Equipo Kern Pharma’s sensational Vuelta a Espana continued as Urko Berrade shone the brightest from a large group of escapees to win Stage 18 and complete a hat-trick for the Spanish minnows. Ben O’Connor survived a scare to tick off another day in the leader’s red jersey as Richard Carapaz looked to pile on the pressure, while Mikel Landa’s podium hopes disintegrated in his native Basque Country.
On a day the local Basque team Euskaltel-Euskadi failed to get any riders in the large 42-man breakaway, fellow Spanish minnows Equipo Pharma Kern put three men in the winning move and then capped it off magnificently – for a third time in this Vuelta – as bold Urko Berrade held on for a superb maiden pro victory at Maestu.
Ably supported by fellow Spanish team-mates Pau Miquel and Pablo Castrillo – the latter already a double stage winner on this Vuelta – Berrade kicked clear of the select leading group of 12 riders with 6km to go and never looked back.
Basque baroudeur Berrade used the final hill in the relentlessly undulating and leg-sapping 179km Stage 18 to build a sizeable gap over his pursuers – before riding off towards an uplifting triumph in front of his joyous parents in the National Park of Izki, an hour’s drive away from their home in Pamplona.
Miquel closed in for what would have been a stellar one-two for Kern Pharma but was just pipped for second place by Switzerland’s Mauro Schmid (Jayco-AlUla) on yet another day to remember for the second-tier wildcard team.
Australia’s Ben O’Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) was put under serious pressure by the EF Education-EasyPost team of Ecuador’s Richard Carapaz but battled back to finish safely in the group of GC favourites over six minutes down. Despite briefly losing the red jersey on the road, O’Connor will now start the penultimate summit finish on Friday with his five-second lead over Slovenia’s Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) intact.
“I’ll see what tomorrow brings. At least to still have [the red jersey] tonight means it’s a special day again. Tomorrow should be easier because at least you just have a final climb to deal with. It’s much simpler than today: 25 minutes top to bottom,” O’Connor said.
One rider who no longer poses a threat to O’Connor’s lead is Mikel Landa (Soudal Quick-Step) who had a day to forget on his home roads. Entering the stage in fifth place, Landa dropped to 10th after the veteran Basque climber was unable to respond to a series of accelerations from Carapaz on the second categorised climb of the day around 50km from the finish.
Soudal Quick-Step sacrificed their three men in the breakaway – Mauri Vansevenant, Casper Pedersen and, perhaps controversially, Mattia Cattanao – but even this extra horsepower was not enough to stem the bleeding as Landa came home 3’20” back to lose any chances of finishing on the final podium.
Billed as the last day for the breakaway, Stage 18 was always going to witness a mad rush to drink at the last chance saloon. And so it proved during a fast and frenetic opening hour of racing that saw the peloton cover the best part of 50km at breakneck speed.
When the move finally came it was a big one that included over 40 riders and featured specialists such as Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Dstny) and Jhonatan Narvaez (Ineos Grenadiers), as well as double stage winner Castrillo and strong climbers in Soler, his UAE team-mate Brandon McNulty, Russia’s Aleksandr Vlasov (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and the in-form British youngster Max Poole (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL).
One of three teams that failed to make the cut was Euskaltel-Euskadi in what was nothing short of a disaster for a team riding on their home Basque roads. This sparked a hapless chase from the men in orange, with duo Mikel Bizkarra and Gotzon Martin eventually zipping up the road on the Cat. 2 Alto de Rivas de Tereso in pursuit.
Once a chase group of eight riders had formed around that Euskatel duo, the peloton eased up and allowed the advantage of the main breakaway to swell. With the best-placed rider, Vlasov, over 23 minutes down on O’Connor’s race lead, Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale were happy to see the gap grow above the 10-minute mark.
After Soler has pocketed the KOM points over the summit, a powerhouse trio of Stefan Kung (Groupama-FDJ), Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek) and Swiss champion Schmid rode clear of the breakaway to establish a lead of one minute on the lumpy approach to the major test of the day.
It was on the Cat. 1 Puerto Herrara where all the decisive moves came – both on the front of the race, and in the pursuing peloton.
From the initial move of 42 riders, a baker’s dozen laid down their stage-winning credentials as the Kung-Schmid-Vacek trio was joined by Soler, Vlasov, Poole, Cattaneo, Spanish duo Ion Izagirre (Cofidis) and Oier Lazkano (Movistar), the Dutch veteran Steven Kruijswijk (Visma-Lease a Bike) and no fewer than three Kern Pharma riders in Castrillo, Berrade and Miquel.
Further behind, Ecuador’s Carapaz decided to throw down the hammer and made a series of attacks to whittle down the group of GC favourites and ask serious questions of O’Connor’s red jersey credentials.
Supported by British duo Owain Doull and James Shaw, who had dropped back from the initial breakaway, Carapaz put in a sustained pull with Enric Mas (Movistar) and triple champion Roglic on his back wheel, momentarily distancing O’Connor and shelling Landa out the back door.
It was soon panic stations for Soudal Quick-Step whose breakaway riders Vansevenant and Pedersen dropped back to try and pull their leader back into contention. But with the gap soon growing above two minutes, even Cattaneo was given his marching orders – this despite the Italian entering the final 15km in the leading group and with a chance of competing for the win.
Back with the leaders, Kern Pharma held the numerical advantage and arguably had the ace card in fast finisher Miquel, fresh from his fourth top five finish in this Vuelta.
But they held another option up their sleeve – and when Kruijswijk went for broke on a punchy hill with 6km remaining, Berrade bounded forward to peg back the Dutchman and then kick on towards the brow.
Berrade held a 12-second gap over the top and then descended like a demon before keeping cool on the uphill rise towards the finish. He and his team had played a blinder to bring about an unlikely third stage win on a day their fellow Spanish wildcard team Euskaltel experienced an utter nightmare.
“At the beginning of the Vuelta, our team manager told me you have to win to be famous,” Berrade said after the first pro win of his career. “I said that it was difficult for me because I’m not a big media guy but with this victory maybe I have a chance.”
After a victory in his debut Grand Tour, fame is around the corner for Berrade, who has put himself in the shop window in the same way as his team-mate Castrillo, rumoured to be joining Ineos Grenadiers in 2025.
O’Connor and his rivals for red came home 6’40” down after what proved to be a more difficult day than the Australian expected.
“I really didn’t think it was going to happen on this climb,” O’Connor said of the drama on the Puerto Herrara. “In the end it was pretty decisive for Mikel [Landa] and [defending champion] Sepp [Kuss], who lost quite a bit of time.
“It wasn’t easy today – it was much, much harder than I thought. We were happy with the break but I didn’t expect so much to happen on this climb. You could see so many team-mates waiting up for Richard [Carapaz] or even for the Bora boys, Ineos as well. So, yeah, complicated day.”
O’Connor will take a five-second lead over Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe’s Roglic into Stage 19, a 173.5km ride from Logrono to the Alto de Moncavillo for the race’s penultimate summit finish. But with Spain’s Mas at 1’25” and that man Carapaz still only 1’46” down, O’Connor’s concern won’t only be centred upon the Slovenian as the 79th edition of La Vuelta enters its thrilling endgame.
