Sander Armée wins stage 18 as Froome fights back
Sander Armée (Lotto Soudal) has won stage 18 from the breakaway. Froome accelerated in the final kilometre with Contador, Nibali lost 21 seconds, Kelderman and Zakarin lost 4 seconds
Sander Armee (Lotto-Soudal) took victory at the 18th stage of the Vuelta a España. The Belgian was one of riders from the day's breakaway who attacked on the final climb, finishing ahead of Alexey Lutsenko at the summit finish.
The 169 kilometre stage to the summit finish of Santo Toribio de Liebana included three third category and one second category climbs.
A breakaway of 20 men including riders like Julian Alaphillippe and Matteo Trentin (Quick-Step Floors), Alessandro De Marchi (BMC), Magnus Cort Nielsen (Orica-Scott), and Matej Mohoric (UAE Team Emirated) got away after 50 kms and built up a huge gap of 13 minutes over the peloton who let them go.
At the second climb of the day the Collada de Ozalb, Fabio Aru, Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana), Esteban Chaves (Orica-Scott) and Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo) tried attack Froome and Team Sky who led the peloton. The attack was quickly nuetralized as Team Sky lifted their pace, except Fabio Aru who got away.
Meanwhile at the front of the race on the 3rd climb of the day the Collada de la Hoz, Sander Armee (Lotto-Soudal) and Alexis Gougeard (AG2R La Mondiale) attacked from their breakway companions and got a gap.
Back in the main peloton, Contador attacked again and David de la Cruz (Quick-Step), Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) and Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) followed. Team Sky increased the pace again and reeled them back in.
Contador tried again and this time Chris Froome (Sky) himself, reeled him back in.
In the breakaway in the final metres, Armee accelerated and left Lutsenko struggling behind him to take the stage victory. It is the Belgian's first victory in a Grand Tour and the third stage win for Lotto-Soudal at this year's Vuelta.
On the final climb, Team Sky set a high pace, Chaves, Lopez and Nibali were dropped.
Froome came to the front and countered Contador's attack.
Meanwhile Fabio Aru crossed the finish line just ahead of them.
Froome retains the Red jersey and race lead and took 21 seconds from Nibali and 4 seconds from Kelderman and Zakarin.
Tomorrow's stage is a medium mountain stage before Saturday's asault on the Angliru! It will be difficult for Team Sky to control tomorrow's race.
2017 Vuelta a Espana Stage 18 Results Top Ten
1 Sander Armee (Bel) Lotto Soudal 4:09:39
2 Alexey Lutsenko (Kaz) Astana Pro Team 0:00:31
3 Giovanni Visconti (Ita) Bahrain-Merida 0:00:46
4 Alexis Gougeard (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:01:02
5 Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Spa) Movistar Team 0:01:06
6 Alessandro De Marchi (Ita) BMC Racing Team 0:01:19
7 Matteo Trentin (Ita) Quick-Step Floors 0:01:21
8 Sergio Pardilla Bellon (Spa) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA
9 Antwan Tolhoek (Ned) Team LottoNL-Jumbo 0:01:38
10 Anthony Roux (Fra) FDJ 0:01:42
2017 Vuelta a Espana GC after Stage 18
1 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky 72:03:50
2 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Bahrain-Merida 0:01:37
3 Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Team Sunweb 0:02:17
4 Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) Katusha-Alpecin 0:02:29
5 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Trek-Segafredo 0:03:34
6 Miguel Angel Lopez (Col) Astana Pro Team 0:05:16
7 Michael Woods (Can) Cannondale-Drapac 0:06:33
8 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana Pro Team
9 Wout Poels (Ned) Team Sky 0:06:47
10 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Team LottoNL-Jumbo 0:10:26