Vuelta a Espana: Nicolas Roche wins as Tom Dumoulin retains lead

Nicolas Roche (right) beat fellow breakaway rider Haimar Zubeldia (left) in a sprint finish

Team Sky's Nicolas Roche won stage 18 of the Vuelta a Espana out of the breakaway as Tom Dumoulin chased down multiple attacks from Fabio Aru to retain the overall lead.

Roche formed part of the day's 25-man escape group but forged clear alongside Haimar Zubeldia (Trek Factory Racing) on the final climb of the day and then beat the Spaniard in a sprint in Riaza.

Back in the peloton, Aru (Astana) started the day three seconds behind Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) overall and launched no fewer than six attacks on the final climb in a bid to overhaul his deficit, but he never really troubled the race leader and was reeled back in on each occasion.

Fabio Aru (right) attacked Tom Dumoulin (left) no fewer than six times

All of the race favourites crossed the line together, meaning Dumoulin remains three seconds ahead of second-placed Aru in the general classification, while Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) stays 1min 15sec down in third.

Roche, who also won a stage of the Vuelta in 2013, told Eurosport: "There was a rider about 20 seconds behind, so I said to Haimar, 'Let's go! Let's get to the finish. Just ride all the way and we'll do a mano e mano sprint'. The two of us really gave it a lot and I think that was our only chance.

"Coming into the sprint, I wanted to lead it out because Haimar is someone who has a lot of experience and I have lost a few sprints against him in the past. I smiled because I was happy that it worked and I was like, 'Oh yes! For once I didn't mess up'. Today it finally worked out."

Dumoulin said: "It is going to be three hard days coming up. We survived the first one and we did very well with the team. It was a good day. Today Aru tried to take the red jersey and he tried very hard. I actually was never in trouble and, after his first attack, I knew I would probably keep the red jersey for today. I was pretty confident."

Dumoulin retained his three-second overall lead

The category-one final climb of the day reached its summit 13km from the finish and was followed by a descent, so Aru ordered his Astana team-mates to set a fierce pace on the lead-up to the climb and then started attacking almost as soon as it began.

His first two accelerations were the most fierce, but after Dumoulin followed him with apparent ease both times, Aru seemed to lose heart and his subsequent attacks had an air of desperation. 

Up ahead, Roche and Zubeldia worked together well on the climb and subsequent descent, and Roche then won the sprint comfortably as he gave Team Sky a second win of the day following Wout Poels' victory on stage five of the Tour of Britain.

The Vuelta continues on Thursday with 185.8km 19th stage from Medina del Campo to Avila. Follow the action with our live blog. Coverage will start after the finish of stage six of the Tour of Britain, at about 3.30pm BST.

Stage 18 result

1 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Team Sky, 5:03:59

2 Haimar Zubeldia (Esp) Trek Factory Racing, same time

3 Jose Goncalves (Por) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA, +18sec

4 Alejandro Valverde (Esp) Movistar, +38

5 Esteban Chaves (Col) Orica-GreenEdge, st

6 Joaquim Rodriguez (Esp) Katusha, st

7 Pieter Serry (Bel) Etixx - Quick-Step, st

8 Adam Hansen (Aus) Lotto Soudal, st

9 Gianluca Brambilla (Ita) Etixx - Quick-Step, st

10 Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) Ag2r-La Mondiale, st

Selected others

11 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana, st

15 Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Giant-Alpecin, st

General classification

1 Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Giant-Alpecin, 73:45:13

2 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana, +3sec

3 Joaquim Rodriguez (Esp) Katusha, +1:15

4 Rafal Majka (Pol) Tinkoff-Saxo, +2:22

5 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar, +2:53

6 Alejandro Valverde (Esp) Movistar, +3:15

7 Johan Esteban Chaves (Col) Orica-GreenEdge, +3:30

8 Daniel Moreno (Esp) Katusha, +3:46

9 Mikel Nieve (Esp) Team Sky, +4:10

10 Louis Meintjes (RSA) MTN-Qhubeka, +6:51