Miguel Angel Lopez finishes 5th at Vuelta a España Stage 18

NUR-SULTAN. KAZINFORM Miguel Angel Lopez made a real cycling show at the 18th stage of the Vuelta a España with 4 climbs of the first category and the finish in Becerril de la Sierra (177.5 km), Kazinform learnt from Astana Pro Team press service.

After a strong work of entire Astana Pro Team, Lopez has attacked on the hardest part of the third climb Puerto de la Morcuera with around 60 km to go. The Astana leader went solo, getting a 30-second gap on the top of the climb, where he caught Omar Fraile, who provided Miguel Angel a very good help on the descent and on the first kilometers of the last climb Puerto de Cotos.

However, a group of the red jersey caught the Astana rider back. It did not stop Lopez as he continued attacking again and again. Finally, he went away together with Primoz Roglic, Alejandro Valverde and Rafal Majka, dropping two dangerous rivals, Nairo Quintana and Tadej Pogacar.

All the final part of the stage Miguel Angel Lopez worked on the first position of his group pushing as hard as he could. In the end of the day, he won 59 seconds on Quintana and Pogacar, finishing 5th at the stage, 17 seconds behind the solo winner Sergio Higuita.

The Slovenian Primoz Roglic still leads in the general classification of La Vuelta, having 2.50 on Valverde, 3.31 on Quintana and 4.17 on Miguel Angel Lopez.

Stage 19 will be held tomorrow: it will be a hilly route from Avila to Toledo with a total distance of 165.2 km.