No breakaway packed with big names? No double-digit gradient wall to climb before the finish? No subtle change in the GC top ten? Was this really the Vuelta as we know it? It was. Stage 18 gave the sprinters one last day to compete before Madrid. However, they blew it by millimetres and let the two remaining riders from the day’s break contest the win. Jelle Wallays of Lotto-Soudal crossed the line first, UAE’s Sven Erik Bystrom was second and a hard-charging Peter Sagan third.
