Hola and welcome to live coverage of stage 18 of the Vuelta a Espana - a rolling 200.6km ride from Requena that features one categorised climb before a downhill run to what should be a sprint finish at Gandia on the Mediterranean coast.

No change on the general classification and so it will all come down to tomorrow's 37km time trial and Saturday's final day in the mountains...

Magnus Cort Neilsen is the 12th first time Grand Tour stage winner on this race - an unbelievable stat!

Cort took the win ahead of Nikias Arndt of Giant-Alpecin with either Drucker or Bennati in third. Drucker it was, for BMC. Bennati fourth.

So, a third win for Orica-BikeExchange - and yet another first time Grand Tour stage winner in the Dane Nielsen.

Wow - what a sprint - so many possibilities and around five riders cross the line together... but it's a victory for Magnus Cort Nielsen of Orica-BikeExchange!

Under the flamme rouge and Giant Alpecin have taken it up...

Tight left-hander on another roundabout as the road bottlenecks once again. Etixx in control now.

All over for Bakelants as this peloton of 100-odd riders sweeps by. Many riders are easing up now they've past the 3-to-go banner.

Long range attack from Jan Bakelants of Ag2R-La Mondiale - he has a gap but surely he has no chance.

A very wide road now and it's very aggressive on the front as Rojas leads the way for Movistar. Lotto and Trek getting ready now.

Chris Froome is right near the front and alongside Nairo Quintana - and another roundabout... Astana and Giant and Movistar in control.

There are many roundabouts on this approach - and Movistar have come to the front accordingly. Bora, Etixx, Orica and Astana are all there too, as are Giant and Sky, Katusha even. These Vuelta sprints are anyone's game.

That pinch point as the peloton left the highway has caused a fair bit of choas as the pack spreads out in a long line ahead of the 10-to-go banner. Sky are trying to mix things up and cause a split but it's too little, too late.

Team Sky, Tinkoff, Movistar and LottoNL-Jumbo start jostling for position on the front of the peloton... and that's it for the four leaders, who are swept up just as the riders leave the highway and negotiate a tight round-about ahead of joining a smaller road.

Still 22 seconds for the leaders, who are holding on despite the futility of it all.

One team that's been quite absent today is BMC who, of course, got a win through Jempy Drucker on Monday ahead of the rest day. Drucker and his BMC team-mates Darwin Atapuma and Ben Hermans were all quite active in leading the chase yesterday so perhaps they feel they've already done their bit and are opting for the stealth mode today instead. Either that or Drucker doesn't have the legs after his travails yesterday.

Just 30 seconds now for the four leaders - two Frenchmen, a Belgian and a Japanese. They're still on this wide highway but soon the road will drop down a little before the final run down to the coast and the finish at Gandia.

Those four escapees are back together now after Rolland and Beppu managed to close the gap. They're fighting for scraps now. Here's that moment Cattaneo threw his bottle at the camera motorbike...

Jauregui takes on a new water bottle - and a bit of a tug - before launching an attack near the top of a slight rise in the road. He takes Vervaeke with him while Rolland and Beppu are dropped. The gap is down to 50 seconds now and so it's no surprise someone is trying something... all in the name of a red number on the jersey as the most combative.

Cattaneo just threw a water bottle at a cameraman which was trying to film him as he dropped back to the peloton. So any money he may have won by being in the break will probably find its way into the race jury pocket...