Vuelta a España: Stefan Küng wins stage 18 time trial while Enric Mas maintains lead over inspired ride by Primož Roglič

Enric Mas (Movistar) issued a brilliant defense of his Vuelta a España lead amid the expected onslaught from Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) in the stage 18 time trial, which was won by Stefan Küng (Tudor Pro Cycling).

Küng blitzed the flat 32.1km course in a time of 35:22, beating the surprise package from the early starters, Callum Thornley (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), by a margin of three seconds.

João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) bagged the final spot on the day’s podium, but the general classification contenders at the very bottom of the start order were where the true drama lay just three days from the end of this Vuelta.

Mas, starting the day with a general classification lead of 2:06 on Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM) and 2:10 on Roglič, defended his red jersey in impressive fashion. He finished it 1:37 ahead of Roglič, with Gall slipping to third at 3:01.

Roglič failed to produce a display of the vintage of his best time trialling days, which saw him win the Olympic Games and lay the foundations for multiple Grand Tour wins, but he still placed fourth on the day, 18 seconds down on Küng and ahead of an in-form Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike).

Mas, meanwhile, performed better than expected. He said he’d sign for a concession of 90 seconds ahead of the stage, which was widely flagged as a ballpark for the sort of damage Roglič might inflict. In the end, it was just 33 seconds, as Mas stormed through the second half of the course to place 12th on the day.

King Küng

The all-important stage 18 time trial took place between two of the three towns that make up the ‘Sherry Triangle’ in south east Spain, with 32.1km linking El Puerto de Santa Maria and Jerez de la Frontera in south east Spain. The route, which featured only a couple of gentle uphill drags, was blasted inland by a strong tailwind, before turning back into a headwind in the final few kilometers.

The Mas vs Roglič battle dominated the build-up, and has dominated this report so far, but this was a brilliant win from Küng, a world-class time trial operator for many years now, whose career has always been marked by near misses in the biggest events.

The final stage of the 2024 Vuelta was Küng's first Grand Tour stage victory and he now has another one to go with it after a bold performance in which he barreled down the gentle descents and committed to each bend in the road. It nearly saw him come unstuck on a couple of occasions but he held it upright.

As he did so, Thornley was watching nervously, the young Scottish rider having occupied the hotseat for much of the day. The 23-year-old is riding his first season in the WorldTour and despite placing third, behind Küng, in the recent Tour de Pologne time trial, this was very much a breakthrough ride.

The margin between Küng and Thornley was just two seconds in the end, with Almeida looking more like his old self with a third-place finish nine seconds down.

There was disappointment for Ethan Hayter (Soudal-QuickStep), who came so close in the opening prologue but could only manage ninth on the day, while Wout van Aert went for it but perhaps dampened the hype comparing him to his form of a few years ago by fading to finish fifth.

"In the end, you have to win. It doesn’t matter by how big of a margin. Yes, OK, [it’s my] 24th victory, probably a few that I lost also by only two seconds or even less, so in the end, I’m just super happy to take the win here," said Küng.

"I think over the span of the 32 kilometres, really, you had to be dialed in from the start. When it’s such a fast time trial, you cannot have any costly mistakes, and when it’s so fast, it’s also hard to make a difference. I had a bit of a difficult moment after the second climb, but then I also like misjudged a few corners there, but then I was able to get back into the rhythm, and so for me, that’s where I made the difference."

The GC battle

All eyes were on the final few starters, the ones who will contest the overall title at this Vuelta a España in the final few days, and especially on Roglič, billed as the danger-man of this Vuelta.

The Slovenian set off strongly, and appeared to be doing considerable damage to both Gall and Mas as he went 22 seconds quicker than both of them at the first intermediate checkpoint after 11km. Extrapolating that time gap would have given him an advantage of just over a minute by the finish.

In the end, it was worse for Gall and much better for Mas, indicating how the race leader rallied and came fighting back in the final two thirds of the course. By the second checkpoint, after 22km, Mas was only 27 seconds down, and he only conceded a further six to Roglič in the final third of the course.

Gall, meanwhile, struggled badly in the discipline he dislikes so much, losing 1:28 to Roglič, who leapfrogs him into second place. Gall is now more than three minutes off the overall lead and even 1:24 behind Roglič.

Elsewhere, fifth-placed Oscar Onley (Netcompany Ineos) produced a middling ride to place 17th on the day but still put time into the riders above and below him. He clawed 34 seconds back on fourth-placed Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost), whom he now trails by 43 seconds, and put 27 seconds into white jersey rival Jakob Omrzel (Bahrain Victorious), whom he leads by 57 seconds.

Clément Berthet (Decathlon CMA CGM) enjoyed a strong ride to move up to places into seventh, at the expense of Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), who produced an uncharacteristically poor TT in 28th place, and Cristian Rodriguez, whose XDS-Astana teammate Harold Tejada continues to round out the top 10.

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