Vuelta a Espana, stage 18 summary

Stage 18 : Sep 16, Valladolid - Salamanca, 148.9 km

1 Mark Cavendish (GBr) Team HTC-Columbia 3.27.11
2 Juan-Jose Haedo (Arg) Team Saxo Bank
3 Manuel Cardoso (Por) Footon-Servetto
4 Tyler Farrar (USA) Garmin-Transitions
5 Samuel Dumoulin (Fra) Cofidis, le credit en ligne
6 Robert Forster (Ger) Team Milram
7 Enrique Mata (Spa) Footon-Servetto
8 Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto
9 Wouter Weylandt (Bel) Quick Step
10 Danilo Hondo (Ger) Lampre-Farnese Vini


Changes in GC, stage 18 compared to stage 17 :

Biggest gainers by position :
+3 Samuel Dumoulin
+3 Robert Forster
+3 Matthew Goss
+3 Mark Cavendish
+3 Kasper Klostergaard
+3 Juan-Jose Haedo
+3 Joan Horrach
+3 Enrique Mata
+2 Tyler Farrar
+2 Sebastien Chavanel

Biggest losers by position :
-6 Jose Vicente Toribio
-3 Christophe Riblon
-3 Daniele Pietropolli
-3 Javier Moreno
-3 Jose Angel Gomez-Marchante
-2 Alexandre Pichot
-2 David Gutierrez Gutierrez
-2 Davide Malacarne
-2 Jacopo Guarnieri
-2 Manuele Mori
-2 Martin Pedersen

Biggest gainers by time :
+0:26 Mark Cavendish
+0:18 Juan-Jose Haedo
+0:14 Manuel Cardoso
+0:06 Yauheni Hutarovich
+0:06 Wouter Weylandt
+0:06 Tyler Farrar
+0:06 Samuel Dumoulin
+0:06 Robert Forster
+0:06 Matthew Goss
+0:06 Greg Van Avermaet

Biggest losers by time :
-7:27 Michel Kreder
-4:21 Davide Malacarne
-4:21 Pierre Cazaux
-4:17 Jose Vicente Toribio
-3:56 Olivier Kaisen
-3:25 Aleksandr Dyachenko
-3:25 David Gutierrez Gutierrez
-3:25 Juan Javier Estrada
-3:25 Lars-Ytting Bak
-3:25 Manuele Mori
-3:25 Martin Pedersen

Favourites by position :
-1 Roman Kreuziger

Favourites by time :
+0:01 Luis-Leon Sanchez
+0:01 Frank Schleck
+0:01 Ezequiel Mosquera
+0:01 Allan Davis
-0:03 Xavier Tondo
-0:03 Ruben Plaza
-0:03 Joaquin Rodriguez
-0:03 David Arroyo
-0:03 Carlos Sastre
-0:39 Roman Kreuziger
-1:04 Denis Menchov
-1:14 Christian Vande Velde

Top 10 and favourites GC standings (previous stage in parens) :
1 Vincenzo Nibali 74:47:06 (unchanged)
2 Ezequiel Mosquera 0:38 (was 2nd at 0:39)
3 Peter Velits 1:59 (was 3rd at 2:00)
4 Frank Schleck 3:43 (was 4th at 3:44)
5 Joaquin Rodriguez 3:48 (was 5th at 3:45)
6 Xavier Tondo 3:48 (was 6th at 3:45)
7 Tom Danielson 3:58 (was 7th at 3:55)
8 Nicholas Roche 4:02 (was 8th at 4:03)
9 Carlos Sastre 4:16 (was 9th at 4:13)
10 Luis-Leon Sanchez 5:42 (was 10th at 5:43)
.....
16 Ruben Plaza 13:58 (was 16th at 13:55)
.....
21 David Arroyo 21:57 (was 21st at 21:54)
.....
28 Roman Kreuziger 32:06 (was 27th at 31:27)
.....
41 Denis Menchov 1:04:11 (was 41st at 1:03:07)
.....
65 Christian Vande Velde 1:46:02 (was 65th at 1:44:48)
.....
88 Allan Davis 2:07:53 (was 88th at 2:07:54)

Top 10 on Points table with previous in parens:
1 Mark Cavendish 136 (was 1st with 111 points)
2 Tyler Farrar 104 (was 3rd with 90 points)
3 Joaquin Rodriguez 93 (was 2nd with 93 points)
4 Vincenzo Nibali 89 (unchanged)
5 Philippe Gilbert 75 (unchanged)
6 David Moncoutie 72 (unchanged)
7 Ezequiel Mosquera 72 (unchanged)
8 Peter Velits 68 (unchanged)
9 Daniele Bennati 54 (was 10th with 53 points)
10 Nicolas Roche 53 (was 9th with 53 points)

Top 10 on Mountains table with previous in parens:
1 David Moncoutie 48 (unchanged)
2 Serafin Martinez 38 (unchanged)
3 Luis-Leon Sanchez 25 (unchanged)
4 Gonzalo Rabunal 25 (unchanged)
5 Mikel Nieve 21 (unchanged)
6 Joaquin Rodriguez 19 (unchanged)
7 Ezequiel Mosquera 16 (unchanged)
8 Carlos Barredo 15 (unchanged)
9 Niki Terpstra 14 (unchanged)
10 Xavier Tondo 11 (unchanged)

Retirements to date : Stage
David Zabriskie (USA) Garmin-Transitions 18
Theo Bos (Ned) Cervelo Test Team 17
Thor Hushovd (Nor) Cervelo Test Team 17
Laurens Ten Dam (Ned) Rabobank 16
Arthur Vichot (Fra) FDJ 15
Benat Intxausti (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 15
Jelle Vanendert (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto 15
Jose-Luis Arrieta (Spa) Ag2R-La Mondiale 15
Oscar Freire (Spa) Rabobank 15
Denis Galimzyanov (Rus) Team Katusha 14
Egoi Martinez (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 14
Igor Anton (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 14
Stefan Denifl (Aut) Cervelo Test Team 14
Hayden Roulston (NZL) Team HTC-Columbia 13
Julian Dean (NZL) Garmin-Transitions 13
David Vitoria (Swi) Footon-Servetto 12
Roy Sentjens (Bel) Team Milram 12
Markus Fothen (Ger) Team Milram 11
Philip Deignan (Irl) Cervelo Test Team 11
Andy Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank 10
Stuart O'Grady (Aus) Team Saxo Bank 10
Yoann Offredo (Fra) FDJ 10
Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) Lampre-Farnese Vini 9
Freddy Bichot (Fra) BBOX Bouygues Telecom 9
Mickael Delage (Fra) Omega Pharma-Lotto 9
Pierre Rolland (Fra) BBOX Bouygues Telecom 9
Branislau Samoilau (Blr) Quick Step 8
Ian Stannard (GBR) Team Sky 8
Kjell Carlstrom (Fin) Team Sky 8
Lars-Petter Nordhaug (Nor) Team Sky 8
Peter Kennaugh (GBR) Team Sky 8
Simon Gerrans (Aus) Team Sky 8
Thomas Lofkvist (Swi) Team Sky 8
Juan-Antonio Flecha (Spa) Team Sky 7
Bernhard Eisel (Aut) Team HTC-Columbia 4
Benjamin Swift (GBR) Team Sky 3
John-Lee Augustyn (RSA) Team Sky 3
Arkaitz Duran (Spa) Footon-Servetto 2
Mickael Buffaz (Fra) Cofidis, le credit en ligne 2
Total retirements : 39


(This report can also be seen at http://homepage.ntlworld.com/rvmartin2)