Vuelta a Espana: Roche wins stage 18 in Riaza

Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) survived an onslaught of attacks from his main rival Fabio Aru (Astana) to keep his slender three second lead over the Italian at the end of stage 18 of the Vuelta a Espana.

Aru attacked Dumoulin no fewer that six times on the final climb of the Puerto de la Quesera, but the Giant-Alpecin rider was a match on each occasion and even repaid the Italian with a few accelerations of his own on the descent before the finishline.

Meanwhile, Nicolas Roche (Sky) came away with the stage win, outsprinting breakaway companion Haimar Zubeldia (Trek Factory Racing) on the line in Riaza.

"Coming into the sprint I wanted to lead it out, because Haimar is a rider with a lot of experience and I've lost a few sprints against him in the past, a few times in San Sebastian," Roche said in the finishing straight. "I didn't want to have a slow sprint, I wanted a pretty high speed one, so I thought I'd try and manage my own pace. When I smiled I was just happy it worked. For once I didn't mess up. I've had a few seconds and thirds - it was a lack of one small thing in the finish - today it finally worked out."

For Dumoulin though, he moves a step closer to the overall victory in this year’s race. He has three more days to get through with Aru still just three seconds down. However, today’s medium mountain stage possibly offered the Italian his best chance of distancing the current race leader. 

Aru had his team set a relentless pace on the foothills before the final ascent but despite attacking early and consistently throughout the Puerto de la Quesera, he found Dumoulin to be match of him each time. The shallow incline certainly favoured Dumoulin, but he was first onto the Italian’s wheel with each attack, with the pair even managing to forge clear of their other rivals, albeit briefly, before a general regrouping before the summit.

The descent proved to be another battleground with a series of accelerations from Dumoulin and the Movistar pairing of Nairo Quintana and Alejandro Valverde. On this occasion it was Aru’s turn to go on the defensive, but just like Dumoulin he held firm with no significant changes to the overall.

Previous race leader Joaquim Rodriguez remains in third at 1:15, while José Gonçalves (Caja Rural-Seguros), who was also in the early break, hung on for third on the stage. Alejandro Valverde lead the GC favourites home, 38 seconds after Roche beat Zubeldia to the line.

The win marked Roche’s first individual success since moving to Team Sky last winter and his second ever Vuelta a Espana stage win.

"I've never hidden that the Vuelta is my favourite race," Roche said. "Since I discovered the Vuelta in 2008 and started to get my first GC result, I really found that this is my terrain. Every year I try to come here. Some years I've done better than others, but I've always been quite competitive on the stages. The short, steep summit finishes suit me a lot better than the long Alpine stages."

For Aru, he has two more potential stages to drop Dumoulin before the final flat stage in Madrid. The race is excellently poised between two very different yet evenly matched riders.

How it unfolded

With so few stages left in this year’s Vuelta and the race in the balance there have been few chances to pause and reflect during this Grand Tour. Although two pre-race favourites in Nibali and Froome are long gone, the racing has been pulsating. The start to stage 18 followed in that vein with a wave of attacks and counter attacks in the opening hour of action.

Eventually a large break consisting of Roche (Sky), Sebastien Minard (Ag2r-La Mondiale), Darwin Atapuma (BMC), José Gonçalves, Ángel Madrazo (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Cyril Lemoine, Dominique Rollin (Cofidis), Pieter Serry (Etixx-Quick Step), Arnaud Courteille (FDJ), Simon Pellaud, Vicente Reynés (IAM Cycling), Kristijan Durasek (Lampre-Merida), Bart De Clercq, Adam Hansen, Tosh Van der Sande (Lotto-Soudal), José Joaquín Rojas (Movistar), Songezo Jim (MTN-Qhubeka), André Cardoso (Cannondale-Garmin), Jerome Cousin, Cyril Gautier (Europcar), Eduard Vorganov (Katusha), Tim Roosen (LottoNL-Jumbo), Daniele Bennati, Pawel Poljanski (Tinkoff-Saxo) and Haimar Zubeldia (Trek) moved clear with no real GC threats present.

Madrazo, as expected, snaffled up the maximum points on the Alto Santibáñez de Ayllón and Alto del Campanario, with the peloton meandering at five minutes in arrears.

Inside the second half of the stage Astana and Aru began a predictable yet needed move to the front. Their efforts began to bring back the early break but more importantly also began to isolate Dumoulin. The Dutchman glued himself to Aru’s back wheel and even when third-placed Rodriguez shimmied off the front with 33km the go the Dutchman barely flinched.

Instead, he let Aru’s team burn a few matches before the pace settled back once more.

Up ahead, and on a small ridge just before the Puerto de la Quesera, Gautier attacked from the break. A constant marker for effort but hardly ever success, the Frenchman acted as reference for those in the break who still had designs of a stage win.

Roche was one such man, and by the summit he had caught and dispatched with the Europcar rider, while Zubeldia linked up with Irishman, too.

Back in the main field and Aru’s first attack came with just over 19km remaining. It was brutal but Dumoulin was quick to respond. The second attack was almost a carbon copy, although the third saw only Dumoulin able to keep pace as the rest of the GC men gathered their composure.

There was a brief cameo from Chaves, who was looking to gain time on Valverde, and even the veteran Spaniard had his own moment on centre stage, with two stinging kicks, each of which, however, were mere precursors for further attempts from Aru.

Attacks five and six from the Italian had his rivals strung out, but Dumoulin, the man who mattered most, was a rock. With no more true mountain stages and an unmovable rock in the race lead, Aru is running out of time and road.

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