Giro d'Italia stage 18: Simon Yates' lead halved atop Prato Nevoso

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Game on. After holding his grip on the maglia rosa with a formidable ride in the individual time trial on Tuesday, Simon Yates showed his first signs of weakness in the 2018 Giro d'Italia, cracking at the summit finish at Prato Nevoso.

The Mitchleton-Scott rider, who has looked supreme throughout the first 17 stages, hit the wall when Chris Froome (Team Sky) attacked in the closing stages, and when his main rivals Tom Domoulin (Team Sunweb) and Domenico Pozzovivo (Bahrain Merida) joined the Team Sky rider, Yates had no response.

In the space of less than two kilometres, Yates conceded 28 seconds to Dumoulin to see his advantage over the defending champion cut to just 28 seconds with three stages remaining.

The Giro d'Italia has suddenly burst into life, and, for the first time, Yates has found himself on the back foot. Pozzovivo remains in third but has closed the gap on Yates to 2:43.

While the GC battle hogged the limelight, the stage was won by Maximilian Schachmann (Quick-Step Floors). The German held off the late challenge from Ruben Plaza (Israel Cycling Academy) and Mattia Cattaneo (Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec) at the ski summit of Prato Nevoso.

The trio survived from the day's early break, and, after a series of attacks, came into the final 900m together. Schachmann, just a second-year pro, powered clear with a few hundred meters to go, with Cattaneo the first to buckle under the strain.

Plaza, who had yo-yoed off the front throughout the final climb, had no response to Schachmann's final surge.

"I feel amazing,” Schachmann said at the finish. "It's great to win a stage on my first Grand Tour. I think everyone here agrees it's a really hard Giro, which makes it even nicer to be on top here. Of course, I am going to help Viviani as much as possible. It doesn't matter who wins in our team. We are a great team, with great team spirit. A big part of this victory goes to Michael Morkov. He took me on his wheel and he bridged me over. It's not the first time he's helped me in this race. We share a room together, he's a great rider and he always has a big big part in every victory."

The final climb saw two races unfold. The first came when the early 12-rider break of Morkov, Schachmann (Quick-Step Floors), Davide Ballerini, Cattaneo (Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec), Christoph Pfingsten (Bora-Hansgrohe), Plaza (Israel Cycling Academy), Vyacheslav Kuznetsov (Katusha-Alpecin), Jos van Emden, Boy van Poppel (Trek-Segafredo), Marco Marcato (UAE Emirates), Giuseppe Fonzi and Alex Turrin (Wilier Triestina-Selle Italia), siphoned clear of the bunch and built up a substantial lead of more than 16 minutes.

With such a healthy buffer and Mitchelton-Scott more than willing to tap out a steady tempo, the bunch hit the lower slopes of the final climb relatively fresh.

The break was trimmed down to half a dozen riders on the lower sections of the climb as the gradient topped out at 10 per cent, with Morkov tapping out a steady-but-challenging pace. Van Poppel, who had attacked the break before the final climb, was quickly caught and distanced before Ballerini raised the pace at the front of the race.

Plaza, a three-time stage winner in Grand Tours, but in the twilight of his long career, had been weaving off the back of the group since the road began to point upwards, but he accelerated from his rivals with 8.7km to go, just as the main field was approaching the climb.

Plaza’s first attempt to break free was soon damped as Schachmann drew across a group of five that included Cattaneo and Bora’s Pfingsten.

The Spanish rider attacked again, but the second move only acted as a Launchpad for Schachmann, who was quickly marked by Cattaneo. The duo then traded attacks as the road once more rose but neither could snap the elastic as a determined Plaza hovered just a few seconds back.

With 2,000m remaining, Cattaneo threw down one last acceleration but as the pair entered the final kilometre nothing could separate them. In the blink of an eye, Plaza had summoned the strength to once more contest for the win. However, Schachmann was in no mood to play games. With 700m to go he moved to the front and wound up a long sprint. Cattaneo was the first to submit, while Plaza’s creaking legs were unable to withstand the pace. Five stage wins for Quick-Step, and another landmark for Schachmann in what is turning out to be a blossoming career, but further down the mountain the GC battle was raging.

Yates cracks as Dumoulin piles on the pressure

When the overall contenders hit the midway point on the final climb there was an air of inevitability, with Yates once again expected to rule over his rivals. After all, the British climber had looked so strong, for so long in this race and was once more at the front as Astana and Movistar set the tempo. The maglia rosa looked cool, comfortable and collected as he followed in the wheels, and the status quo remained, even when a cluster of riders from 6th to 10th began attacking.

It was clear at that point that Yates would be outnumbered, but when Woet Poels (Team Sky) pushed clear, with Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) already up the road, the dynamic began to change. Yates had talked about defending rather than attacking in the final set of mountain stages, and he stuck to the script when Dumoulin kicked things off a little later. The Mitchelton rider responded to the move without cause for alarm but when Froome powered away with 2km to go Yates could not follow. Pozzovivo and Dumoulin were on Froome’s wheel in a flash as Poels dutifully sat up and waited for his leader. Yates could not even hold the group containing Patrick Konrad (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Pello Bibao (Astana), and had the climb been a kilometre longer the British rider could have seen his lead completely evaporate.

Up ahead, Lopez continued his charge to finish first from the bunch in 11th place, while Pozzovivo came over the line next, with Dumoulin and Froome in tow. Yates cut a lonely figure as he laboured up the last few slopes, with Nieve finally catching his leader and offering him some assistance before the line.

Yates was not the only high-profile rider to suffer. Thibault Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) lost further ground and looks ever-more vulnerable as the race moves further into the mountains, while Ben O’Conner (Dimension Data) and George Bennett (LottoNL-Jumbo) both attacked before fading at the line.

Yet it is Yates who has the most concern and pressure tonight. This was, and still is, his race to lose, but after building up a healthy lead in the first two weeks, and then fending off Dumoulin with the time trial of his life on Tuesday, the 25-year-old looks beatable for the first time since Etna. With two even tougher stages to come, Yates will have to find something extra. He has the time on his side but perhaps not momentum. The 2018 Giro d’Italia is alive. Game on.