As it happened: Big breakaway stays away to win on Giro d'Italia stage 18

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of stage 18 of the Giro d'Italia!

A look at the profile for today's stage.

And the map of the stage.

Yesterday's stage saw race leader Isaac del Toro rebound from an off-day and add more time to his overall lead with a late attack.

Giro d'Italia: Isaac del Toro rebounds to win stage 17 – Maglia rosa claws back time with victory in Bormio, nullifying Carapaz's attack

Here's a look back at the stage 17 results and GC.

With just two mountain stages left, this Giro d'Italia still hangs in the balance – Analysis

Stage 17 showed that the maglia rosa can't be written off, but also that Isaac del Toro is far from safe in the mountains

The current GC standings at the Giro d'Italia 2025 after stage 17

Race leader Isaac del Toro bounces back with a vengeance, clinching a stage win and boosting his previously fragile GC lead

It's Richard Carapaz's birthday today! The Ecuadorian, Isaac del Toro's main rival for the maglia rosa, turns 32 today.

Polti-VisitMalta rider Alessandro Tonelli turns 33 today, too. He's in second place in both the intermediate sprint and fuga (kilometres in the breakaway) classifications after making the break in stages 1, 3, and 7. Will he be back on the attack today?

Juan Ayuso's future in the Giro is up in the air at the moment after being stung by a bee on his eye yesterday, reports Daniel Friebe.

The riders are just about to roll out to start the 4.2km neutral zone!

Proper racing gets underway in around 10 minutes.

The flag is about to drop to start stage 18!

144km to go

Enzo Paleni (Groupama-FDJ) is the first attacker of the day.

Paleni only lasts a few kilometres out front before he's caught.

137km to go

The attacks continue to fly at the front.

Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) among the latest riders on the move.

Ayuso started the stage but is reportedly riding at the rear of the peloton.

He's back at the team car.

No breakaway clear yet.

127km to go

Pedersen on the attack once again.

Felix Engelhardt (Jayco-AlUla) is also on the move with him.

More riders are coming across to them.

It's all flat roads for the first 30km today.

20 seconds for the attackers back to the peloton.

Kaden Groves, Luca Mozzato, Andrea Vendrame, Mirco Maestri among the other names in the move.

Fabio van den Bossche, Edoardo Zambanini, Remy Rochas, Francesco Busatto, Jon Barrenetxea, Matteo Moschetti, Edoardo Affini are also in there.

More riders, too. It's a large breakaway group. Wout van Aert is up there.

114km to go

Mathias Vacek, Cristian Scaroni and Ben Turner are up there, too. Now 55 seconds on the peloton.

Around 20 riders at the front.

The riders hit the first climb of the day, Parlasco. It's 7.6km at 6.2% average.

Ayuso is off the back again and at the team car.

It looks like he won't last in the race for much longer. He's dropping back through the cars.

110km to go

1:30 for the break on the way up the climb.

Ayuso pulls up to a UAE van stopped at the side of the road. His Giro d'Italia is over.

106km to go

The breakaway is led over the top of the climb by Cristian Scaroni.

Scaroni is a distant second in the mountain classification behind his teammate Lorenzo Fortunato.

34 riders up the road, not around 20 as was previously reported.

The full list has just come through and you can check above for all the names involved.

98km to go

Here comes the first sprint of the day!

Dries De Bondt opens it up at Primaluna.

But Mads Pedersen comes past to lead across the line.

De Bondt continues in the lead of the intermediate sprint classification.

A shot of the riders racing alongside Lake Como earlier on today.

A bike change for Ben Turner and he's off the rear of the break.

The climb of the Colle Balisio is coming up now.

It's a third-category hill, the second climb of three on the stage.

A shot of the breakaway.

90km to go

4:20 for the breakaway now.

Another attack from Scaroni as the break nears the top of the climb.

And more points for him as he leads it over the top once again.

27 points for Scaroni today. He started the day on 125 to Fortunato's 355.

The gap to the peloton is only going up.

80km to go

The break hits the bottom of the descent at 5:20 up.

Mozzato, Turner, and Affini are off the back by two minutes currently.

Juan Ayuso abandons Giro d'Italia stage 18 after bee sting compounds knee injury woes

UAE Team Emirates-XRG contender drops back and quits after 30km

The 9km, 4.4% climb to Ravellino is up next.

Almost six minutes for the break now.

