Giro d'Italia 2023: Filippo Zana outduels Thibaut Pinot in thrilling finish on Stage 18, Geraint Thomas stays in pink
/dnl.eurosport.com/sd/img/placeholder/eurosport_logo_1x1.png){kind=logo}
Updated 25/05/2023 at 18:46 GMT
Italian champion Filippo Zana denied French veteran Thibaut Pinot a farewell victory in a nail-biting conclusion to Stage 18 in the Dolomites. Meanwhile, Primoz Roglic put in a timely reminder of his class by pushing pink jersey Geraint Thomas all the way to Val di Zoldo, the Slovenian rising to second place in the GC after the duo took 21 seconds from Joao Almeida.
Giro d'Italia Stage 18 highlights - Zana zooms to glory ahead of Pinot
Thibaut Pinot’s pursuit of a fairy tale ending to his final Giro d’Italia was derailed by the Italian champion Filippo Zana (Team Jayco-AlUla) in a thrilling two-way sprint at the end of the first of two massive days in the Dolomites.
French veteran Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) crested four climbs in pole position to move back into the blue jersey – but he missed out on that elusive win by a whisker after Zana outlasted him on the home straight in Stage 18.
In the chasing pack, Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) presented Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) with a conundrum to unwrap on his 37th birthday – but the Welsh veteran kept his cool, and his pink jersey, to finish alongside his Slovenian rival at Val di Zoldo.
Portugal’s Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) was the big loser of the day after being dropped by his rivals on the penultimate climb following an injection of pace from Roglic’s dependable team-mate Sepp Kuss. Almeida, the white jersey, battled to limit his losses alongside team-mate Jay Vine, but crossed the line 21 seconds behind his two podium rivals.
Roglic moved back above Almeida in the new-look GC, while Pinot rose six places to seventh after his near-perfect day in the breakaway – the Frenchman now 67 points clear of Ireland’s Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) in the king of the mountains standings.
After coming through the first of three remaining mountain tests unscathed, Thomas leads Roglic by 29 seconds on GC with Almeida third at 39 seconds. Ireland’s Eddie Dunbar (Team Jayco-AlUla) was distanced late on by Almeida but moves above Italy’s Damiano Caruso (Bahrain Victorious) into fourth place at 3’39”.
Strong seven-man group forms after breakneck opening
A blistering start to the 161km stage from Oderzo saw wave after wave of attacks come to nothing on the fast and flat run towards the foothills of the Alps. A breakaway of five riders final formed on the first of five climbs following some persistently aggressive riding from Israel-PremierTech duo Marco Frigo and Derek Gee.
Part of an earlier move that was reeled in, the enterprising duo tried their luck on the Passo della Crosetta and were soon joined by French duo Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) and Aurelien Paret-Peintre (AG2R Citroen) as well as the Italian champion Filippo Zana (Team Jayco-AlUla).
Pinot took maximum points over the summit to move within 10 points of the top of the virtual blue jersey standings, but the advantage had come down to just 25 seconds after the Ineos Grenadiers team of Geraint Thomas piled on the pressure on the nose of a main pack that only contained around 40 riders.
/origin-imgresizer.eurosport.com/2023/05/25/3711791-75525748-2560-1440.jpg)
Aurelien Paret-Peintre and Thibaut Pinot lead the breakaway during Stage 18 of the Giro d'Italia 2023
Image credit: Getty Images
With Jack Haig (Bahrain Victorious) part of a five-man chase group, and Primoz Roglic (Jumbo Visma) in apparent difficulty near the back, Ineos duo Laurens De Plus and Thymen Arensman upped the tempo to force Jumbo Visma to make a big effort – as the GC battle fizzed into life early on.
Some order was soon restored on the long plateau after the climb, with Warran Barguil (Arkea-Samsic) and Vadim Pronskiy (Astana-Qazaqstan) – two remnants of the chase group – joining forces to bridge over to the break, and the peloton undergoing a major regrouping.
Pinot led the seven leaders over the next climb to pocket a few more points in the blue jersey battle with a gap of two minutes over a peloton being led by the Ineos duo of Ben Swift and Salvatore Puccio, who had fought back on after falling back during that hectic opening hour of racing.
/origin-imgresizer.eurosport.com/2023/05/25/3711789-75525708-2560-1440.jpg)
Geraint Thomas alongside his Ineos Grenadiers team-mates on a descent during Stage 18 of the Giro d'Italia 2023
Image credit: Getty Images
Despite Pinot’s position just outside the top 10, the advantage of the breakaway ballooned to over five minutes on the false flat preceding the first intermediate sprint, which propelled the French veteran up to virtual fourth place in the overall standings.
Pinot made it three from three on the Cat.1 Forcella Cibiana climb – although once Ineos Grenadiers ramped up the pace once again behind, the scene was set for a perfect finale in the majestic Dolomiti Bellunesi of north-east Italy as the race entered the final 30km.
A bike change did not put Pinot off his stride as he rode clear with Zana on the Cat.2 ascent of Coi – a narrow, twisting road peppered with double-digit gradients and one 20% ramp near the top.
Pronskiy was the first to be distanced but the only of the escapees to be caught by the pack, with Frigo, Paret-Peintre, Barguil and Gee all failing to keep up with the superior climbing of Pinot and Zana, who danced up the hill with their jerseys unzipped in pursuit of glory.
/origin-imgresizer.eurosport.com/2023/05/25/3711929-75528513-2560-1440.jpg)
'Good day to not get dropped by Primoz' - Thomas relieved to hold off Roglic
Pinot crested the summit first to take yet more blue jersey points before the duo negotiated a short descent ahead of the final rise – all while the fight for pink kicked off behind.
It was Roglic’s Jumbo Visma who took the initiative when Kuss came to the front the up the tempo and blow the 21-man pink jersey group apart. Only Thomas and Eddie Dunbar (Team Jayco-AlUla) could keep up, with Almeida forced to chase with Vine behind.
When Dunbar and Kuss faded and were passed by Almeida ahead of the final rise to the finish, it looked like the Portuguese may catch his podium rivals. But Roglic and Thomas pushed on to ensure they took as much time as possible over Almeida ahead of Friday’s queen stage to Tre Cime di Lavaredo.
The day, however, belonged to Zana – the local Veneto rider who upset fan favourite Pinot to take his first ever Grand Tour stage win after making the step up to the WorldTour this season following a move to Jayco-AlUla from Bardiani.
“This Giro for me is a dream – the whole Giro,” 24-year-old Zana said. “I must thank the team for the opportunity. First to come to the WorldTour and then have a chance to race in my home tour, the Giro. I can’t really believe that I’m now a stage winner – I can’t thank them enough.”
On his nail-biting finish against Pinot, Zana said: “I tried to be on the wheel. Of course, I won’t have many opportunities like this in my career, so I wanted to hang on, be on the wheel, and be ready for the sprint, hope that I had more than him. I had a 50% chance of winning and it went well for me.”
- - -
Stream the 2023 cycling season live and on-demand on discovery+, the Eurosport app and at eurosport.com.
Scan me
Related Topics
Share this article