As it happened: Kern Pharma win their third stage at Vuelta a España from 42-rider breakaway

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Urko Berrade win alone as Mikel Landa cracks and slips from fifth to tenth overall

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Hello and welcome to our live coverage of stage 18 of the Vuelta a España.

The riders are currently signing on in  Vitoria-Gasteiz for the stage. After yesterday's grey skies and rain, the sun is out today in northern Spain.

Ben O’Connor (Decathlon AG2R) wars the leader's red jersey for a 12 day but his gap is down to just 5 seconds, with Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) likely to attack him before the final time trial in Madrid.  

O'Connor was able to enjoy a day in the peloton on Wednesday but was still not happy about fined 1000CHF and docked 20 UCI points for his delay in attending the  stage 16 podium ceremony.

This is the profile of stage 18. It won't be easy for the sprinters. 

This is the stage map, showing the loop through the Basque Country. There should be thousands of Basque cycling fans out along the route today.

On Wednesday Kaden Groves and his Alpecin-Deceuninck team took the win after controlling the attacks, driving the chase and then leading out the sprint.

Victor Campenaerts tried a late attack yesterday. Watch for him again today. 

We can expect the Basque riders to try to go on the attack. We'll be watching for Oier Lazkano. 

The clock is ticking. The stage will start in 15 minutes.

Barry Ryan and Alasdair Fotheringham are on the ground in Spain for Cyclingnews to capture all the news and interviews. 

Barry spoke to Primož Roglič about being so close to the race lead, with the final mountain stage and the Madrid TT to come.

The 140 riders have rolled out and covered the  7.6km neutralised section. 

Get ready for the first attacks.

This was the roll out. Vamos! 

The riders face a short climb after 20km, that could spark the first serious attacks. 

Five riders try a first attack but are soon swept up. It's a fast start, as expected.

There is a slight split in the peloton! 

Stage 18 started in the cycling-mad Basque Country.

The early kilometres were more like Belgium!

The peloton split early during stage 18

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Stage 18 started fast

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Riley Sheehan tried an attack on the climb and so did new national hero Pablo Castrillo (Kern Pharma) but both were caught.

The Groves group closed the gap to the peloton but it hurt them. 

But there are more attacks over the top of the climb. Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) go clear. 

After two kilometres, even a powerhouse like Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) is caught by the peloton.

Gruppo compatto but teams are trying attacks. 

The opening hour has been fast but the speed should be even higher for the next hour on the flat valley roads.

The pace remains high with more attacks. 

Boom! after several attacks, 40 riders have gone clear!

122km to go

These are the riders up the road: 

There are actually 42 riders in the peloton! There are only 139 in the race.

The riders are on the Alto de Rivas de Tereso climb, mid-stage. 

Euskaltel-Euskadi are still driving the chase on the gradual climb and so the gap drops to 2:18.

Euskaltel-Euskad are hoping they can close the gap on the Alto de Rivas de Tereso climb. 

Near the summit of the Alto de Rivas de Tereso, Mikel Bizkarra and Gotzon Martin of Euskaltel are trying to cross the gap. 

Castrillo and Soler are on the front of the attack top up the pace over the top of the climb. 

95km to go

90km to go

Jhonatan Narvaez (Ineos Grenadiers) and Harold Tejada (Astana Qazaqstan) are trying to get across to Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek), Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) and Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla).

74km to go

Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek), Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) and Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla) drive on in a three-rider TTT at 46km/h despite the rolling roads.  

The stage is about to enter the hillier end game. The 5.6km Puerto Herrera comes with 45km to go and will be decisive in the tactic for the final. 

The peloton is slowly losing rime, kilometre after kilometre.  It us up to 8:45 now. It will surely reach over 10, 12 or even 15 minutes at the finish. 

Such is the relaxed atmosphere in the peloton, that Ben O'Connor  drops back for a natural break before riding back through the team cars.

50km to go

Soudal are chasing Vacek, Küng and Schmid but the gap is still 45 seconds. 

Kaden Groves is one of those dropped but he was vey brave to go in the attack and try to win the stage.  

Thanks to the Soudal surge, Cattaneo, followed by and Vlasov, have got across to the trio up front. 

Other riders, the best climbers, have joined them, with 2km to go to the summit of the climb. 

13 riders are now up front. Will anyone else get across and win a ticket for the final shakeout? 

As we predicted, the GC group has split on the climb. 

EF upped the pace on the steepest sector and Carapaz is on the move. 

Mas, Roglic, Gaudu and O'Connor are with him but where is Landa?

35km to go

Sepp Kuss is also dropped from the GC group. 

Carapaz has help from James Show and Owain Doull, who have dropped back from the big break.

30km to go

Landa is 1:30 down on the GC group. He could slip to ninth or tenth overall. 

Few riders are willing to work with Landa in the chase, many have teammates ahead, who will benefit from Landa's woes. 

25km to go

Some GC riders have domestiques in the group and so they're working hard to distance Landa. 

Gaudu is up to 5th in the virtual GC, ahead of Landa.

Cattaneo has now dropped back from the break to try to help Landa. 

Lands is already three minutes down on the GC group. 

10km to go

Küng is the first to attack and now Kruijswijk goes clear as the road climbs. 

5km to go

Vlasov tries to spark a chase but Kern Pharma have a rider in the group to help block the chase. 

Urko Berrade is from Pamplona, just 50km from today's finish. 

Berrade is diving down the descent to the last kilometre. 

1km to go

Here he comes! 

Kern Pharma also had Pablo Castrillo and Pau Miquel in the attack. 

We now wait for the rest of the 42-rider break to finish and then the GC group, then Landa at a further 3:00 minutes back.  

Landa is struggling to hold the wheels of his teammates. He is either sick or mentally broken. 

This is the moment of  Urko Berrade's win.

This is how Berrade won it, with a superbly timed attack 

The GC riders, finish together and so Ben O'Connor  keeps the leader's red jersey for another day. 

Cattaneo leads in the Landa and Kuss group. But they finish more than three minutes behind. 

This is the first shot of Berrade on the attack.

The results are in. 

This was the moment Kern Pharma celebrated an emotional third win at the 2024 Vuelta.

Here the shot of Urko Berrade savouring his victory.

These are the results of the stage via our friends at FirstCycling. 

To read our full stage report and see our photo gallery of the action and the stage results, click below. 

Alasdair Fotheringham and Barry Ryan are in Spain and will soon have news and interviews on all today's action, including Mikel Landa's tough day and Soudal's tactical meltdown. 

Thanks for joining us for another day of full live coverage from the Vuelta. 

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