Vuelta a Espana: Valverde wins stage 8 in Almaden

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Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) claimed his second victory of the 2018 Vuelta a España on Saturday, pipping Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) to the line in a dramatic uphill sprint in Almadén at the end of stage 8.

Danny van Poppel, whose LottoNL-Jumbo team had dominated the tricky final kilometre - which also included a near-180-degree switchback on a roundabout - finished a more distant third.

Rudy Molard (Groupama-FDJ) finished safely in the main group to retain his overall lead, though the 10 bonus seconds for stage victory moved second-placed Valverde to within 37 seconds.

“They said it was a hard finish and people could even lose time. My DS told me to get on Sagan’s wheel but I told him, ‘I’m not going to go for the stage today - I’m going to focus on not losing time’,” Valverde revealed.

“But in the end I got on Sagan’s wheel and was able to get past him. I know I’m in good shape but I was surprised with that.”

The 195km stage from Linares to Almadén was one of the flattest of the whole Vuelta, with just one categorized climb in the form of the Cat-3 Alto de Españares. However, the heat - nearing 40 degrees - combined with the distance to make it another tough day in the saddle, made all the more complicated by the finale, which included gradients of four per cent that started biting with two kilometres to go.

A breakaway formed after just a few kilometres, containing Thiago Machado (Katusha-Alpecin), Jorge Cubero (Burgos-BH), and Hector Saez (Euskadi-Murias). With just three representatives, it never posed much of a threat to the peloton, and the gap was allowed to yawn out to more than 12 minutes.

On what was a largely uneventful afternoon, the peloton never looked like making a mistake as Bora, Quick-Step, Trek, and Cofidis exchanged turns on the front in order to steadily bring the gap down on the lightly undulating roads in the second half of the parcours.

Everyone was thinking about the complicated final few kilometres, and the racing really began when Machado - the last survivor from the break - was swallowed up with just under 6km to go. Plenty of teams showed an interest but none imposed themselves like Van Poppel’s LottoNL. They put four men on the front in the final two kilometres and made sure they were in pole position coming all the way round that roundabout inside the final kilometre. They were unable to hold it, however, as Bora took over for Sagan in the last several hundred metres.

On a finish such as this there’s always someone who tries to spring a surprise and here it was Ivan Garcia Cortina (Bahrain-Merida) who opened up his effort with still 300 metres to go. Sagan was the one who set off to close the gap, and while he had relatively little struggle in doing so, Valverde was better positioned for a late charge. He started his effort four wheels back and was able to come past Sagan at the last.

The big summit finish at La Covatilla on Sunday has loomed large over the first week of the Vuelta, and Valverde, who came into this Vuelta as a so-called ‘free agent’ but is clearly in great shape, may just have his eyes on the red jersey.

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