2018 Vuelta a España Stage 8 Results & Recap
Stage 8 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
Valverde wins second time in a row\nBy Clara Beard
Alejandro Valverde (Movistar Team) again proved he was on top of his game at the Vuelta a Espana, taking the complicated uphill sprint finish win away from Peter Sagan (Bora Hansgrohe). Danny Vvan Poppel took third.
“They told me it would be a good finish for me,” Valverde said. “The idea was not to lose time and then see what I can do with this. The team put me in a perfect position, it was uphill for the last 500 metres and that always favours me. I took Sagan’s wheel and I wanted to go past him on the right side but I was afraid I would get boxed in and Nizzolo was coming on the left. I doubted but I found the opening. It’s very motivating to beat Peter in such a finale. It gives me a lot of confidence. I’m feeling good and I want to make the most of my condition, day after day. From tomorrow, we’ll see what can happen for me and Nairo (Quintana). I’m feeling good, without any pressure.”
Rudy Molard (FDJ) retains his read jersey for yet another day. He’s just 37 seconds ahead of today’s stage winner Valverde. Buchmann is third, 48 seconds behind.
“Today has been easier than the two previous stages,” Molard said. “The finale was complicated but we stayed in a good position at the front. When you see how strong Valverde is going right now, even beating Sagan in the sprint today, it will be hard to fend him off tomorrow at La Covatilla. He is the favourite to claim the red jersey. I’ve never done tomorrow’s final climb. I would have preferred something shorter and steeper. It seems to be a succession of climbing stretches. There are 4,000 metres of elevation so we’ll already be tired when we arrive at the bottom and then we’ll see how it goes.”
Tiago Machado (Katusha-Alpecin), Jorge Cubero (Burgos-BH) and Hector Saez (Euskadi-Murias) were the ones who made up the break of the day on the 195 kilometre course from Linares to Almadén. The trio quickly built up a max advantage of more than 11 minutes over the rolling terrain before Trek Segafredo, Cofidis and Quick-Step Floors came to the front with their sprinter’s interests in mind.
The gap began to fall steadily and with 6 kilometres to go, it was all together and heading for a group sprint.
The first to wind up was Ivan Garcia Cortina (Bahrain-Merida), but he went too early and Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) overtook proceedings and looked good for the win, but Valverde just pipped the world champion for the win at the end.
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