Vuelta a Espana stage 18 live - Evenepoel stamps his authority on the Alto del Piornal

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Belgian beats Mas to extend race lead on summit finish

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Hello and welcome to our live coverage of stage 18 of the Vuelta a España!

Another mountain-top finish today as the riders take on the Alto del Piornal, which hasn't been seen in the Vuelta since 2006.

A reminder of yesterday's results on the Monasterio de Tentudía summit finish and the GC picture.

Yesterday was Rigoberto Urán's day as the Colombian took the stage win from the breakaway.

Two non-starters today – Samuele Battistella (Astana Qazaqstan) and Bruno Armirail (Groupama-FDJ) are out of the race.

Take a look at the map of today's stage. Today we're in Extremadura in western Spain.

After yesterday's stage there was little change at the top of the GC standings, barring Primož Roglič's abandon.

The peloton is currently on the way to the start, rolling through the neutral zone.

Three climbs on the menu today – the Alto de Desperá (3.7km at 9.4%) and two ascents of the Piornal (13.5km at 5% and 13.4km at 5.6%).

Here's a look at the final climb.

192km to go

And immediately we have a group of riding jumping away to try and get into the breakaway.

There are around 20 riders attacking at the front now.

182km to go

A fast pace early on but the breakaway group hasn't managed to pull away. All together for now.

174km to go

Still no moves established.

Carlos Rodríguez (Ineos Grenadiers) and Jay Vine (Alpecin-Deceuninck) are among several riders caught in a crash in the peloton.

170km to go

That move has been brought back and the battle to get out front goes on.

165km to go

Abandon

Green jersey Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) was also caught in the crash but he's OK to race on.

A look a the peloton racing through the early kilometres of today's stage.

The attacking group has been caught.

Jesus Ezquerra (Burgos-BH) and Ibai Azurmendi (Euskaltel-Euskadi) try a move.

Meanwhile, Carlos Rodríguez is back at the medical car after the crash.

155km to go

Now more riders are attacking, including Jetse Bol (Burgos-BH), Tao Geoghegan Hart (Ineos Grenadiers), and Matteo Fabbro (Bora-Hansgrohe).

Bol is 33 today. A birthday breakaway attempt.

A shot of the crash earlier on. Rodríguez is clearly pretty cut up there. You can just about make out Vine in the background on the left.

149km to go

More riders are trying to get away. A large group at the front. 

There must be 30 to 40 men up there now with a small gap.

A list of riders involved at the front at the moment...

Rodríguez at the medical car earlier. He lies in fourth, 5:20 down and just 29 seconds away from a podium place.

140km to go

The breakaway with 38 riders...

132km to go

Plenty of major names in there.

Jay Vine after the crash. He had 59 points in the KOM standings but the polka dot jersey will now go to Carapaz, who has 30 points.

Vincenzo Nibali (Astana Qazaqstan) is also in the breakaway, as are Edoardo Zambanini (Bahrain Victorious) and James Shaw (EF Education-EasyPost).

Three minutes for the break now as Ivo Oliveira (UAE Team Emirates) chases behind.

124km to go

The move has 5:30 on the peloton currently.

The gap is only growing now as it's up to seven minutes.

Nobody in the break is a GC threat. Carapaz is the best-placed man at over 26 minutes down.

105km to go

A look at the breakaway with Carapaz up front.

Here's what Thibaut Pinot, who has made the breakaway, had to say about today's stage...

Under 100km to go now. The gap is up to nine minutes.

A 45.4kph average speed so far.

UAE Team Emirates have taken over from QuickStep-AlphaVinyl at the front of the peloton.

Tao Geoghegan Hart at the front of the breakaway today.

89km to go

Meanwhile, João Almeida and Brandon McNulty have gone on the attack from the peloton. They have 20 seconds on the rest.

Onto the climb now. The breakaway has six minutes on the peloton.

Almeida, meanwhile, now has just over a minute on the peloton.

83km to go

Almeida now solo in his attack as McNulty drops away.

Oliveira dropped back from the break to help Almeida. The Portuguese pair are 1:05 up on the peloton. The break is still 4:20 up the road.

New KOM leader Carapaz led the way over the first climb of the day. Five points for him and he'll be the favourite to win that jersey following Vine's abandon.

British duo Hugh Carthy and Tao Geoghegan Hart at the front of the break on the climb.

67km to go

Up front, McLay's teammate Russo has attacked and has a 45-second gap on the break already.

Iturria also back with the Almeida group after being dropped.

The breakaway is still very large despite several riders dropping back.

No categorised climb at the moment but the riders are still going up and down here on these hilly roads on the lead-in to the first ascent of the Piornal.

58km to go

Russo has just been caught, too.

54km to go

Almeida is alone in his move now as Oliveira drops back. He has 50 seconds on the peloton.

Now Carthy attacks the breakaway.

More attacks from the break behind him on the climb.

47km to go

Higuita and Pinot are now with Carthy.

The situation up front right now...

Now Marc Soler has dropped back from the break to help Almeida.

41km to go

And Carapaz duly leads the way over the top. Another 10 points for him.

Now Almeida and Soler pass the top. They pass Nibali, who drops back to help his team try and reel in the UAE duo.

