Team Sky's Nicholas Roche has won stage eighteen of the 70th Vuelta a España.
Tom Dumoulin was in the lead for this 204 kilometre stage from Roa to Riaza and it was one which saw Lotto Soudal's Adam Hansen as a lone breaker after 52 riders had got clear
With 148kms to go, Hansen was joined by Nicolas Roche (Sky), Sebastien Minard (Ag2r-La Mondiale), Darwin Atapuma (BMC), José Gonçalves, Ángel Madrazo (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Cyril Lemoine, Dominique Rollin (Cofidis), Pieter Serry (Etixx-Quick Step), Arnaud Courteille (FDJ), Simon Pellaud, Vicente Reynés (IAM Cycling), Kristijan Durasek (Lampre-Merida), Bart De Clercq, Tosh Van der Sande (Lotto-Soudal), José Joaquín Rojas (Movistar), Songezo Jim (MTN-Qhubeka), André Cardoso (Cannondale-Garmin), Jerome Cousin, Cyril Gautier (Europcar), Eduard Vorganov (Katusha), Tim Roosen (LottoNL-Jumbo), Daniele Bennati, Pawel Poljanski (Tinkoff-Saxo) and Haimar Zubeldia (Trek).
Angel Madrazo of Caja Rural was ahead of Zubeldia and Hansen over the top of the Alto Santibáñez de Ayllón and first over the Alto del Campanario going into the final 100 kilometres of the stage with a lead of six minutes over the peloton.
That was down to five minutes as they rode through through the intermediate sprint at Campillejo before the gap dropped as the riders headed towards the final climb.
Cyril Gautier put in an attack with 29kms left as they started on the Puerto de la Quesera. Nicholas Roche of Team Sky chased with Zubeldia, Atapuma and Cousin whilst back down the road, Fabio Aru tried to attack but every time he did Tom Dumoulin was with him.
Nicholas Roche got up to Gautier and then went past him with 17.1kms left and a lead of 1.08 to the red jersey group.
Haimar Zubeldia joined Nicolas Roche and the duo went over the top of the Puerto de la Quesera with a lead of twenty seconds to José Gonçalves (Caja Rural) who was now chasing.
The pair stayed away and it was Nicholas Roche who took the win in 5.04.00 in a sprint with Zubeldia..Gonçalves was third with Valverde fourth and Chaves fifth.
Tom Dumoulin stuck with Fabio Aru and keeps his leader's jersey for another day.
Roche said: "I was like lets go and it was a mano mano sprint and I think it was our only chant. I'd lost sprints against Zubeldia in the past so I was happy that I did not mess up and then once I finished I thought cool.
The Vuelta is my terrain, every year has been better than others. I like to race in the heat and the Spanish fans give me plenty of support,"