Küng finds his margin in the middle ten kilometres
Stefan Küng has spent a career finishing close. This afternoon in Andalusia he finished first. The Tudor Pro Cycling rider covered the 32.1km between El Puerto de Santa María and Jerez de la Frontera in 35:22.82, an average of 54.4km/h, and took stage 18 of the Vuelta a España by three seconds.
Callum Thornley had set the mark. The 23-year-old Scot went through the first check 19 seconds up on Ethan Hayter, stretched that to 23 seconds by the second, and stopped the clock at 35:25. João Almeida came within six seconds of him and no closer. Küng was one second behind Almeida at 11.7km. Then he rode the section between 11.7km and 22.1km eleven seconds faster than Thornley, and that was the stage.
The closing ten kilometres nearly took it back. The roads tighten on the run into Jerez and several corners were slippery, so Küng eased where he would rather have pushed. His buffer shrank to a little over two seconds on the raw timing before the official classification rounded it up to three. Both of his Grand Tour stage wins now come from Vuelta time trials, the first in Madrid in 2024.
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Roglič moves up, Mas hangs on
Primož Roglič began the day third overall, 2:10 behind Enric Mas and four seconds behind Félix Gall. He was 22 seconds up on the red jersey after 11.7km and 36 seconds up at 22.1km. Sustained to the line, that rate would have dragged the overall gap towards a minute. Mas found something on the closing section instead and clawed three of those seconds back, finishing 33 seconds down with the twelfth-fastest time of the day.
Roglič placed fourth on the stage at 19 seconds, behind Almeida and ahead of Wout van Aert, who sat within seven seconds of Küng at the second check before fading to 20. Gall conceded 1:28 to Roglič and drops to third overall at 3:01. Roglič now sits second at 1:37.
The mountains arrive immediately
Mas built that cushion on Aitana, Calar Alto and the Sierra de La Pandera precisely so that a flat 32km against Roglič would not decide his Vuelta. Ninety-seven seconds of it survive. Peñas Blancas comes next, then Saturday’s climb to Collado del Alguacil, where the final 8.3km average 9.8%. Roglič has not gone clear of Mas uphill once in three weeks. He now has two chances left.
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