2019 Giro d'Italia Stage 18 Results & Recap
Stage 18 of the 2019 Giro d'Italia is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
Nippo-Vini Fantini-Faizane’s Damiano Cima claimed victory on stage 18 of the Giro d’Italia today in a nail-biting finish into Santa Maria di Sala, holding off a charging peloton by mere seconds. Visibly disappointed, Pascal Ackermann (Bora-Hansgrohe) couldn’t quite reach the Italian and take second and Simone Consonni (UAE Team Emirates) rounded out the podium in third.
Cima drove to the finish line with breakaway partners Nico Denz (AG2R La Mondiale) and Mirco Maestri (Bardiani CSF) mere seconds away from being swallowed up, and only Cima had enough left in the tank after more than 200 kilometres off the front to resist fading back.
“To give my team visibility throughout breakaways was one of the roles I was assigned by my team,” Cima said in the press conference. “In addition to the visibility, today I delivered the stage victory. It wasn’t easy to make the breakaway today because many riders were playing according to the Maglia Ciclamino. We were three at the front and I thank my breakaway companions for the good cooperation we had. I remained as calm as I could in the last kilometres. I never looked back. I waited as much as possible to give it all in the last few hundred meters.”
In the GC competition, all the favorites safely crossed the line with no changes to the standings. That could change, however, when the Giro heads back into the mountains tomorrow.
The stage started with a few shifts in the breakaway composition, ending with Cima, the leader in the Fuga Pinarello competition, Denz, and Maestri pulling away from the pack. Eventually, the three built up a lead of more than six minutes on the gradual downhill route. Back in the peloton, Israel Cycling Academy and Bora-hansgrohe did the majority of the work.
The gap gradually diminished when the bunch realized they needed to take the break seriously, and when the three went under the 10km to go banner, they were held to just a minute. Led by Denz, the break doggedly summoned whatever they had left to give themselves a shot at victory, which paid off for Cima. On the finishing straight, Denz and Maestri faded back into the sea of accelerating sprinters.
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