Blanco wins stage 18

A tiring Santiago Blanco (ibanesto.com) held off the fast-climbing Roberto Heras (US Postal) to claim stage 18 of the Vuelta a Espana on Thursday. Heras, who finished second by 40 seconds, increased his lead in the general classification to 1'12".

RE-LIVE: Vuelta stage 18 as it happened!

The 2002 Vuelta's final difficult mountain stage, a 193.7-kilometre ride from Salamanca to the summit finish in Estación de la Covatilla (Béjar), was won in a gruelling five hours, four minutes and 17 seconds.

Featuring four major climbs, including the category one ascent up the Puerto de Honduras (reaching 1,450m in altitude) and the special category trek to the top of the Covatilla ski station (2,010m), riders 'enjoyed' their last mountain-top finish of this year's Vuelta.

Thursday's stage also marked race leader and climbing specialist Heras' last chance to gain precious time on current runner up Aitor Gonzalez (Kelme). Finishing eighth, the Spanish time trial standout lost another 37 seconds on Heras and, now lying only 1'12" adrift, Gonzalez still has a realistic opportunity to win the Vuelta during Sunday's time-trial in Madrid.

Nevertheless, the battle for Blanco was all about winning the stage. Part of an early 19-man attack group, the Ibanesto.com rider was literally the last man standing and did most of the critical work alone. Despite crumbling apart on the final climb, Blanco found the resources to hold off the oncoming Heras and claim his first stage of this year's Vuelta.

Heras, who broke away from the main peloton with 5km to go, left his attack too late and was unable to catch Blanco. The diminutive Spaniard - Lance Armstrong's right-wing man for the Tour de France - now leads Gonzalez by 1'12" and Oscar Sevilla (Kelme), who finished 7th, by 1'45".