2018 Vuelta a España Stage 6 Results & Recap
Stage 6 of the 2018 Vuelta a España is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
Bouhanni sprints to stage 6 win
By Clara Beard
Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) took his first win of the season on stage 6 of the Vuelta a Espana, sprinting to the win in Roquetas de Mar ahead of Danny Van Poppel (LottoNL-Jumbo) and Elia Viviani (Quick-Step Floors).\\
“I’m delighted to win,” Bouhanni said. “It was very hard, the pace was really high in the finale. I really wanted to win today after the fake news that circulated about me yesterday. Kenneth (Van Bielsen) and Loïc (Chetout) have always kept me in a perfect position. I know how to do this when I have good legs, I go from one train to the other in order to follow the right wheel. I went for it in the last 200m. I also thought about my victory four years ago at Albacete. I had finished last the day before. I had a very serious accident last year at the Tour of Yorkshire. It might have been downplayed but I could have lost my life and I suffered with vision problem for a long time. I was wondering when it would come back. Even now I don’t think I’m back to my best condition. I’ve had a very difficult season. I was affected (by public criticism from the management). I felt humiliated but I figured I had to go beyond that. I was very disappointed to not participate in the Tour, I was in great shape. I’m not going to hide it, I’ve had touches with other teams but Thierry Vittu (the team president) called me before La Vuelta to tell me I had his full support. I’m very happy to win for Cofidis.”
Luis Angel Mate (Cofidis), Richie Porte (BMC Racing Team) and Jorge Cubero (Burgos-BH) were the three who attacked the peloton in the opening kilometres and stayed away with around a 3 minute advantage for the majority of the stage. They were reeled back in with 25 kilometres to go and from there, the sprinters teams took over.
“It’s been a fun day,” Porte said. “I’m finally starting to feel a bit like things are getting back to normal and I recover. It’s just nice to do something different, I hadn’t been in a breakaway for years! Otherwise I’d just be sitting in the bunch and not doing much. It’s also interesting ahead of the third week.”\n
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