Michael Stohler (Team DSM) went on a long-distance attack on stage 18 of the Vuelta a España, and the 24-year-old Australian rider was caught on the final climb, leaving the stage win out of reach but putting him in the lead for the mountains prize.

Stoller, who also won the Combat Award for his 60km solo ride, started the day in second place in the mountains, led by teammate Romain Bardet with a commanding advantage. Bardet had 51 points at the end of stage 17, 17 points ahead of the Australian and one point ahead of Damiano Caruso (Bahrain Victorious) and Primoš Roglic (Jumbo Visma).

Two of the top five, Magica and Stoller, of course, had a chance to take King of the Mountain points when a great breakaway was set up on the 162-km testing stage that finishes at the top of the Altu del Gammonitaire. Namely, when the UAE Team Emirates riders took the lead of the pack on the first climb, near the summit of Puerto de San Laurientz, Stoller and Timen Arensmann quickly defended their jerseys and followed the back of their peloton teammate Bardet.

And it soon became clear that it was in fact his Australian teammate who was most likely to take the jersey from Bardet on stage 18, as Storer continued to lead and add to his points tally after the start at the Altu de la Coventria.

"I'm happy to keep the jersey in the team today," Stohler said in a team statement. 'We want to win the jersey as a team, so it's better that we both have a lot of points for the next stage.'

Stoller took 59 points, while Bardet attacked from outside the peloton to take second place on the final climb and extend his points tally to 54.

But keeping the polka-dot jersey within the team was not the goal of the day, and Stoller, who will move to Groupama FDJ next year, was looking to add a third solo Vuelta victory to his stage 7 and 10 wins.

That is why he hit the breakaway on the second of four climbs, with over 70km still to go. With Bahrain Victorious leading the chase, the gap was kept too small to instill confidence that the lead group could survive even the start of the final difficult climb, the Altu El Gamoniteil, let alone the top of the 14.6km climb with an average gradient of 9.8%.

"The peloton didn't give us much space, and on the second big climb we only had four minutes. I was hoping the others would come with me so we could ride together down the valley road, but no one responded when I picked up the pace."

"I was happy to get over the second last climb still in front. Heading into the last climb, I knew I needed more than two minutes. It's a long way through the valley road and there is a limit to how long you can keep in front. I was a little unlucky not to have a big advantage on the last climb, especially since it looked like a lot of teams were trying to close the gap. 0]

Stoller was caught by David de la Cruz (UAE Team Emirates) 10km before the finish line, and then by the rest of the overall contenders as the battle for the podium unfolded. In the end, Miguel Angel Lopez (Movistar) won the queen stage of the Vuelta a España, with race leader Roglic finishing second ahead of Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers). Team DSM's Bardet finished 12th. Bardet was the first of Team DSM's racers to cross the finish line in 12th place. Stoller slowed for a moment and finished in 37th place, 11:25 behind the stage winner.