La Vuelta a Espana 2024 Stage 18 as it happened: Bold Berrade wins from the break as Landa drops to tenth and O'Connor retains red

Another masterclass from the Spanish minnows today as Urko Berrade took the spoils in sensational fashion.

Urko Berrade after his win: At the beginning of the Vuelta, our team manager told me you have to win to be famous. 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.

And some words from Ben O'Connor, who briefly lost the red jersey on the road before battling back: I really didn’t think it was going to happen on this climb. In the end it was pretty decisive for Mikel and Sepp, 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 or even for the Bora boys, Ineos as well. So, yeah, complicated day.

Three Kern Pharma riders in the top 10 on a day Euskaltel-Euskadi failed to even put a single rider in the break in the Basque Country.

1 Urko Berrade (Equipo Kern Pharma) 4:00:52
2. Mauro Schmid (Jayco-AlUla) +04
3. Pau Miquel (Equipo Kern Pharma) “
4. Max Poole (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL) “
5. Aleksandr Vlasov (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) “
6. Oier Lazkano (Movistar) “
7. Ion Izagirre (Cofidis) “
8. Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek) “
9. Pablo Castrillo (Equipo Kern Pharma) “
10. Steven Kruijswijk (Visma-Lease a Bike) “

As well as the Spaniard, the defending champion Sepp Kuss is in this group that concedes 3'20" to the red jersey group. Bad day in the office for Mikel Landa, who drops to 10th place in the GC.

The Australian comes home in the group of GC favourites - minus Mikel Landa - to retain his five-second lead over Primoz Roglic in the standings. They crossed the line 6'40" down on winner, Urko Berrade.

Paul Miquel looks set to take second place but just eases up to celebrate his team-mate’s victory and that allows Mauro Schmid (Jayco-AlUla) to nip ahead on the line, four seconds down.

Urko Berrade wins Stage 18 of La Vuelta after holding on for a magnificent victory. What a performance from Equipo Kern Pharma, who had three men in the winning move and played their cards just right.

That's a maiden pro win for the 26-year-old Grand Tour debutant - and he's done it with his parents watching at the finish. The stuff of dreams.

What a win this will be for the Basque rider if he can pull it off. But the road ramps up under the flamme rouge and it’s still touch and go.

But can he hold on? The speeds are super high – around 90kmph – but he has 10 seconds to play with. The chase group, minus Kung, have reformed and combining well behind.

The Spaniard has a really good gap as he continues up this climb. Kung has hit the wall while Soler also seems to be in difficulty. It’s Schmid who leads the chase now as Kruijswijk is swallowed up.

We have two out ahead on this uncategorised climb and they have a small gap on the chasers. Lazkano leads the chase as Berrade decides to go alone and rides away from the Dutchman, who seems to have hit the wall.

Kung, Vlasov, Izagirre, Poole, Lazkano and Vacek open up a small gap, which needs to be closed by the others. It is closed just in time for that climb, where Kruijswijk makes his move.

On paper it's Pau Miquel but that's making the assumption that it will come down to a sprint between these 12 leaders. We still have a tough hill that peaks out at around 4km to go and so some riders - including Miquel - could be distanced on that test.

The likes of Kung and Schmid have great legs and powerful engines - they could ride clear on the approach. Soler, Poole and Castrillo have been climbing well so could use the hill as a launchpad.

It's so hard to call this. Mathias Vacek is also a very fast finisher...

The Spaniard will drop from 5th to 10th on GC today after being dropped on that last climb. Even Mattia Cattaneo won't be able to stop the rot, which makes a complete mockery of that bizarre decision to send him back to help Landa.

Surely Soudal Quick-Step won’t call back Cattaneo as well? He’s having a big discussion with his DS just behind the break and it looks like they’ve decided to send him back to help Landa. The Italian is not happy with that. They’re throwing away a chance of winning the stage to flog a dead horse behind.

"Disgusting," says Robbie McEwen; "Totally crazy," harrumphs Sean Kelly; "Misjudged," harps Carlton Kirby.

The Spaniard has team-mates Casper Pedersen and Mauri Vansevenant with him now but he’s now 2’15” behind and at this rate he could even drop out of the top 10 today.

The last man to bridge over to the leading group is one of three Kern Pharma riders in this move. Pau Miquel already has four top five finishes in this race and will have a huge chance to take a maiden Grand Tour stage win – and his team’s third in what is proving to be an excellent Vuelta.

The baker’s dozen on the front are Kruijswijk, Soler, Cattaneo, Vacek, Vlasov, Kung, Lazkano, Schmid, Poole, Izagirre, Berrade, Castrillo and Miquel.

Ben O’Connor has made it back on in a swelling group of GC favourites which contains everyone in the top 10 except Mikel Landa, who looks to be the day’s big loser. The veteran Basque is almost two minutes back now in a group with the likes of Adam Yates, Nairo Quintana, Sepp Kuss and Guillaume Martin.

We’re still in a two-race situation with the leaders over eight minutes clear of the red jersey group, which now includes many of the initial escapees such as Narvaez and McNulty.

Visma-Lease a Bike have confirmed that Wout van Aert is out of the UCI Road World Championships in Zurich after his heavy crash two days ago. The Belgian was forced to quit the race after suffering a nasty knee injury on Tuesday, which forced him to relinquish his green and polka dot jerseys. Van Aert had made a terrific return to form at the Vuelta, claiming a hat-trick of stage wins, but he will not race again until 2025.