Another intermediate sprint at Galbiate comes partway up the hill.

Mads Pedersen nips out once again to beat De Bondt across the line.

69km to go

Groves and Pedersen still in the breakaway group. They're not going anywhere and will be favourites to win the stage.

There are lots of riders in the group who won't want a sprint, however, and Alpecin-Deceuninck and Lidl-Trek will have to cover a lot of attacks on the flat.

Scaroni once again led over the top of the climb and now Francesco Busatto is attacking on the descent.

61km to go

Eight minutes between break and peloton now.

Another shot of the riders by the lake.

Scaroni is now on 161 points to Fortunato's 355.

Now the break hits the Red Bull Kilometre.

They're at Sirtori, the last uphill stretch of the day before the flat run to the finish.

Manuele Tarozzi, Martin Marcellusi, and Remy Rochas attack off the front.

52km to go

30 seconds for the three men out front.

Now a massive 10 minutes back to the peloton.

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The attacking trio have been brought back by the rest of the break.

41km to go

Tarozzi continues to push on at the front alone, however.

11 minutes between break and peloton now.

The gap is so large there's a chance the break might catch the peloton on the closing circuit today.

Q36.5 (??) and EF are working at the head of the peloton.

35km to go

The gap is coming down slightly. 10:20 now.

A group of eight riders going clear at the front of the break now

De Bondt, Hoole, De Pretto, Maestri, Planckaert, Van Baarle, Conci, and Pluimers lead the race onto the closing circuit.

25 seconds for the leaders.

Q36.5 continue to work at the head of the peloton.

Aside from Tom Pidcock, it's hard to remember much from them during this Giro, so maybe just reminding us all that they are still at the race.

28km to go

10:05 back to the peloton now and the breakaway attackers have 55 seconds on the rest of the move.

It looks like it's over for Pedersen, Groves and the rest of the breakaway now. They're losing time to the front.

21km to go

1:50 for the leaders and they're all working well together.

Maestri, Denz, De Bondt in the move.

And now Denz goes it alone at the front.

13km to go

Denz passes through the finish line with a 25-second lead.

2:30 back to the main break group.

10:50 to the peloton.

Denz has to hang on for a full lap in Cesano Maderno.

11km to go

He's taking a second or two here and there.

Pedersen back in the main breakaway group. He won't be winning today.

29 seconds for Denz now.

9km to go

He's taking more time. 32 seconds now.

Attacks now flowing from behind.

7km to go

De Bondt leading the moves, but at 34 seconds down.

Denz won two Giro stages from the break in Rivoli and Cassano Magnago two years ago, so he's no stranger to this.

5km to go

32 seconds for the German.

He looks all set for a third stage victory now.

3km to go

He has 36 seconds heading into the closing kilometres.

All Denz has to do is stay upright from here on out.

This win will be a nice consolation prize for Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe following Primož Roglič's abandon. Giulio Pellizzari still has a few stages to battle for a high GC position, too.

1km to go

Almost 50 seconds for Denz now. It's in the bag. 

He can afford to celebrate in the closing metres.

Finish

Nico Denz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) wins stage 18 of the Giro d'Italia!

Now we wait to see who wins the sprint for second place from the chase group.

De Pretto is leading the group towards the finish.

Conci opens the sprint.

It looks like Maestri came through to grab second at the line.

Planckaert took third just ahead of Magli.

Here's the stage result.

Denz celebrates his win.

The remainder of the break finished 3:40 down.

And the peloton came home at 13:51 down in the end.

Giro d'Italia: Nico Denz saves Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe's race with stage 18 victory

Maestri, Planckaert round out stage podium as breakaway wins the day

Nico Denz celebrates his stage win on the podium.

The current GC standings at the Giro d'Italia 2025 after stage 18

Race leader Isaac del Toro has an easy day as breakaway steals the show ahead of mountain showdown

Isaac del Toro continues in the maglia rosa tonight, as well as leading as best young rider in the white jersey.

Lorenzo Fortunato is the maglia azzurra and only needs to stay in the race until Rome to take that prize home.

It's the same story for maglia ciclamino Mads Pedersen. He's secure in the lead of that classification and just needs to get through the next three days.

161 riders finished today, with Ayuso the only man to DNF the stage.

Tomorrow the riders head back into the mountains for this brutal Alpine stage.

We'll have more news coming from stage 18 throughout the evening, so watch out for that.