Jai Hindley (Bora-hansgrohe) suffered some nervous moments in the finale of today's stage 18 of the Giro; the Australian rider losing time on the stage but not in the overall.
Hindley suffered a mechanical problem - confirmed by his team as a puncture - close to the finish and he trailed in about one minute behind the remains of the peloton, containing race leader Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers).
While that time gap would have probably ended Hindley's fight for the maglia rosa, his mechanical occurred with about 2.5km to go. That was just inside the 3km to go marker, within which any time gaps due to crashes and other mishaps do not count in the overall.
The stage was won by Dries De Bondt (Alpecin-Fenix) in a sprint from a very powerful four-rider breakaway. That group held off the bunch on a day when the sprinters' teams miscalculated and should have taken up a serious chase much earlier.
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In that breakaway with De Bondt were: powerhouse Edoardo Affini (Jumbo-Visma), seven-time Grand Tour stage winner Magnus Cort (EF Education-EasyPost) and Davide Gabburo (Bardiani-CSF-Faizanè).
They combined brilliantly and their work rate and fire power, combined with the bunch not taking it up early enough, ensured the breakaway held on to sprint it out for victory just 14 seconds up on the thinned out peloton.
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A large number of riders were dropped today, as the speed and fatigue of almost three weeks of racing took their toll in the last hour of racing. One of those dropped was former maglia rosa, and young rider classification leader, Juan Pedro López (Trek-Segafredo).
While his whole team was on the front of the second section of the bunch trying to tow him back on, he never caught the main peloton and lost 2:43 to it. However, the gaps are now so big down the GC that he remains 9th overall and still holds the white jersey.
More to come.
