Vuelta a Espana 2025 Stage 18 | Filippo Ganna gives INEOS 3rd win; Almeida gains time back on Vingegaard

INEOS Grenadiers have their 3rd stage win of the 2025 Vuelta a Espana! Filippo Ganna has powered to victory in a reduced stage 18 time trial. Meanwhile, João Almeida gained back 10 seconds on Jonas Vingegaard.

After early strong times from the likes of Ethan Vernon (13:21) and Daan Hoole (13:19), the INEOS Grenadiers' time trial specialist Filippo Ganna laid down a real marker when he crossed the line in just 13:00, setting a new benchmark, moving into the hotseat and averaging a quite ridiculous 56.2 kilometres and hour for the 12.2km course.

Mads Pedersen put in a strong showing, but eventually clocked the provisional 3rd best time, 21 seconds down on Ganna'a effort. Remi Cavagna also looked strong for a while, but eventually faded out to 21 seconds down on the Italian powerhouse. The next rider to come anywhere near Ganna's time was UAE's Portuguese Ivo Oliveira, who set the provisional 2nd fastest time, 'only' 11 seconds behind the lead.

Kelland O'Brien and Alec Segeart then threatened Ganna's time, but again, the Italian's effort proved just too strong as they had to settle for a provisional 3rd and 4th respectively at 15 and 16 seconds down.

Juan Ayuso clocked in at just over 13 seconds off Ganna, before the biggest test yet for the Italian came in the form of Swiss time trial specialist Stefan Kung. The Groupama - FDJ star had Ganna writhing in the hotseat, but ultimately couldn't improve on his rival's time, missing out by 11 seconds at the line. Jay Vine then got as close as anyone, putting in a huge effort to stop the clock less then a second slower than Ganna, sliding into a provisional 2nd place.

Then came the times of the big general classification contenders. Giulio Pellizzari stopped the clock at 13:46. His teammate Jai Hindley was quicker at 13:32. Tom Pidcock then clocked 13:30, narrowly extending his podium advantage. Joao Almeida put in a strong performance with his effort of 13:08, before Jonas Vingegaard closed out the day with his time of 13:18, losing 10 seconds to his Portuguese rival.