The Vuelta a España has entered its final days, and after two days with no road race the peloton was antsy when the 204-kilometer stage 18 began Thursday.  Once again it took over an hour of fast and furious racing before an escape formed, and when 25 men surged clear after 50 kilometers were pedaled, Haimar Zubeldia found himself for the second time in a breakaway move.

“I waited for the right moment to get in the breakaway today,” said Zubeldia. “The guys already were trying in the flat part, and when the harder part came I went to the front and I think I tried 10 times and the last one finally worked. It’s not easy to find the right moment to jump because there are a lot of guys attacking left and right, but it helped to have good legs.”

Once the breakaway established, the 25 men worked well together until the final 10-kilometer climb when the gap had fallen to under two minutes and the attacking began.

The long climb pared the leading 25 to its strongest: Zubeldia and Nicolas Roche (Team Sky) emerged over the top with a 55-second lead ahead of the GC favorites group and only a long descent remaining to the finish.

“We never had more than 6 minutes but when we arrived to the last climb I knew it was the moment to go and we had to go full gas to the end,” explained Zubeldia. “It was the hardest part of the race because when there are 25 it’s not easy to control everybody. But I felt good and had good legs and just went full gas.”

Zubeldia and Roche expertly navigated the descent, gaining a few precious seconds in the first part to pad their lead and know that with two kilometers to go – and still 45 seconds in hand – they would battle out the stage win.

“Ninety-nine times Roche would beat me out of 100. I was waiting for him to the pull the sprint and hopefully come out of the wheel, but I was not able to pass him. I am not famous for sprinting,” continued Zubeldia. “I am a little disappointed, of course.  I did almost everything perfectly today to win, but in the last sprint I can’t pass Roche, he’s just faster than me.  I tried to make him nervous, and he started early, and I like a sprint like this where it never slowed down much, but…yeah…I have always thought that maybe I could win a sprint in the finale one time, but it was impossible.  He’s just faster than me.”

Forcing Roche to take the lead in the final kilometer, Zubeldia pulled everything out of his bag of tricks to gain an advantage over the Irishman to no avail.  Roche won the two-up battle, but Zubeldia still earned a trip to the podium, voted by race judges for “la deportividad” (sportsmanship).

Zubeldia added: “Long time ago I had a similar situation and I almost won the stage, but in the last moment I was passed in the sprint. In the sprint it’s almost impossible for me, if it was a climb maybe I would have more chance.”

Three stages remain and Trek Factory Racing showed today that they will not slow down, their motivation and morale still high, and they will race hard in each of the last days in pursuit of one more victory to add to the three they already have.

“I came here to try and win a stage, and in the second part of the Vuelta I have felt good, and now we have three more days and we will try everything again,"Zubeldia said.

“It’s the second time for me in the breakaway, it’s too bad that we didn’t get such a long leash today and we had to ride hard all day, but it’s fun to be in a breakaway.

“Overall, I am happy with the second place. I think I raced very well tactically, but when the other one is faster than you it’s almost impossible.  But maybe the third time will be the charm; I will race hard everyday until the end.

“Tactically I did everything well. I caught a 25-man breakaway. I timed my move well in the last climb. I had the legs and I caught Roche and then we rode very well. I tried to play with his nerves and beat him in the sprint but he was faster than me. He did a good sprint. I'm not fast but such sprints can always go wrong. Anyway, he's faster than me. At the beginning of the Vuelta I said I came here to try and win stages. I felt good in the second part so I did my best to win the stage."

Despite numerous attacks by Fabio Aru (Astana) to dislodge race leader Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin), the overall classification remained unchanged and Dumoulin still holds his narrow three-second advantage.