Back in the GC group, Rodríguez is out the back. He crashed early on in the stage.

35km to go

30km to go

The GC group has gained quite a few riders on the way down. Astana, QuickStep, Movistar working at the front as they catch those dropped from the break. Rodríguez is back in.

Nibali among the riders working at the head of the GC group. They're just under 30 seconds back from Almeida and co (much of the break) now.

24km to go

Surely not long before the UAE man is caught now as the peloton closes in.

19km to go

A shot of Astana leading the peloton. They don't have that many riders there now but they're still making the pace for López.

1:35 for the Almeida group as the GC group lies at 1:55.

13km to go

A reminder of the final profile here.

Carapaz, Carthy, Pinot, Gesbert, Gesink, Higuita out front.

Almeida pushing on with no teammates to help at the front of his group now.

He still has 25-30 seconds on the peloton.

Movistar riding at the front of the peloton.

10km to go

Mas attacks as he grabs a bottle from his soigneur!

Evenepoel right on his wheel.

Masnada drops back from the break to help his leader.

O'Connor tries a move now.

9km to go

20 seconds between Almeida and the GC group.

O'Connor, López, Ayuso accelerate in the GC group.

O'Connor, Hindley, Evenepoel, Ayuso, Rodríguez, Mas, López, Meintjes, Arensman all in this group.

The gaps have gone down in these opening kilometres of the climb. Almeida is 55 seconds off the lead now.

8km to go

Evenepoel attacks!

Mas chases the red jersey.

The Belgian flies up to the O'Connor-Hindley-Arensman group.

Evenepoel goes right past them!

7km to go

So it's Evenepoel, Mas, Almeida, O'Connor, Arensman, Hindley in there along with several breakaway stragglers.

Ayuso and López are 20 seconds back. Rodríguez is further back.

Up front Gesink puts in an attack to leave Gesbert behind.

Now the GC group are collecting some attackers from the break as Higuita drops back.

Movistar pacing that group for Mas.

The situation at the moment...

5km to go

Ayuso, Rodríguez, López are back up to the Evenepoel group now.

Mas ups the pace at the front as Evenepoel follows him. Rodríguez is out the back of the group.

3km to go

Almeida accelerates. The group is still together with Rodríguez the one major name to be dropped so far.

Now Evenepoel attacks again!

Mas on his wheel after a short delay.

O'Connor and Arensman the only other GC men to get across

Almeida, Ayuso, López a bit further back.

Stage 17 winner Rigoberto Urán is also in there and he tries a move at the front of the Evenepoel group.

2km to go

Around 11-12 men in the GC group. Carapaz is back with Rodríguez helping him pace his way up the climb.

Gesink is holding a steady pace as the riders behind attack and slow. 

20 seconds as he heads towards the flamme rouge.

Evenepoel leads the group.

López has jumped up above Rodríguez in the virtual GC.

1km to go

Mas accelerates as Evenepoel easily follows.

López next to catch but Mas keeps pushing on.

10 seconds to Gesink...

The Dutchman is going to get caught very late.

500 to go and Mas rides on with Evenepoel behind.

Mas and Evenepoel have Gesink in their sights.

300 metres to go and Mas and Evenepoel make it across.

Gesink tries to push on.

Here's the final sprint!

Evenepoel comes from the back of the group to launch the sprint!

He rounds Mas and Gesink and wins the sprint with ease!

Remco Evenepoel has won stage 18 and extended his GC lead with those bonus seconds.

Mas second, Gesink third. The chase group at 12-13 seconds.

Evenepoel gained two seconds on Mas there in addition to four bonus seconds.

His GC lead will now be up to 2:07.

No changes at the top of the GC standings today, apart from Rodríguez dropping from fourth to fifth.

Check out our short report on stage 18 here

Evenepoel celebrates his stage victory.

Mas tried his best once again today but ended up losing time in the end. It's hard to see where he's going to gain over two minutes on Evenepoel now that the Belgian looks back to his best following his crash last week.

Three stages left to run – tomorrow's in Talavera de la Reina which includes two  second-category climbs, Saturday's stage 20 over four mountains including the final atop the Puerto de Navacerrada, and Sunday's finale circuit race in Madrid.

Check out the Vuelta's current GC standings here

Evenepoel outsprinting Mas for the win today.

Evenepoel celebrates his stage victory on the podium today.

He's in red and is now 2:06 up on Mas.

Evenepoel is alos in white as the best young rider, 5:14 up on Juan Ayuso.

Richard Carapaz takes over the KOM jersey after Jay Vine's abandon. He has 45 points to Mas' 25.

Mads Pedersen remains in control of the points classification, too. He's on 349 points, 200 up on Fred Wright.

The fifth stage of the Tour of Britain also finished earlier on today. There was a sprint finish in Mansfield, derailed when a large portion of the peloton took a wrong turn inside the final kilometre.

The second stage of the Ceratizit Challenge by La Vuelta is underway, too. We'll have results and news from that race coming up later.

Look out for news coming in from all the major GC names at the Vuelta coming in later this evening.

Check out the action from the final kilometre of stage 18 in this video below.

Evenepoel with a message on Twitter after his win...

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