Miguel Angel Lopez has taken victory for Movistar on stage 18 of La Vuelta as race leader Primoz Roglic underlined his superiority on the summit finish to Altu d’El Gamoniteiru.
Lopez (Movistar) attacked on the upper
slopes of the mountain and pulled clear; overhauling lone leader David de la
Cruz (UAE Team Emirates) and sprinting past him to ride to the misty summit alone
on pitches of 17 per cent.
Behind the Colombian, Roglic (Jumbo
Visma), Enric Mas (Movistar) and Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) pulled clear of
the rest of the select group.
Bernal, appearing to get stronger as the race goes on, attacked several times on the final climb and his accelerations did most of the damage in splitting the select group.
And while Roglic and Mas were able to
match Bernal, the Colombian looked in very good form and his two rivals had to
dig deep to stay with him. The Ineos Grenadiers leader still had plenty in the
tank after his 60km attacking ride off the front yesterday with Roglic.
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Today Roglic also made a move on the
final climb, which was covered by Mas and Bernal. And while he was unable to
ride away, in the manner he did from Bernal yesterday, he gained some seconds
on them at the finish.
Just 14 seconds after Lopez crossed the
line – barely visible, the mist was so extreme – Roglic sprinted through for 2nd
place and distanced Mas and Bernal a little in that final sprint to the line.
Mas took 3rd on the stage, some 20 seconds down on his victorious team mate, and Bernal was 4th at 22 seconds. Of those who could not hold the Roglic-Mas-Bernal pursuit of Lopez, Jack Haig (Bahrain Victorious) proved strongest.
The Australian, whose team rode for long
sections of the stage on the front setting the pace, finished in 5th place. He
led in a four-man group at 58 seconds; De La Cruz in 6th, Gino Mäder (Bahrain-Victorious)
in 7th and Louis Meintjes (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux)
in 8th.
The stage result means the top four on
general classification remains the same, though the gaps have changed a little.
Roglic now leads by 2:30 from Mas, with Lopez 3rd at 2:53, Haig in 4th at 4:36
and Bernal now up into the top five, at 4:43.
Today Michael Storer (Team DSM) made a
brave bid for another stage win, attacking the early breakaway. He was leading
the race solo by over two minutes from the race leader’s group by the time he
started the final climb of the 14.8km Altu d’El Gamoniteiru.
Storer was caught and passed by De La Cruz before Lopez came through solo pursued by the race leader’s group, which split in the final 5km. However, Storer took the climbers' jersey from his Team DSM team mate Romain Bardet, who was dropped on he final climb.
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