Dumoulin defends lead in Vuelta

Tom Dumoulin defended his lead in the 18th stage of the Vuelta de Espana (Tour of Spain) cycle race on Thursday as he was able to withstand a series of powerful attacks from his main rivals for the overall win.

Dumoulin held off attacks from second placed Fabio Aru on the 204 km stage between Ria and Riaza, which took in a second and a first category climb in the last 40 kilometers.

With 33 kilometers remaining, Joaquin Rodriguez, who lost the leader's red jersey in Wednesday's time trial, showed he was going to do his best to try and regain in, although his attack was soon reeled in.

However it was second placed Fabio Aru's Astana team who looked to but the pressure on Dumoulin, who began with a slender 3 second lead over the Italian.

Astana looked to isolate Dumoulin from his Giant-Alpecin team-mates and leave him exposed for the final climb of the day, but even when Aru looked to attack on his own the Dutchman was able to respond with relative ease and the duo crossed the line in a group containing Rodriguez, Esteban Chaves and Alejandro Valverde.

While the battle for the red jersey was going on, a minute ahead Nicolas Roche and Haimar Zubeldia were a minute up the road and arrived together to the final straight where Roche (Sky) was the strongest sprinter and took the stage ahead of the veteran Basque.

Friday sees the race go to Avila in a stage with two relatively comfortable mountains and the destiny of the Vuelta will almost certainly be decided on Saturday on a day with four first category climbs. Endit