Giro d'Italia: Landa finally gets his win in Piancavallo

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On another day of high drama and controversy Mikel Landa rescued Team Sky's Giro d'Italia with a hard fought win at Piancavallo on stage 18. The Spaniard attacked his breakaway companions inside the final 10 kilometres with Rui Costa (UAE Emirates) and Pierre Rolland (Cannondale-Drapac) rounding out the top three.

While the break decided the stage, the brief early morning truce called between race leader Tom Dumoulin and his primary rivals, Vincenzo Nibali and Nairo Quintana after the stage 17 polemics, was dissolved within the opening kilometres with the race leader caught behind an early split in controversial circumstances.

Although he was able to regain contact, Dumoulin cracked on the final climb and Quintana moved into the pink jersey with two stages remaining after putting a minute into the maglia rosa. Quintana now leads Dumoulin by 38 seconds, with Nibali a further five seconds in arrears.

The change in race leader, however, only told part of the story as Nibali and the impressive Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) also gained time. However, Dumoulin, who had looked imperious until now, managed his bad day well enough to remain the race favourite with one more individual time trial to come.

For Nibali, Quintana and now Pinot, there is still hope of winning the race, with stage 20 providing one last opportunity to explore whether Dumoulin's Giro foundations are about to crumble.

As for Quintana, his second spell in the maglia rosa in this year's race has come about through a measure of consistency and effective team tactics, rather than the out-and-out brilliance we have become accustomed to. Not for the first time in this year's race, he was left lacking after his team moved him into an excellent position and dispatched with Dumoulin. The Colombian appeared to struggle as Pinot, Nibali and Ilnur Zakarin all launched attacks on the final ascent. Quintana did manage to eke out a few extra seconds on a number of rivals before the line, but if he is to have a real chance of winning this year's Giro d'Italia, he must improve on stage 20.

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How it unfolded

After Thursday's histrionics and the war of words that ended with Dumoulin telling the media that he hoped Nibali and Quintana lost their podium places, a truce was called with Nibali and Dumoulin ushered onto the pre-stage podium to air their differences and awkwardly make-up. The staged manner of Dumoulin's apology hinted, and Nibali's stifled acceptance more than hinted that the hostilities were far from over in this year's race and so it proved.

A sizeable group escaped early on, but on the long descent from the day's second climb a split in the main field occurred. Was this a repeat of a previous stage, when rivals had attacked Dumoulin just as he took a nature break. According to Sunweb - at the time – Dumoulin had indeed sat up and began to relieve himself just as Nibali and Quintana joined forces on the front, but at the finish the Dutchman was quick to point out that he had merely been caught on the wrong side of the racing, and that no foul play had taken place.

Regardless, the maglia rosa was plunged into crisis with the only saving grace the fact that his two countrymen in Bauke Mollema and Steven Kruijswijk had also been caught napping. With the gap spiralling towards two minutes their teams combined – along with Adam Yates (Orica-Scott), to limit their losses, and by the time they reached the lower slopes of the next climb, the Sella Chianzutan, Dumoulin was back with the leaders.

That acceleration spelled the end for the early break, which initially had 6:30 over the peloton – before a lull in pace and the formation of a second move took off.

The break was formed of two moves but eventually came together with Clément Chevrier (Ag2r La Mondiale), Pello Bilbao (Astana), Nicola Boem (Bardiani-CSF), Gregor Mühlberger (Bora-Hansgrohe), Pierre Rolland (Cannondale-Drapac), Maciej Paterski (CCC Sprandi Polkowice), Tobias Ludvigsson (FDJ), Evgeny Shalunov (Gazprom-Rusvelo), José Herrada (Movistar), Dries Devenyns (Quick-Step Floors), Daniel Teklehaimanot (Dimension Data), Jurgen Van den Boreck (LottoNL-Jumbo), Rui Costa (UAE Team Emirates) and Ilia Koshevoy (Wilier-Selle Italia), Giovanni Visconti (Bahrain-Merida), Clément Chevrier (Ag2r La Mondiale), Nicola Boem, Lorenzo Rota (Bardiani-CSF), Rudy Molard (FDJ), José Herrada, José Joaquin Rojas (Movistar), Ruben Plaza (Orica-Scott), Eros Capecchi (Quick-Step Floors), Mikel Landa (Team Sky), Matteo Busato and Ilia Koshevoy (Wilier-Southeast) combining.

Dumoulin, who showed no signs of struggling yet, put his Sunweb team on the front but the tactic was one of containment, with his weary team setting a place that allowed those in front to create a gap of almost 11 minutes.

Summit finish

With just one more true summit finish to go, this was perhaps the last realistic shot of usurping Dumoulin and his race lead, and it was Nibali's Bahrain machine that duly moved to the front of the reduced peloton with 30km to go. Their intent was clear, and the quickly isolated Dumoulin.

Up ahead, Sanchez was the first to attack from the break, leading a hopeful Molard with him as they tackled the early slopes of the final climb with 17km remaining. This brought a reaction from Sky, a team who have had little to celebrate on the race so far. They posted Henao on the front in a bid to keep Sanchez in check, with the group reduced to less than six riders as the gradient began to bite.

With the Astana rider at 21 seconds and Henao spent, it was Rui Costa who took off in pursuit, quickly followed by Landa and a dogged Rolland.

Further down the climb, Movistar blew the maglia rosa group to pieces with Victor De La Parte and Winner Anacona doing most of the damage. For the first time since Blockhaus, Dumoulin was on the backfoot. At first it looked as though he would pace himself back into contention, but it quickly became apparent that he was begging to suffer. Simon Geschke came to his leader's aid as up front Franco Pellizotti drove on at the front of the Nibali/Quintana group. Twice, Dumoulin came back but the third acceleration, just before the toughest part of the climb, saw him lose contact for good. It was now a case of limiting his losses.

Towards the top of the climb, Landa had caught and passed both a tiring Sanchez and then Rui Costa. The UAE rider linked up with Rolland in the hope of pulling Landa back on the flatter section of the climb but there would be no such scenario, with the Team Sky climber only adding to his advantage in the closing kilometres.

In the GC group, time was running out for the true contenders to put Dumoulin to the sword, but while they were running out of road they were also running out of men. Fresh troops arrived in the form of Visconti and Rojas as Kruijswijk began to fall back.

It was now or never for Quintana or Nibali, but while the podium challengers relied on their teams and seemed unable to make a real difference Pinot attacked with 7.5km to go. It was the Frenchman's best move of the race so far as he cut through the remnants of the main break and closed the gap on Nibali in third. The Italian raised the pace with Quintana glued to his wheel, but it was Zakarin who took flight next with Pozzovivo on his wheel.

For the briefest of moments, Quintana was in trouble, unable to respond immediately before an acceleration from the Colombian closed the gaps and ended the doubts that he would lose time to Nibali.

The increase in pace was too much for Dumoulin. He had bravely held his rivals at around 20 seconds but even though the road levelled out he was unable to respond when the favourites began their moves. Nibali drove for the line with 1.5km to go with a determined move to both hold off Pinot and increase his lead on Dumoulin, but it was Quintana who ended the day with pink, although that only told part of the story. With two days remaining, the top six are separated by just 1:30. This Giro is far from over.

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