Cycling:Mark Cavendish claimed his third stage win of the Vuelta a Espana to all but secure his first points classification success on a grand tour.
The Manxman once again showed his sprinting prowess to claim the win for Team HTC-Columbia ahead of Juan Jose Haedo (Team Saxo Bank) and Manuel Cardoso (Footon-Servetto) on the 148.9 kilometre run from Valladolid to Salamanca.
Tyler Farrar, Cavendish’s closest rival for the points title, finished the stage in fourth place.
With the stage being relatively short a group of eight riders - Dominik Roels (Team Milram), Alberto Benitez (Footon-Servetto), Juan Javier Estrada (Andalucia-Cajasur), Jose Toribio (Andalucia-Cajasur), Pablo Urtasun (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Alexandre Pichot (BBOX Bouygues Telecom), Daniele Pietropolli (Lampre-Farnese Vini) and Olivier Kaisen (Omega Pharma-Lotto) – made the decision to stage an early break.
Their lead got out to over three minutes after 37km, but it soon began to be clawed back by the peloton and they were eventually swallowed up with less than 16km to go.
Phillippe Gilbert was the first man to launch an attack but he soon came back to the pack. Lead-out man Matt Goss than launched Cavendish on his run to the line, the Briton just holding off Haedo to seal the win.
It proved to be a steady day for the general classification leaders as Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Doimo) retained the red jersey with a 39-second lead over
Ezequiel Mosquera (Xacobeo Galicia), with Cavendish’s HTC-Columbia team-mate Peter Velits a further 80 seconds back.
Ireland’s Nicolas Roche finished well-down in 27th today but still hold onto eighth place in the overall standings.
Tomorrow’s 19th stage of 21 sees the field travel the 231.2km from Piedrahita to Toledo. The Tour of Spain finishes in Madrid on Sunday.
Results: Stage 18/Overall Standings (Provisional)
1. Mark Cavendish (Britain / HTC - Columbia) 3hrs 27mins 11s
2. Juan Jose Haedo (Argentina / Saxo Bank) same time
3. Manuel Cardoso (Portugal / Footon)
4. Tyler Farrar (U.S. / Garmin)
5. Samuel Dumoulin (France / Cofidis)
6. Robert Foerster (Germany / Milram)
7. Enrique Mata (Spain / Footon)
8. Greg Van Avermaet (Belgium / Omega Pharma - Lotto)
9. Wouter Weylandt (Belgium / Quick-Step)
10. Danilo Hondo (Germany / Lampre)
27: Nicolas Roche (Ireland/Ag2r La Mondiale)
Overall standings
1. Vincenzo Nibali (Italy / Liquigas) 74 hrs 47 mins 06 secs
2. Ezequiel Mosquera (Spain / Xacobeo) +38 secs
3. Peter Velits (Slovakia / HTC - Columbia) +1:59"
4. Fraenk Schleck (Luxembourg / Saxo Bank) +3:43"
8. Nicolas Roche (Ireland/Ag2r La Mondiale) +4:02 secs