Vuelta a España: Higuita wins stage 18

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Sergio Higuita (EF Education First) won stage 18 of the Vuelta a España, triumphing from the early break in Becerril de Sierra. The Colombian, riding his first Grand Tour, was the last man standing from the breakaway, holding off an elite chase group over the final climb and descent to the finish.

Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) took second place, 15 seconds later, sprinting from a group of four GC men to edge out Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) for six bonus seconds. Rafał Majka (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Miguel Ángel López (Astana) finished with the duo.

The big news of the day, however, was the movement in the best young rider competition, where López took the white jersey from Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) and moved up to fourth overall. The Slovenian lost 59 seconds to López, while Nairo Quintana (Movistar) also lost a place to teammate Valverde.

López had attacked multiple times throughout the stage, first on the penultimate climb of the stage, the second ascent of the Puerto de la Morcuera and then, after he was caught, on the final climb of the Puerto de Cotos.

It was there, after repeated accelerations, that he got rid of Pogačar, eventually establishing the elite quartet that came to the finish together. Higuita, meanwhile, had been away since the first climb of the day. The 22-year-old stuck with the break until the top of the penultimate climb before he attacked the descent, almost 50km from the finish.

Despite the attacks behind, and starting his effort with a mere one-minute gap, Higuita held on to take his maiden victory for EF, saving what has been a disappointing, crash-affected Vuelta for the team.

“I had already seen that this stage was perfect for me,” said Higuita after the stage. “It’s a boost for me and the team, after all the bad luck and abandons we’ve had during this Vuelta.

“I knew I had a chance to win in the sprint, but also by going solo. I was the last one [from the break] because I had excellent legs. Despite the fact that I had been riding solo for a while, I didn’t stop on the final climb.“

The fans along the road – I really enjoyed that. They really drove me forward today.”

After stage 18, Roglič remains in red with an extended 2:50 lead over Valverde, while Quintana lies third at 3:31. New best young rider López is at 4:17, while Pogačar is in fifth at. 4:49. Roglič now enjoys a 48-point lead in that points classification, while Geoffrey Bouchard (AG2R La Mondiale) extended his mountain classification lead to 32 points.

How it unfolded

After the ambush in the crosswinds of stage 17, there was further opportunity to provoke changes in the general classification on stage 18 from Colmenar Viejo to Becerril de la Sierra.

The stage covered much of the same terrain as stage 20 back in 2015, where Fabio Aru and his Astana team dropped race leader Tom Dumoulin to win the Vuelta.

With Nairo Quintana five minutes closer to Primož Roglič after the chaos of stage 17, the four first-category climbs of the Puerto de Navacerrada, Puerto de la Morcuera (twice) and the Puerto de Cotos, the pivotal stage would be the main chance to unseat the Slovenian.

Attacks flew early on, despite Tony Martin (Jumbo-Visma) taking control of the peloton in the early stages. Rémi Cavagna (Deceuninck-QuickStep) had a go, but it was Wout Poels (Team Ineos) who first managed to stay away, getting a gap at the base of the Navacerrada.

The Dutchman held onto a frail advantage, but clung on, and was joined on the descent down the Cotos by teammate Tao Geoghegan Hart, as well as KOM leader Bouchard, Sergio Higuita (EF Education First), Tobias Ludvigson (Groupama-FDJ) and the Dimension Data duo of Louis Meintjes and Ben King.

At the bottom of the descent, a chase group of Nelson Oliveira (Movistar), Omar Fraile (Astana), Óscar Rodríguez (Euskadi-Murias), Neilson Powless (Jumbo-Visma) and Jonas Koch (CCC Team) made it across, with the peloton two minutes back.

Hermann Pernsteiner (Bahrain-Merida), who had been hanging between the break and peloton, made the catch on the first ascent of the Morcuera (up the north side), making it 13 men up front.

Bouchard took second and first over the first two climbs, adding 16 points to his KOM haul and extending his lead. Later on, down in the valley loop before the south side of the Morcuera, the break's advantage reached five minutes.

Koch and Meintjes pushed on alone at the base of the second ascent of the Morcuera (10.4km at 6.7 per cent), as five minutes further back, Trek-Segafredo and then Astana took it up on the front of the peloton, with the Kazakh team dramatically upping the pace.

The action kicked off midway up the climb with 60km to race, with Astana blowing the peloton apart. Miguel Ángel López put in the first attack among the GC men 3km from the top, leaving behind a group made up of Roglič, teammate Sepp Kuss, Pogačar, the Movistar trio of Valverde, Quintana and Marc Soler, Rafał Majka (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Carl Frederik Hagen (Lotto Soudal).

Up front, the break split up too with Bouchard leading the attacking as they brought back the two leaders. The Frenchman duly took another ten points to consolidate his KOM lead. On the descent, Higuita went on the attack, gaining 45 seconds by the base of the Cotos.

Majka and Pogačar put in some testers near the top of the climb, as the GC group trailed 20 seconds down on López. Hagen, Soler and Quintana were the first to struggle as Kuss dropped away, though Powless dropped back from the break to assist Roglič.

With 40km to go, the GC group caught López, who had joined up with teammate Fraile and the remains of the break. That made it a 21-man group chasing a minute behind lone survivor Higuita as they started the Cotos (13.9km at 4.8 per cent).

Kuss and Powless controlled the group up the climb, dropping 1:30 down on Higuita and things remained fairly quiet until López accelerated again and again, 5km from the top. He ended up out front with Roglič and Valverde, as Majka, Quintana and Pogačar chased.

Majka made it up to the trio, but Pogačar couldn't get back and lay 30 seconds back at the summit, while Quintana dropped 15 seconds further behind. Meanwhile, Higuita held on to a 40-second lead on the plateau to start the descent.

The young Colombian defended his lead well, only shedding ten seconds by the time he reached the final 2km. Meanwhile, López had moved up a spot on the virtual GC, taking Pogačar's fourth spot and white jersey.

That was how it finished, with Higuita holding on to take his biggest ever victory, while Roglič outsprinted Valverde in the chase group. Quintana and Pogačar would finish a minute later, with both men losing a spot on the general classification heading into the Vuelta's final three stages.

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