Vuelta a España: Aru wins stage 18

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Fabio Aru (Astana) outsprinted Chris Froome (Team Sky) to win stage 18 of the Vuelta a España, as the overall contenders again fought it out on the day's final climb to Monte Castrove en Meis.

Aru and then Froome jumped away near the end of the stage, with the Briton doing most of the work as he tried to gain time. Aru surged past him in sight of the line to win his second stage at the Vuelta and the third professional race of his career.

Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) led his Spanish compatriots Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) and Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) over the finish line 13 seconds later after they played mind games and attacked each other instead of chasing Froome and Aru.

The stage had been marked by a long breakaway but it had been clear from the start that the move would not stay away. The end of the stage featured two climbs of the short but steep Alto Monte Castrova, with the first climb whittling down the field. The second climb sparked the day’s decisive action.

Contador retained his overall lead, but Froome is now second, at 1:19, with Valverde falling to third, 1:32 minutes behind. Rodriguez and Aru kept their fourth and fifth positions, respectively.

How it happened

There were many attacks and early breakaway attempts in the early part of the stage, which ran over 157km from A Estrada to Monte Castrova in the Galician region. But it wasn’t until 47km had sped by that the day’s group formed. Johan Le Bon (FDJ.fr) had tried several times before he successfully got away with Luis Leon Sanchez (Caja Rural) and Hubert Dupont (Ag2r-La Mondiale).

Movistar kept an eye on things and never let the gap reach the four minute mark, trying to keep it around two minutes. Things rolled along until there were about 40km of racing remaining. With two climbs – or rather, two climbs of one mountain – still to come, the field was anxious to catch the leaders.

Tinkoff-Saxo and Team Sky led the field up the climb the first time, and Le Bon was caught. Sanchez took the mountain points, and then waited for the field. Dupont and Alberto Losado (Astana), who had jumped on the climb,took over the lead but with 20km to go, they had only a handful of seconds on the field and were soon caught.

Team Sky took over, with Tinkoff-Saxo happy to let the British team do the work. It was a greatly reduced group, and Froome attacked before the last intermediate sprint. There was some confusion as to where the line actually was and he ended up only second, collecting up two bonus seconds.

With 7.5km remaining, Christophe Le Mevel (Cofidis) took off and ground his way up the early part of the climb to the finish but he was soon caught. A group around Contador pulled away and Valverde and Froome had to hurry to catch up. Contador then went again and this time all his top rivals went with him.

Katusha moved to the front to set a high pace but was unable to make Contador or the overall contenders suffer. Jerome Coppel (Cofidis) was the next to attack and the Frenchman easily got a gap but could not gain more than ten seconds.

Aru goes on the attack

Oliver Zaugg was pulling the field along for Tinkoff-Saxo and with 3.8km to go, Aru jumped away, exploding the race. He quickly caught and passed Coppel. However Cofidis didn't give up and Daniele Navarro was the next to go. Unfortunately for him, only seconds later, with just under three kilometres to go, Rodriguez attacked, taking Contador, Valverde and Froome with him.

The Briton then attacked with 2.5km to go, quickly making his way up to Aru to set an high pace that allowed him to carve out precious seconds and move Valverde out of second place. The three Spaniards gave chase, but Froome had already gained 15 seconds, with Aru sitting on his wheel for much of the time.

Rodriguez tried to jump away from Contador and Valverde but they went after him. With the final kilometre looming, the trio appeared to finally work with together rather than against one another, but the damage was done, Froome had gained enough time to mov past Valverde and reduce his gap on Contador.

Froome also wanted to win the stage and take the time 10-second time bonus but Aru went around him with a strong, aggressive kick to win. The three Spaniards came in 13 seconds later. Contador was still race leader but Froome and Aru had outfoxed them again.

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