André Greipel (HTC-Columbia) won stage 18 of the Giro d’Italia between Levico and Brescia in a bunch sprint. After proclaiming his worthiness of a spot in his team’s Tour de France team “the Gorilla” has had a hard job proving it in this Giro having started the race with illness and being outsprinted by his leadout man Matt Goss on more than one occasion. The German finally got a stage victory at his last opportunity, beating Julian Dean (Garmin-Transitions) and Tiziano Dall’Antonia (Liquigas-Doimo) into second and third at the end of the flat 156km stage.
Sandwiched as it was between two groups of tough mountain stages, the short, flat, lakeside route of stage 18 provided a much-needed rest for the overall race contenders. The ideal situation for the race favourites would be for a breakaway of out-of-contention riders to get away and then to be carried to the line by the sprinters teams. For one of the few times in this unusual Giro, the stage went to plan and this was exactly what happened.
Under drizzly skies, the two rabbits of the day were Alan Marangoni (Colnago-CSF Inox) and Olivier Kaisen, who escaped after just 21km. The pair was allowed to get away, but HTC-Columbia for Greipel, and Team Sky for Greg Henderson, limited their lead to a maximum of 2’45” at the 38km point. The two sprinters’ teams pulled them back to 2’20” at the 47km point and the gap stayed at around the 2-minute mark thereafter.
As the breakaway duo passed along the north western shores of Lake Garda they were continued to be kept in check by HTC-Columbia and Team Sky. The cobbled streets and piazzas of lakeside towns like Riva del Garda and Campione del Garda made for some tentative riding but there were no crashes reported. At 50km to go the sun came out making the going less treacherous and the views across the lake more pleasant for the ambling peloton.
At the Traguardo Volante sprint the gap was still 2 minutes as Tom Stamsnijder (Rabobank) and Chris Anker Sorensen raced for third place, providing a rare bit of action; this served to be the impetus for the peloton to start to bring back the break.
HTC-Columbia and Team Sky continued to lead the peloton, which was now a long line as the pace increased and the gap started to drop steadily. With the sprinters obviously not wanting to catch the break too soon, and thus allow for counterattacks, the gap still stood at 1’20” with 15km to go.
Inside the final 10km, and with the gap now well below a minute Rabobank joined the chase on behalf of Graeme Brown, along with Garmin-Transitions on behalf of Dean. As the two lead riders entered the wide open streets of Brescia the peloton had them in sight; with 3.7km Kaisen gave up the ghost and sat up.
Marangoni kept on going, dangling just a few seconds ahead before he too was finally reeled in with 1.9km to go. With no more time for attacks, and with the pace to high, the peloton took the last corner with Team Sky on the front. As the sprint began and the riders fanned across the road Greipel hit the front and no one could get near him as he won the stage by more than a bike length. Henderson found himself swamped as Dean and Dall’Antonia came past in the last metres.
With the peloton arriving at the finish all together there are no changes to the overall classification. David Arroyo (Caisse d’Epargne) retains the pink jersey as the race heads back to the mountains tomorrow.
Result stage 18
1. André Greipel (Ger) HTC-Columbia
2. Julian Dean (NZl) Garmin-Transitions
3. Tiziano Dall’Antonia (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo
4. Greg Henderson (NZl) Team Sky
5. Danilo Hondo (Ger) Lampre-Farnese Vini
6. Graeme Brown (Aus) Rabobank
7. Lucas Haedo (Arg) Team Saxo Bank
8. Michiel Elijzen (Ned) OmegaPharma-Lotto
9. Fabio Sabatini (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo
10. William Bonnet (Fra) Bbox Bouyges Telecom
Standings after stage 18
1. David Arroyo (Spa) Caisse d’Epargne
2. Ivan Basso (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo @ 2’27”
3. Richie Porte (Aus) Team Saxo Bank @ 2’36”
4. Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team @ 3’09”
5. Carlos Sastre (Spa) Cervélo TestTeam @ 4’36”