Cycling: Nibali Vuelta lead cut to just three seconds

Italian rider Vincenzo Nibali of Italy saw his overall lead in the Vuelta a Espana cut to just three seconds after he finished 10th on stage 18 on Thursday. Team Sky's Vasil Kiryienka of Belarus won the mountainous 186.5km stage while Nibali's nearest rival Chris Horner of the United States came sixth, 25 seconds ahead of the race leader. Alejandro Valverde and Joaquim Rodriguez both managed to get a handful of seconds on Nibali. Valverde and Rodriguez remain in third and fourth place respectively in the general classification for the Vuelta, which finishes in Madrid on Sunday. Thursday's 18th stage, from Burgos to Pena Cabarga, included five climbs and a tricky final ascent. Denmark's Chris Sorensen was the only rider to finish within a minute of Kiryienka to take second place in the stage. The 19th stage which takes place on Friday is a 181km medium mountain stage between San Vicente de la Barquera and Alto del Naranco and the overall race winner will probably be decided on Saturday's big mountain stage. Here are the outright race winner odds at Bet365: Chris Horner - 4/9 Vincenzo Nibali - 2/1 Alejandro Valverde - 16/1 Joaquim Rodriguez - 25/1 Nicholas Roche - 125/1