Stefan Küng and Enric Mas were smiling at the end of the highly anticipated time trial in Jerez de la Frontera, valid as the 18th stage of the Vuelta a España 2026. The Swiss rider from Tudor, flying through the 32.1 kilometers of today's test at an average speed of 54.4 km/h, secured his second career victory in the Iberian Grand Tour, finishing ahead of young Scottish rider Callum Thornley (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) by 3" and Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) by 9", while the Spanish rider from Movistar defended his overall classification lead, now commanding with 1'37" over Primoz Roglic (Red Bull BORA hansgrohe) and 3'01" over Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM).

The Slovenian, despite giving his all, ultimately recovered only 33 seconds on the Iberian rider, who with his 36'14" delivered one of the best time trials of his career. Not at the same level but still satisfactory was the performance of Oscar Onley (Netcompany INEOS) who, finishing in 17th place at 1'11" from Küng, managed the dual objective of increasing his advantage in the best young rider classification over Jakob Omrzel (sixth in GC and now 57" behind the Briton in the white jersey standings) and closing the gap to Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost), still 4th but with his margin over the Englishman now reduced to 46 seconds.

More to follow.

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