Stage 18 of La Vuelta 18 was designed for the sprinters but Jelle Wallays (Lotto Soudal) snatched the prizes on the line after a long and fast day at the front. The Belgian attacker went from the start with Sven Erik Bystrom (UAE Team Emirates) and Jetse Bol (Burgos-BH) and took the stage wins only metres ahead of Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe), the first sprinter on the line after a spectacular effort in the final kilometre. Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) keeps the red jersey ahead of two mountainous days in Andorra.
With 186.1 mostly flat kilometres ahead, it didn’t take long for three attackers to jump ahead of the bunch. Jelle Wallays (Lotto Soudal), Sven Erik Bystrom (UAE Team Emirates) and Jetse Bol (Burgos-BH) were already 11’’ ahead of the pack after 3km. The peloton let them go but sprinters’ teams quickly took the front position to control the gap. With Elia Viviani’s Quick-Step Floors and Giacomo Nizzolo’s Trek-Segafredo already pulling after 12 kilometre, it never got higher than 3’02’’ despite the very fast pace set by the attackers on the windy roads aragonese roads leading to Catalonia.
After three hours at 45.2km/h, the attackers only enjoyed a lead of 2’15’’ as the race entered the last 50km. Peter Sagan’s Bora-Hansgrohe also participated at the front of the bunch but the gap stabilised until 25km to go. The pack then picked up the pace in the last 20km.
Jetse Bol was dropped by his two companions with 7km to go. The bunch was still trailing by 37’’ and the leading duo kept working together to battle it out in the final kilometre. Jelle Wallays eventually proved to be the strongest in the sprint. Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) produced a major effort but finished right behind Sven Erik Bystrom.
