Giro produces classic stage of last decade on Stelvio | Video
Jai Hindley (Team Sunweb) beats Tao Geoghegan Hart (Ineos Grenadiers) for stage 18 victory yesterday on an epic day of racing at the Giro d'Italia (Photo: Massimo Paolone)
The Giro d'Italia on Thursday produced a stage that will go down in the history books as a new group of Grand Tour contenders slugged it out, with the race lead changing hands but the new leader ceding time.
Race leader starting the 207km stage 18 from Pinzolo to Laghi di Cancano - via the Stelvio - João Almeida (Deceuninck-QuickStep) was dropped by his GC rivals and finally gave up the maglia rosa.
The man who had started closest to him yesterday morning, Wilco Kelderman of Team Sunweb, was in pink at the end of the day, though his lead is not what it might have been.
He began the stage just 17 seconds down on Almeida and he was 2:41 clear of his own team mate Jai Hindley, while enjoying a lead of 2:42 over Tao Geoghegan Hart of Ineos Grenadiers.
However, after Almeida had been distanced, Hindley and Geoghegan Hart would then drop Kelderman - due to the pace applied by Rohan Dennis (Ineos Grenadiers).
Kelderman lost time up the Stelvio, down the descent and again up the final climb of the day and by the end of the stage he had ceded 2:18 to Hindley and Geoghegan Hart.
It means Kelderman, who was 5th on the stage, now leads from Hindley by just 12 seconds, with Geoghegan Hart now 3rd at 15 seconds.
Today's stage is a flat one followed by Saturday's penultimate stage, featuring three ascents of Sestriere, followed by the final TT into Milan on Sunday.
The Stelvio looked epic in October and it played host to a stage for the ages (Photo: Marco Alpozzi)
Vincenzo Nibali was among those riders who tried to get away early and survive but the attackers were hunted down and all were overhauled by the general classification men (Photo: Fabio Ferrari)
Team Sunweb piled on the pressure in a bid to put Almeida into the red and they achieved their goal, the 22-year-old from Portugal being dropped on the Stelvio and losing the pink jersey (Photo: Fabio Ferrari)
The lead group eventually came down to Wilco Kelderman, who was 2nd overall this morning and his team mate Jai Hindley (left), who was 3rd overall starting the stage, along with Tao Geoghegan Hart (Ineos Grendiers), who was 4th overall starting out, and Rohan Dennis of Ineos Grenadiers. Dennis rode so hard that Kelderman was dropped before dropping away from the front leaving just Hindley and Geoghegan Hart out front alone (Photo: Fabio Ferrari)
Hindleyt, left, beats Geoghegan Hart in the two-up sprint for stage victory (Photo: Gian Mattia D'Alberto)
Kelderman finishes in 5th place and he took the race lead from Almeida, who was dropped. However. Geoghegan Hart and Hindley put over two minutes into Kelderman, meaning he has just seconds to spare over them in the general standings
Hindley in the young rider jersey having won the stage and Kelderman having taken the race lead, but the rivalry between them was clear to see on the road (Photo: Jennifer Lorenzini)
