page_title: 2015 Vuelta a España, Stage 12 to Stage 21
section_title: Stage 18
hierarchical_section_title: 2015 Vuelta a España, Stage 12 to Stage 21 / Stage 18
caption_attribution_description: Vuelta a España 2015 &#x7c; 8ª Etapa Puebla de Don Fadrique - Murcia-10
context_page_description: The 2015 Vuelta a España was a three-week Grand Tour cycling race that took place principally in Spain between 22 August and 13 September 2015; two stages also took place partly or wholly in Andorra. The final ten stages took the race from the mountains of Andorra to the conclusion of the Vuelta in Madrid. After the first eleven stages, Fabio Aru held the race lead, around half a minute ahead of Joaquim Rodríguez and Tom Dumoulin.
  Stage 12 was a flat stage, won by Danny van Poppel. Stage 13 was won by Nelson Oliveira from the breakaway; it was followed by a series of three consecutive summit finishes. The first of these was won by Alessandro De Marchi, as Aru and Rodríguez gained time on Dumoulin. Rodríguez won stage 15, putting him just one second behind Aru, while Dumoulin again lost significant time. Stage 16 was the final summit finish of the race and the final stage of the second week. It was won by Fränk Schleck, again from the breakaway. Rodríguez gained further time on Aru and took over the race lead, though only by a single second, while Dumoulin again lost time. The following day was a rest day.
  The final week of the race began with an individual time trial on stage 17.
context_section_description: 10 September 2015 — Roa de Duero to Riaza, 204 km (127 mi)
  Stage 18 was a 204-kilometre (127 mi) route from Roa de Duero to Riaza. The first part of the stage was fairly flat as the peloton travelled southeast. After 75 kilometres (47 mi) was the first climb of the day, the third-category Alto Santibáñez de Ayllón (7.8 kilometres (4.8 mi) at 4%). Soon afterwards was the Alto del Campanario (6.5 kilometres (4.0 mi) at 3.9%). The following 80 kilometres (50 mi) were consistently up and down, with barely any flat roads, as the riders travelled south through the Tejera Negra national park, then north towards the stage finish. The final climb of the day came after 181 kilometres (112 mi). This was the first-category Puerto de la Quesera (10 kilometres (6.2 mi) at 5.2%). From the summit there were 13 kilometres (8.1 mi) of descent to the finish line in Riaza. The stage was expected to favour riders from a breakaway.
  The stage again began with a contest to get into the day's breakaway. Eventually a 25-rider breakaway was formed, without any general classification favourites present. Ángel Madrazo (Caja Rural–Seguros RGA) was first at the summit of the first and second climbs of the day, with the peloton over five minutes behind. The break still had a five-minute lead with 50 kilometres (31 mi) to the finish line. Astana came to the front of the peloton in order to support Aru and to attempt to isolate Dumoulin from his teammates; Dumoulin stayed close to Aru's wheel. With 35 kilometres (22 mi) to race, Joaquim Rodríguez put in an attack, but he was chased down by the Astana team.
  In the breakaway, Cyril Gautier (Europcar) attacked just before the final climb. On the climb, he was caught and passed by two other riders from the breakaway: Nicolas Roche (Sky) and Haimar Zubeldia (Trek Factory Racing). Roche led over the summit of the Puerto de la Quesera. Astana's work had significantly reduced the breakaway's lead: midway through the climb they were 1' 30" behind the breakaway. There were several attacks during the climb: Aru attacked Dumoulin six times, with Valverde and Chaves also attempting to escape from the group of favourites. None of them were able to get away, however, and the group came to the top of the climb together, a minute behind Roche and Zubeldia.
  Roche and Zubeldia came to the finish line together. Roche ensured the stage ended in a fast sprint and took the stage victory. This was Roche's second stage victory in the Vuelta and his first for Team Sky. José Gonçalves (Caja Rural–Seguros RGA), another rider from the early breakaway, finished third, 18" behind Roche. The group of favourites finished together a further 20" back, with no changes to the top 10. Omar Fraile, meanwhile, was almost assured of victory in the mountains classification: his 50-point lead over Fränk Schleck was more than the points available on the remaining stages.
caption: Nicolas Roche (Team Sky), photographed before stage 8, won stage 18 from a breakaway.
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 600D", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.4 (Macintosh)", "Image DateTime": "2015:08:31 00:32:51", "Image ExifOffset": "210", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/320", "EXIF FNumber": "5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF RecommendedExposureIndex": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2015:08:29 11:42:04", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2015:08:29 11:42:04", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "33321/4004", "EXIF ApertureValue": "9297/2002", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "8681/1918", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "160", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "44", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "44", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "384000/181", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "256000/119", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF BodySerialNumber": "363077115697", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[75, 300, 0/0, 0/0]", "EXIF LensModel": "EF75-300mm f/4-5.6", "EXIF LensSerialNumber": "0000000000"}