ascent. Several moves by all GC contenders anticipated a decisive, double acceleration by Aru (AST) and Froome with just over 2km remaining, which did not find effective response from Rodríguez, Contador and Valverde. The Murcia-born rider crossed the line in 3rd place to step a place down in the overall, after the Briton put 16" on him including the bonuses.

The Blues will keep fighting to bounce back on Friday, in a third-to-last stage - attention needed to the Monte Faro (Cat-2) before the finish in Cangas (181km) - that will play as launch pad for the double showdown on both the mountains and the TT bike this weekend.

"When Froome attacked, there wasn't much cooperation behind. We were watching each other mostly.  I pulled in the group from the beginning to not let the two go, but I always had to keep an eye on my side so Purito didn't attack, which was the thing he did all the time," Valverde said. "Though we tried and we were close in the final section, we couldn't catch them. Purito rode behind Froome but didn’t catch him at the end. I pushed very hard at the end, so did Purito but I was always looking back to make sure that he’d stay behind me.

"Still, we must keep fighting because we're still in the mix. I don't really think Froome is doing better than us; he's physically level with us , but he was simply smarter today and took advantage of the fact that we were controlling each other. He’s strong but I don’t think he’ll dethrone Alberto from the lead in this Vuelta.

"We already imagined Froome was going to contest the intermediate sprint and we sent team-mates ahead, but despite that, he managed to take second. We will have to keep full focus tomorrow and give everything we've left on Saturday before the final TT."