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| La Vuelta |
Nicolas Roche gave Team Sky the victory they were longing for in this Vuelta when he won the 18th stage while Tom Dumoulin held off his main rival to retain the overall lead.
Ireland's Roche beat breakaway companion Haimar Zubeldia (Trek Factory) of Spain in a two-man sprint after going solo in the last climb of the 204-km ride from Roa to Riaza.
Jose Goncalves (Caja Rural) took third place 18 seconds behind while Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) won the sprint of the favourites' group to end up fourth, 38 seconds off the pace, as Movistar took over from Sky at the top of the team classification.
Overall, Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) still leads Fabio Aru (Astana) by three seconds after the Italian climber repeatedly, but unsuccessfully, attacked in the last climb.
Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) remains third, 1:15 adrift of Dutchman Dumoulin.
Talansky (Cannondale-Garmin) called it quits after suffering from a cough for days while Terpstra (Etixx-Quick Step) abandoned after hurting his knee with his handlebars during yesterday's time trial.
Velits (BMC Racing), Van den Broeck (Lotto-Soudal) and Meyer (Orica-GreenEDGE) did not start either.
A group of 25 riders formed the day's breakaway.
Roche (Sky), Minard (Ag2r), Atapuma (BMC), Gonçalves and Madrazo (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Lemoine and Rollin (Cofidis), Serry (Etixx-Quick Step), Courteille (FDJ), Pellaud and Reynes (IAM), Durasek (Lampre-Merida), De Clercq, Hansen and Van der Sande (Lotto-Soudal), Rojas (Movistar), Jim (MTN-Qhubeka), Cardoso (Cannondale-Garmin), Cousin and Gautier (Europcar), Vorganov (Katusha), Roosen (LottoNL-Jumbo), Bennati, Poljanski (Tinkoff-Saxo) and Zubeldia (Trek) were the fugitives. De Clerq's presence in the break, though, was a threat to Meintjes's 10th place in the GC and his MTN-Qhubeka team controlled the gap, which rose up to six minutes.
Astana took their share of work with about 50 kilometres left.
Vicioso launched an attack meant to serve as a launchpad for Rodriguez, who joined him shortly afterwards, but both were calmly reined in by the Astana-led peloton 35 km from the finish.
In the last climb to the Puerto de la Quesera (10 km at 5.2 per cent), Roche left his breakaway companions before being joined by Zubeldia.
At the beginning of the ascent, Aru attacked the group of favourites but Dumoulin managed to stay in his wheel.
Chaves (Orica-GreenEDGE) then jumped away from the red jersey group and was joined by Nieve (Team Sky), Valverde (Movistar) and Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo). But they regrouped and the red jersey pack caught most of the fugitives in the final descent, with only Roche, Zubeldia and Goncalves staying ahead.
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