2019 Vuelta a España Stage 18 Results & Recap
Stage 18 of the 2019 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
Higuita wins stage 18
Sergio Higuita (EF Education First) won his first grand tour stage today on a tough parcours that featured four category 1 ascents through Colmenar Viejo to Becerril de la Sierra in the mountains north of Madrid. The 22-year-old attacked on the penultimate climb to hold off GC contenders to take victory for EF Education First.
“Yesterday, when I didn’t have the legs to be in the echelons and fight for the top10 of the GC, we decided to save energy for today and to relax as much as possible, as if it were a recovery ride,” Higuita said after the stage. “It was great for me, as I was feeling really tired before the stage - I even fell asleep on the bus. This helped me relieve some pressure off me and take the start today with renewed energies. Today’s stage was perfect for me: I could either win from a breakaway or from a sprint.”
“Climbing Cotos I felt extraordinary good legs, and I was able to keep my chasers at bay. I went full gas to the finish line, as I was pretty motivated to give my team a stage win after such a difficult La Vuelta. I didn’t have any energy left, but I had my heart set on those dreams I’ve chased for so long. I didn’t assume victory was mine until 5 kilometres to go, as my chasers were quite strong and I was afraid they would catch me. My DS kept spurring me and insisted I could make it to the finish line. I was very emotional at the finish line because there were so many Colombian fans there. At La Vuelta, I’ve learnt not to give up, not even in the worse moments, and to be resilient. Every day is a whole different story on which one can triumph.”
Wout Poels was the first rider to give things a go on another brutally hilly stage at the Vuelta. He attacked on the Puerto de Navacerrada and eventually, after the summit, 12 riders latched on to the Ineos rider. They were: Nelson Oliveira (Movistar Team), Geoffrey Bouchard (AG2R La Mondiale), Omar Fraile (Astana Pro Team),Hermann Pernsteiner (Bahrain-Merida), Jonas Koch (CCC Team), Sergio Higuita (EF Education First), Tobias Ludvigson (Groupama-FDJ), Nick Shultz (Mitchelton-Scott), Louis Meintjes (Dimension Data), Tao Geoghegan Hart (Team Ineos), Neilson Powless (Jumbo-Visma) and Oscar Rodriguez (Euskadi-Murias).
The peloton, led by Jumbo Visma, allowed a gap of five minutes by the time they reached the second ascent, the Puerto de la Morcuera, where Geoffrey Bouchard collected maximum points to extend his lead in the king of the mountains competition.
Meanwhile, back in the peloton, Miguel Angel Lopez attacked early, about 60 kilometres to go, after his Astana team raised the tempo. He was eventually caught, but attacked again on the final climb and took Primoz Roglic, Alejandro Valverde and Rafal Majka along. At this point, Higuita was off the front solo with a lead of less than a minute.
Behind the red jersey group, Nairo Quintana, Tadej Pogacar, Carl Fredrik Hagen (Lotto Soudal) and Louis Meintjes joined up with 20km to go and limited their losses. Pogacar lost his white jersey lead to Lopez, who was on fire.
“I didn’t enjoy any collaboration [of my rivals] during my attacks,” Lopez said. “Nevertheless, I’ve managed to get closer to the podium today. I’ve also regained the white jersey as best young rider, and it's the last year I can win this. There is a lot of terrain left, with two interesting stages on which, being strong, we can pull off something interesting.”\n
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