Steep, steeper, steepest. The Vuelta organization pulled the steeple of the eighteenth stage at the top of the Alto del Gamoniteiro, a monster climb of 14.6 kilometers with an average gradient of 9.8%. very heavy. Before that, the peloton had to overcome two first category climbs and one second category climb.
No less than 32 riders attacked in the queen stage. Seven Belgians were in the race of the day: Jens Keukeleire, Mauri Vansevenant, Steff Cras, Stan Dewulf, Floris De Tier, Harm Vanhoucke and Edward Planckaert. Michael Storer, who won two stages in this Vuelta, and Rafal Majka were also among them.
With more than seventy kilometers from the finish, Storer took off alone. The Australian revelation pulled together a lead of two minutes in no time. For a moment he seemed on his way to a third stage victory, but in the background Movistar and Bahrain Victorious suddenly boosted the pace of the peloton.
Storer started with a bonus of 2’25” on the favorites on the final climb. Not enough, as it turned out. At seven kilometers from the top, he was caught up by David de la Cruz, who accelerated from the favorites group just before. not prevail.
De la Cruz was finally remounted by Miguel Ángel López – the Colombian is always good on these kinds of finishes. López held out and won the queen stage. Primoz Roglic sprinted to second place fourteen seconds later. The Slovenian thus took another step towards a third consecutive overall victory in a row.
