Paul Magnier (Soudal-QuickStep) defied expectations and even the prediction of his own team, surviving the Muro di Ca' del Poggio with 10km to go, chasing back on with the sprinters' group and then dominating the reduced bunch sprint to win stage 18 of the Giro d'Italia.
The 50 points on the line vaulted the Frenchman back to the top of the points classification standings as Jhonatan Narváez (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) did not feature in the sprint.
Edoardo Zambanini (Bahrain Victorious) held off Lidl-Trek sprinter Jonathan Milan to take second, while the Italian had to settle for third, with only one chance left for him to take a stage victory on the final day in Rome.
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The race leader Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) sailed through the chaos to continue in the maglia rosa with the same gaps in the GC standings: Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM) second at 4:03 and Thymen Arensman (Netcompany Ineos) third at 4:27.
Vingegaard arrived safely at the finish alongside his teammates (Image credit: Getty Images)
"I did not expect it to happen today, which makes it even more beautiful," Magnier said. "I can really thank my team for the confidence. I was not confident this morning. I even dropped on the first climb and then I tried to focus again, and all my teammates stayed around me on the climb and they made it a sprint, so I'm so happy to win here today."
Few expected the pure sprinters like Magnier and Milan to factor with the Muro – compared to the Mur de Huy – coming with 10.2km to go, but when Magnier's group managed to chase back on with 4km to go, Soudal-Quickstep quickly readjusted their plan.
"It was not the plan we discussed this morning, but sometimes it pays off," Jasper Stuyven said after leading out Magnier to victory. "If he was there, we just had to put him into the right position for the last corner, because it went downhill slightly and to the left.
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"There was a bit of chaos, but we found each other in the right moment."
The stage win put Magnier back into the ciclamino jersey with a far more comfortable margin over Narváez – 195 points to the Ecuadorian's 158. Vingegaard continues to lead the mountains classification by an unassailable margin over Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek). Afonso Eulálio (Bahrain Victorious) continues as the best young rider, and even lit up the finale on stage 18, despite crashing in a feed zone earlier in the stage.
How it unfolded
It was another hot day at the Giro d'Italia for the 171-kilometre stage 18 from Fai della Paganella to Pieve di Soligo, with just two classified climbs on tap – the 3.2km Fastro ascent after 85 kilometres, and the brutally steep Muro di Ca' del Poggio with 10km to go.
With the ciclamino jersey the focus of the day, former points leader Paul Magnier's Soudal-Quickstep team and UAE Team Emirates-XRG of current leader Jhonatan Narváez kept a close eye on the early breakaways. At the start of the stage, Narváez led by 12 points after getting into the breakaway on stage 17, but he made no effort to duplicate his effort.
Instead, the first attempt to form a move came from Filippo Magli (Bardiani CSF 7 Saber) and Johan Jacobs (Groupama-FDJ United), but when Magli was dropped, Jacobs soon followed, and the peloton was back together again after 25km of racing.
Finally, a breakaway
The breakaway on stage 18 of the Giro d'Italia (Image credit: Getty Images)
Multiple attacks followed, and it wasn't until Mattia Bais and Andrea Mifsud (Polti VisitMalta) went clear with 132 kilometres to go that a breakaway was given any time.
The pair dangled within half a minute of the bunch, with several riders trying to leap across, but another 15 kilometres of surges and catches went by until James Shaw (EF Education-EasyPost) picked a perfect moment to jump away. He joined up with the two leaders with 109km to go.
Jonas Geens (Alpecin-Premier Tech) also pushed through a long chase, joining the trio ahead with 104km to go.
The peloton let the breakaway get almost three minutes clear halfway into the stage, but then stabilised the gap at 90 seconds or so.
Bais claimed the KOM points in Fastro and then, as the kilometres counted down to the intermediate sprint in Guia with 35.6km to go, UAE Team Emirates-XRG began bringing down the gap to nearly a minute.
Eulálio crashes, fight for seconds fiercer than points
A crash in a feed zone with 48.6km to go took down white jersey holder Afonso Eulálio (Bahrain Victorious) but did nothing to disrupt the chase, as NSN came forward to help reel in the attackers.
They were still a minute up the road at the sprint where Narváez leapt clear to take the last point remaining, but Bais claimed the maximum points from the breakaway.
A massive acceleration in the peloton after the sprint rapidly eliminated the escapees' gap, and three were back into the fold with 22km to go, as Geens attacked just as the peloton was on their wheel to go after the most combative rider prize.
Geens fought to get to the Red Bull Km with 17.6km to go for the €2,500 prize, and he went through it with 16 seconds.
Behind, Netcompany Ineos tried to get some bonus seconds for Thymen Arensman to shrink his gap to second-placed Felix Gall, but Decathlon threw Oliver Naesen into the mix, snagging four seconds, while Arensman's teammate Conor Swift mistakenly went across the line before him and grabbed the last two available.
The Muro
Eulalio on the attack on stage 18 (Image credit: Getty Images)
Netcompany Ineos lined out the peloton in the approach to the Muro di Ca' del Poggio, catching Geens with 500 metres to the climb, and even the maglia rosa was up front and centre on the run-in.
Lidl-Trek believed in Milan and led him out into the base, giving him the best opportunity to make it to the finish to fight for the stage win.
Vingegaard was also nose-in-the-wind when Eulálio made a move with 10km to go, and there was no major reaction in the bunch as Sepp Kuss came forward to set a steady tempo, reeling the Bahrain rider in before the summit.
As the catch was being made, Vingegaard accelerated, causing a small split in the peloton – neither Milan, Narváez, nor Magnier made the lead group, and had to fight to rejoin if they wanted to contest for the stage win.
The run-in
The sprinters had 10 seconds to close, but an acceleration from Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) on the last little kicker before the downhill run-in opened up the gap to 16 seconds.
The lead group continued their aggression with Johannes Kulset (Uno-X Mobility) attacking on the descent, followed by Eulálio.
The sprinters closed in on the maglia rosa group with 4km to go, and after they made contact, Derek Gee-West got to work for Milan to chase down Kulset and Eulálio.
Kulset gave his all, but the reduced bunch swept past with 1.2km to go, led by NSN for Corbin Strong. But Soudal-Quickstep came on stronger, with Stuyven leading into the final turn with Magnier on his wheel.
Milan, in fourth position, was forced to take the long way around the outside of the turn and could not come around either Magnier or Zambanini.
"It was not an easy day. It was not 100% a bunch sprint, you know, but we tried to control it in the beginning," Milan said. "The guys did an amazing job, and I have to say sorry to them for if I didn't achieve the result that we were looking for in the end.
"I think we did our best, and I think it was a bit my fault to take this last corner as a fourth wheel; I should have stayed behind Magnier."
Laura Weislo is a Cyclingnews veteran of 20 years. Having joined in 2006, Laura extensively covered the Operacion Puerto doping scandal, the years-long conflict between the UCI and the Tour de France organisers ASO over the creation of the WorldTour, and the downfall of Lance Armstrong and his lifetime ban for doping. As Managing Editor, Laura coordinates coverage for North American events and global news.
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