Cycling: Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) is on the verge of overall victory in the 2018 Vuelta. On the penultimate day of the Tour of Spain, the Briton survived the final endurance test on the way to the stage finish at Coll de la Gallina. In the demanding uphill sprint to the stage finish, Yates crossed the finish line as the third rider behind Enric Mas (Quick-Step Floors) and Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana). Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) didn't have a good day and even lost his podium place.
Simon Yates is on the verge of his biggest career success. The 26-year-old goes into tomorrow's final stage of the Vuelta to Madrid with a comfortable lead of 1:46 and can already look forward to winning the red jersey today in the quiet little room. Today he once again underlined his outstanding form and put all his competitors in their place in the overall classification - even if it wasn't enough to win the day.
After a fast stage and constant ups and downs, the final ascent to the stage finish (1st category) finally separated the wheat from the chaff. The main victim here was Alejandro Valverde, who couldn't keep up with the pace of the competition. Although he tried everything to limit the damage together with team-mate Quintana, he ultimately lost so much time that he dropped to fifth place overall. A bitter day for the old master.
The day was completely different for the stage winner Enric Mas: Not only was the Quick-Step professional able to distance Miguel Angel Lopez in the final and claim the 64th win of the season for his team - with this performance he even moved up to second place in the classification front. Lopez remains the last step on the podium.
Number 64 😁#LaVuelta18 pic.twitter.com/t3Mk5xYW1B
— Quick-Step Cycling (@quickstepteam) September 15, 2018
Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) again showed an appealing performance, but as in the days before he was not quite able to keep up with the fastest. In his first Grand Tour as captain, he fell back to twelfth place in the overall standings and thus just barely misses the top 10 in Madrid tomorrow.