As the 79th Vuelta a España galloped towards Sunday’s finish, it veered into the Basque Country on Thursday for another breakaway feast. One Spaniard had a glorious day, Equipo Kern Pharma’s Urko Berrade victorious from yet another successful breakaway. Another, Mikel Landa, had a bad day, his podium chances scuppered. ProTeam Equipo Kern Pharma earned its 2024 Vuelta wildcard with a third stage win, Pablo Castrillo having taken two himself. Ben O’Connor had a scare in the middle of the day, but kept his red jersey for another day.
The Course
Two categorized climbs were on offer on Stage 18, and the last one, Cat. 1 Alto de la Herrera, was just close enough to the finish in Maestu-Parque Natural de Izki to eliminate the possibility of a bunch sprint.
We are in the Basque Country for stage 18 of #LaVuelta24 and it could be a day for the breakaway. pic.twitter.com/NjR1NzvOVJ
— Soudal Quick-Step Pro Cycling Team (@soudalquickstep) September 5, 2024
With a route on offer like Thursday’s, and the breakaway having succeeded in eight of the last 12 stages, there was sure to be a big escape on Stage 18. Indeed, 42 riders hit the base of Alto de Rivas de Tereso with a 1:50 gap over the peloton. Horribly, there were no orange-clad Euskatel-Euskadi riders in the mob, but the team tried to remedy that on the climb. Tuesday’s winner Marc Soler was back in another breakaway and he crested first.
Three fugitives–two Swiss and a Czech–snapped off the front of the flotilla between the two mountains. The Euskatel bid to get fellows in winning positions failed and the peloton began to recede into the background.
Küng and pals reached Alto de la Herrera less than a minute ahead of the masses but soon saw their numbers swell. The peloton was nearly 10:00 in arrears. Soler lifted the KOM jersey from teammate Jay Vine by taking the maximum points on offer. Behind, attacks within the GC top-5 put O’Connor behind for a bit, but he reunited with the other chaps. Unfortunately, Mikel Landa was found out on Thursday, as were 11th place Adam Yates, 12th place and last year’s winner Sepp Kuss and 13th Cristian Rodriguez, 2:30 behind O’Connor and company with 14 km remaining.
So Soler approached Maestu-Parque Natural de Izki with 11 other riders, including double stage victor Pablo Castrillo and other serial escapees like Küng, Max Poole and…
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