Simon Yates wins 2018 Vuelta a Espana

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Elia Viviani (Quick-Step Floors) conquered his third bunch sprint victory of the Vuelta a España in Madrid on Sunday, whilst Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) finished safely in the main pack to capture his first ever Grand Tour.

The Italian National Champion lost his lead-out train with around two kilometres to go but was still able to stay calm and launch a ferocious late acceleration that netted Viviani his 18th win of 2018 and seventh Grand Tour stage of the season.

Viviani's win completed an exceptional Vuelta a España for Quick Step Floors, with a second place overall for Enric Mas as well as four stage wins. As if that was not enough, Viviani's win came on a day when the Belgian outfit had already triumphed twice, taking the stage victory in the Tour of Slovakia with Fabio Jakobsen and the overall with Julian Alaphilippe.

World Champion Peter Sagan powered up in the middle of the road for his fourth second place and sixth top three of the Vuelta, but the Bora-Hansgrohe, for the first time since the 2015 Tour de France, came away from a Grand Tour empty handed.

Although emerging victorious for a third time, Viviani said afterwards that having lost contact with his team-mates, he had relied on individual strategy as well as sprinting speed to take the win.

"The last sprint is always very different in the third week of a Vuelta and that made a difference today," Viviani said. "I lost the lead-out train on the last roundabout, too, with about two kilometres to go."

With Danish National Champion and lead-out man Michael Morkov visibly looking round for Viviani at the head of the pack, the Italian recounted that "I told my guys on the last corner I was not there, so they know to not go full gas. If they [had] stretched out the group, maybe I'm too far back. From some mistakes, we always improve."

"When they saw I was not there they stopped, and I was able to come from the back" - accelerating alone past Marc Serreau (Groupama-FDJ) and up close to the barriers on the left-hand side of the road - "and we made it."

The flat 100 kilometre stage between Alcorcon began with the usual two-wheeled festivities as the riders celebrated the end of an exceptionally fast Vuelta a España.

Igor Anton (Dimension Data) was given the green light by the peloton to move ahead and wave goodbye to the crowds on his last ever Vuelta a España, prior to the real attacks of the day starting to go clear.

The long distance breaks began to go clear, but the one which endured the most was a three-man move by Diego Rubio (Burgos-BH), Joey Rosskopf (BMC Racing Team) and Nikita Stalnov (Astana). Joined by Garikoitz Bravo (Euskadi-Murias), Stalnov dropped back with a puncture, but the remaining three stubbornly and impressively continued to power away, finally to be caught with seven kilometres to go after a very long 34-kilometre break - more than a third of the entire stage.

There was a brief appearance on the front on the pack by Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) and Tao Geoghegan Hart (Team Sky) after the trio were reeled in, but after such a long-lasting break, the fast men's teams, in particular, LottoNL-Jumbo, Bora-Hansgrohe and Groupama-FDJ were in no mood for late rebellions. Then despite Quick-Step Floors sprint train abruptly coming unstuck in the closing kilometres, Viviani resolved the situation perfectly, with Sagan second and Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek-Segafredo) in third.

After the finish was done and dusted, Mitchelton-Scott's team staff and riders exchanged hugs and back slaps at a job well done, with Simon Yates and the Australian squad both claiming their first ever Grand Tour.

Once on the podium, Yates celebrated not only victory in the overall too ahead of Enric Mas (Quick Step Floors) and Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana Pro Team) but also claimed a win in the Combined jersey classification. Meanwhile, Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal) came home with the King of the Mountains prize and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) the points jersey.

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