Remco Evenepoel took his second victory of the 2022 Vuelta a España on Thursday’s summit finish, riding away from his closest rival Enric Mas in the final metres of the stage. Evenepoel added a few seconds to his lead over Mas, and Mas buttressed his second place. Three stages remain.
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The Course
Thursday piled all its categorized climbs into the second half of 192 km from Trujillo to Alto del Piornal. The riders would climb Alto del Piornal twice, with the summit finish 13.3 km of 5.6 percent.
Alto del Piornal is the main attraction of #LaVuelta22 stage 18, with the peloton set to tackle it two times in the last 55 kilometers. pic.twitter.com/PjThMdLiGJ
— Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team (@qst_alphavinyl) September 8, 2022
Very early in the action, there was a crash that involved Wednesday’s winner Rigoberto Uran, fourth-place Carlos Rodriguez and KOM leader Jay Vine. Vine had to abandon the race.
❌ @JayVine3 had to abandon the race after this crash… 👇😔 https://t.co/1hVmwAirN5
— Alpecin-Deceuninck Cycling Team (@AlpecinDCK) September 8, 2022
This left double stage winner Richard Carapaz as the mountains classification leader on the road. Carapaz was part of the enormous, 42-rider breakaway that rolled up an 6:10 lead by the foot of the first categorized climb, Cat. 2 Alto de la Desesperá.
Sixth-place João Almeida (Portugal/UAE-Emirates) decided to attack from the peloton in an attempt to jump over fifth-place Angel Lopez and fourth-place Carlos Rodriguez. Carapaz was first over the top of the Desesperá. On the descent, a UAE-Emirates rider dropped back from the breakaway to help Almeida. Lopez’s Astana squad worked to bring back the Portuguese.
By the start of Alto del Piornal I, Almeida was 50 seconds ahead of the peloton, and the brigade of escapees was 4:00 clear.
Third place in 2020, Hugh Carthy, hoping to emulate teammate Uran, made a move from the breakaway.
Thibaut Pinot and Sergio Higuita bridged over to Carthy. Astana were losing numbers at the pointy end of the peloton, as Almeida carried on his bid to climb the ladder, Marc Soler having dropped back to help. Carapaz brought over two more reinforcments and crested first.
On the way to Alto del Piornal II, Almeida’s gap over the red jersey group diminished even after he joined the remnants of the huge breakaway. The peloton also drew…
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