Vuelta a Espana 2013 - Stage 18

Stage 18 of this year's Vuelta was a tough one, a 186 kilometre ride from Burgos to Pena Cabarga, a finishing climb which is remembered well by fans for two reasons. The first was Igor Anton's crash out of the race on this climb when he was leader in 2010, and the other is the following year's duel between Juan Jose Cobo and Christopher Froome. 

However, there was to be another chapter added in the climb's history today, and it could be a climb that helped decide the 2013 Vuelta. A 15 man break went out with 18 kilometres of racing complete, containing some big names such as Vasil Kiryienka (Sky Procycling), last year's King of the Mountains Simon Clarke (Orica-GreenEDGE). 

Amets Txurruka (Caja Rural) was also in the breakaway, primarily it seemed to pick up mountains points, as he began an assault on the competition. He gained points on competition leader Nicolas Edet of Cofidis, who looked to be having a difficult day at the back of the peloton. The breakaway had been co-operative all day, but with 30 kilometres or so remaining, Kiryienka jumped away.

The rest of the break did not or could not follow, and it soon became apparent that Kiryienka was going to have to go it alone. A small chase group formed, including Egoi Martinez (Euskaltel-Euskadi), but they did not look to be gaining any time on the Belarussian when he hit the final climb. The group gained riders but never actually gained time on Kiryienka, and it was he who rode solo to victory on stage 18.

"It's the perfect result for the team because we've been working so hard to get that elusive win in this last week or so. Our morale has always stayed high but this will have boosted the mood even further. We've come really close in the sprints, in the mountains, and now we've won from a breakaway, so we're really happy."

However, all was not done on the stage, as the favourites still had to slog it out to get the seconds needed to move up. Rodriguez and Katusha put in a strong three-pronged attack, but Nibali, Horner and Valverde all managed to hold on. Then Horner put some pressure on, and it had the rest of the favourites reeling. It was soon apparent that Horner was the strongest man on the stage, and it looked for all the world that he was going to ride into the red jersey of race leader. 

He missed out on this by just three seconds, after he, Rodriguez and Valverde all gained time on Vincenzo Nibali, who appeared to crack on the climb. He does however, carry over the most momentum going into the final two days in the mountains.