VUELTA A ESPANA
Armee’s stage as Froome pulls away
Chris Froome is now a huge favourite to become just the third rider to win the Tour de France and Vuelta in the same year
Santo Toribio de Liebana — Chris Froome extended his Vuelta a Espana lead over Vincenzo Nibali to 1min 37sec on Thursday as Belgium’s Sander Armee claimed the 18th stage. Armee edged out Alexey Lutsenko and Giovanni Visconti in a time of 4hr 9min 39sec for the 169km ride from Suances to Santo Toribio de Liebana as the general classification favourites allowed an early 20-strong breakaway group to fight for the stage win. Over 10min back on Armee, Froome staved off a series of attacks in the chasing group with the help of his Sky teammates before accelerating himself in the final 600m to leave Nibali trailing. , and the first since the Vuelta was moved to after the Tour in the cycling calendar back in 1995. The four-time Tour winner had lost 42sec to Nibali on Wednesday as he paid for his efforts in winning the individual time trial a day earlier. However, Froome made amends as only Alberto Contador and Michael Woods could stay with his attack on a category three climb to the finish....
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