Giro d'Italia - Stage 18

After spending three days in the breakaway Peter Sagan
decided to take it easy and save energy by riding in the peloton
with a 60 point cushion on top challenger Cunego.
And by doing so he didn't pick up any points here on stage 16.

The GC contenders have had this day marked on the their calendar from the start. And they sure didn't miss out of their opportunity. Although a 11 man breakaway looked dangerous throughout the day they eventually had to make way for the attacks from the favourites. Nibali made the boldest move by attacking 50kms out and was allowed to get a gap. I guess the peloton is sick of chasing his suicide moves. The other climbers toke their chances between 15-25kms to go where Cunego proved to be the strongest once again as he quickly bridged the gap to Nibali on the final climb. Cunego opened a 50 second lead on Nibali; who was joined by Michele Scarponi, Ryder Hesjedal, Rigoberto Uran, and Mikel Nieve at the top. But from there Nibali went to work and used his expert downhill skills. He closed within 20 seconds of Cunego but when the sprint opened up he had nothing left in his tank. And eventually had to settle for 3rd as Lampre goes 1-2 with Cunego and Scarponi.
Not the result Sagan wanted to hear over the team radio.

The last flat stage of the Giro is perhaps the easiest of them all,
as it is downhill all the way to the finish and is only 137kms long.



And the view isn't that bad either as the riders slash through the valleys of the high mountains. But they can't enjoy the scenery to much as a 8 man breakaway opens up a 3 minute gap rather early.



Liquigas puts all their efforts toward Sagan as they keep the breakaway in sight and within 3-4 minutes for the rest of the stage.



Not wanting to use energy up at the sprint point they allow the breakaway to stay in the lead and collect the points before they bring them back.



As we line up for the sprint it looked like there was going to be two trains, GreenEdge and Garmin. But when Goss gets a huge lead on the left Garmin decides to jump behind Sagan; who is positioned on the back wheel of Goss.



1km to go and Goss is in perfect position with Sagan right behind.
Farrar and Ventoso are forced to launch early to get a jump on Goss.



A nice top overview provide by the helicopter.



Goss starts his sprint with 650 meters to go.
Sagan kicks out his slipstream 100 meters later.



But both are unable to catch Tyler Farrar!
Goss comes a wheel short to finish 2nd,
with Sagan left in 3rd after not having a strong kick to get around Goss.

The final report for the Giro is going to take hours to write up,
so expect it near the end of the upcoming week.

Will the story continue or come to an astonishing end in Italy?

Peter Sagan has a nice 51 point cushion on Cunego heading into the final 3 stages, 2 of which are mountain stages followed by the ITT finale. Sagan feels rather safe since he believes he is a better time trailer then Damiano but after 3 weeks of racing fatigue certainly is going to play a huge roll as well. Sagan had said before the stage he sees no reason to get in the breakaway and will just ride these two mountain stages out and save energy for stage 21. So it should be interesting to see how many points Cunego can gain back in two stages. For now lets look at how the first mountain stage panned out.

A breakaway of 11 got away around 20kms into the stage, including Liquigas rider Eros Capecchi. And it was remarkable at how quick the grew their gap out to 5 minutes, then 10, then 15, then 20! The peloton just don't seem interested at all. Sagan is getting the massive time gaps
over the radio and is loving every second of it because if the
breakaway survives Cunego is looking at very few points at the finish.

It's almost like Cunego could hear Sagan mocking them as the pace increases heavily as they enter the second half of the race. Lampre and Sky control and front is they quickly reduce the deficit to 15 minutes
with 10kms. But there are only 50kms left to race!

As the peloton makes it onto the final climb the breakaway has crumbled as riders are up and down the roadside but they are all still 7 or more minutes in the lead. But the pace is hot now as Sagan was dropped on the previous climb.

Sky does all the work, well mostly Chris Froome, as they lead the pink jersey of Uran along with the rest of the climbers through the final slope.

Fatigue hits the breakaway hard is Froome wipes out the 20 minutes lead and catches the final breakaway rider with 4kms to go! Nibali is struggling to keep in contact with the favourites. It's been a very hard GT for him.

As the climbers sprint it out to the line it's the Lampre duo that finishes 1-2. Sagan's worst nightmare, Cunego takes the win. Scarponi 2nd. And even more eye catching is Cunego gets enough time to take Pink back from Uran! Nibali limps home to the finish and realizes he won't be winning the Giro this year. So all eyes on the Liquigas team turn over to Peter Sagan,
who holds a 26 point lead over Cunego with 2 stages left ...