photo credits @ Giro d’Italia
Nico Denz claimed stage 18 of the Giro d’Italia today, after the German rider rode solo to victory in the final stages of the 144 km route from Morbegno to Cesano Maderno, while overall leader Isaac del Toro retained his grip on the Maglia Rosa.
In the shortest racing stage of this year’s Italian Grand Tour, Denz was part of a breakaway group of 11 riders, with the Red Bull–Bora–Hansgrohe rider attacking with 11km to go on the final flat section of the stage.
Form there, the 31-year-old held a 32-second lead with five kilometers left, later crossing the finish line with his arms outstretched by more than a minute ahead of the chasing pack to seize the day’s honors.
Today’s victory allowed the team to celebrate a first stage win at this year’s Giro after its pre-race favorite Primoz Roglic abandon the race on Tuesday following a crash in treacherous conditions in stage 16.
Meanwhile, Team Polti’s Mirco Maestri finished second after beating Edward Planckaert of Alpecin-Deceuninck in the sprint.
Earlier, a large breakaway group containing the likes of Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike), Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), Christian Scaroni (XDS-Astana), Dylan van Baarle (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek) escaped the peloton early on, later opening up a massive advantage of more than ten minutes, with Rémy Rochas (Groupama-FDJ) and two VF Bardiani riders, Martin Marcellusi and Manuele Tarozzi, jettisoning the group along the final uphill section of the stage, before being reined in by their former breakaway companions.
With 34 kilometers to go, the leaders were into the finishing circuit in Cesano Maderno as their advantage rose to upwards of eleven minutes. Eight riders went clear from the breakaway as the circuit began, including Van Baarle and Daan Hoole (Lidl-Trek), quickly opening more than a minute on the rest of the leaders.
As the rest of the group began to watch one another, Denz opened up a large gap after putting in a powerful seated acceleration. The Red Bull rider then pushed on and built up a significant advantage.
Meanwhile, behind Denz, the chasers began to attack one another, allowing him to push on and take Red Bull’s first stage win of the race.
