Giro d’Italia Stage 18 LIVE - Fast man Milan on a mission to make it four, Merlier looking to double up in Padova

1. Tim Merlier - 3'45'44
2. Jonathan Milan "
3. Kaden Groves "
4. Alberto Dainese "
5. Stanislaw Aniolkowski "
6. Fernando Gaviria "
7. Madis Mihkels "
8. Caleb Ewan "
9. Davide Ballerini "
10. Juan Sebastian Molano "

That was wild. Everyone's lead-out plans fell apart in the finale, and somehow Milan made it back to the front on his own. It looked to be between him and Dainese on the left hand side of the road, but on the right, freelancing his way up, was Tim Merlier. It was so close but Merlier by a whisker. Another third place for Kaden Groves.

FLAMME ROUGE - READY FOR TAKE-OFF

Caleb Ewan on Milan's wheel. For now. Matteo Trentin is positioning the Tudor sprinter, Dainese. They're committed.

The sprinters teams can now take over. Alaphilippe darts across the road on the left.

Caleb Ewan is still fighting it out. Movistar are there for Gaviria. Milan has fallen back and needs to make his way up.

Outside the 3km, it means that's a problem. He's taken Connor Swift's bike and is receiving a bit of "assistance" from the team car, but he needs to get back in touch to avoid losing time in the GC. Narvaez has gone back to help.

From Tudor, Trek and UAE. All part of the plan, their work is done for the day.

Finally the breakaway is caught. Honore puts in a last ditch dig, like Glenn Close in that film when she comes back to life, but it's fruitless. The break is done, and the final phase of the race can commence.

Sort of. Unclipped at least, at a narrowing point ahead of a roundabout. He just has to sort out his pedals and chain and he'll be rolling again. That won't be a massive problem for his Jayco-Alula sprinter, Caleb Ewan. Not least because Caleb Ewan is unlikely to be contesting the sprint.

15KM TO GO - A WORD ON THE FINAL KILOMETRES INTO PADOVA

It's not complicated, and with few corners it shouldn't be too stressful. Nor ought we worry too much about the possibility of crashes. On the other hand, this is Italy, so they definitely don't have a shortage of road furniture. Hope the teams have done their recons.

The bunch has at least lined out across the road, GC teams keeping their men safe, Tudor, QuickStep and Trek in charge of their sprinters.

This has been the longest ten seconds of my life. The bunch has been in the background for about an hour. It's not even as if Affini has been on the front since he joined them. They've kept sharing the load this whole time.

That's Thomas Champion of Cofidis, not y'know, Tadej Pogacar.

Odd situation, this, but presumably a deliberate one. It is preferable for Trek not to catch them but also more difficult to keep them at 10-20 seconds, with so little margin, than nearer the minute they could afford.

37KM TO GO - THAT INTERMEDIATE SPRINT SCORECARD

1. Andrea Pietrobon - 51 points
2. Julian Alaphilippe - 47
3. Mirco Maestri - 34
4. Davide Ballerini - 33
5. Filippo Fiorelli - 30

To reiterate, this is not to be confused with the points competition, for which there is a jersey. With Fiorelli having picked up 16 points from his pair of wins today, that puts him at least breathing down the neck of Pietrobon, but also explains why it was so important for the Polti rider to be up there today.

A power move and then some.

Fiorelli once again comes out on top. That makes the intermediate sprint competition rather interesting, you'd think.

They're definitely in sight, at less than 30 seconds down the road. The cars will have been pulled out of the gap. We're three kilometres from the final intermediate sprint, which will be it for these four, you'd think. And burying the lede, but Eduardo Affini (Visma-Lease A Bike) has somehow made it across to them. Better late than never, I suppose.

The gap down to 40 seconds has tempted an attack from Mikkel Honore's team-mate, Stefan de Bod. Trek's Daan Houle doesn't like that one bit and has gone after him. You have to say they've brought it upon themselves.

If he wins today, all he'll have to do is finish in Rome to secure the jersey. From the break, Filippo Fiorelli was first.