SPANIARD URKO BERRADE soloed to victory in Thursday’s 18th stage of the Vuelta a Espana in the Basque Country as Australia’s Ben O’Connor held the overall race lead.
Berrade, 26, gave his Kern Pharma team their third stage win of this year’s race, powering over the line in his home region four seconds ahead of Swiss Mauro Schmid. Another Kern Pharma rider Pau Miquel crossed the line in third.
O’Connor, riding for the Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale team, held his five-second advantage on Slovenian three-time champion Primoz Roglic after the medium mountain stage over 179.5km from Vitoria-Gasteiz to Maeztu.
Cork’s Eddie Dunbar finished in the red jersey group in 39th place, moving up to 13th in the general classification with three stages remaining, while Tyrone’s Darren Rafferty finished nearly 20 minutes adrift of Berrade.
Friday’s 19th stage arrives at the summit of Alto De Moncalvillo in La Rioja region, with another decisive mountain top finish on Saturday before the final time trial in Madrid on Sunday.
Wouldn’t have TAA in team, not a solid enough defender, probably put Aina at RB. Robinson would be my LB. Hard to argue with rest of team. Tyler Dibbling having a super season in an awful Southampton team and will certainly be with a bigger team in January or maybe the summer
@Ger Power: then you don’t watch football, going on about Trent being a bad defender is so lazy. Easily been the best rb in the league. Not even a Liverpool fan btw.
@Ger Power: As a Liverpool fan Robinson is nowhere near the team of the year. He’s been off the pace this season. TAA is by far the best RB at the moment in the premier league though and it’s not remotely close.
@Daire O’Reilly: Robinson Fulham, not Robertson Liverpool
Dont agree gavin should be kellegher trent ibooooo vvd robinson mcalister jones mo diaz cody and the player of the season 22 year old midefielder
@Shanie: is there a google translate for you?
@Shanie: sorry cian cant see your reply i mutted u i bet u mocking my spelling again grow up happy xmas
Delap and Duran great shouts as honorable mentions.
No room for Harry (the thug) Maguire???
@Ollie Fitzpatrick: stay classy Oliver.
@Ollie Fitzpatrick: what a sad case.
@Ollie Fitzpatrick: shocking and evens as well and bruno rashford holand least the overated guy midefield not mentioned