It was an ambush lurking in plain sight, but no one seemed to notice. On stage 18 of the Vuelta a España, EF Education-EasyPost interrupted two riders in a 42-rider breakaway group, but when James Shaw and Owain Doull quietly dropped out of the move and stopped their wheels near the top of Puerto Herrera with about 45km to go Few paid any attention.

“We had a little tea party at the KoM,” Shaw joked as they reached the finish line in Maestas. 'No, I don't think it was on camera, but we were in the car getting our glasses washed for about three or four minutes--or maybe more. Every time a group came over the climb, I thought, 'Okay, here we are,' but then I knew I had to wait for the next group.”

Shaw and Dool were wary of team leader Richard Calapaz. He was about to launch an attack that would split the peloton on the Puerto Herrera climb and turn the transition stage into a day that would change the Vuelta a España GC standings. [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...]

“Finally, all the hard work and exhaustion in the 40 degree heat and rain has paid off. We have two hard days ahead of us. The conditions are good. We have always done well in the third week and will continue to do well.”

On Friday, the Vuelta heads to the Alto de Moncavillo for the final summit finish. The Slovenians were the first to reach the summit that day, but Karapas did enough to retain the red jersey. He will surely want to be at the front again here.

“Tomorrow is very good and very hard,” Karapas said. I have a lot of good memories of Moncavillo and I want to improve on them.”

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