Stage 18

The road

At the start

The Stelvio, in late October

Two days in the mountains have moved nothing: Almeida leads Kelderman by seventeen seconds, Hindley and Geoghegan Hart by just under three minutes. Today is the day the whole race has been looking at — the Passo Castrin at 9%, then the Stelvio, 2,758 metres and the Cima Coppi, with snow banked at the roadside in late October, and a finish above Laghi di Cancano up the twenty-one hairpins of the Torri di Fraele.

How it was won

1. 138 km to go

   War on the Stelvio

   Ineos set Rohan Dennis to work at the foot of the Stelvio and the race explodes: Nibali and Fuglsang are detached, leaving Geoghegan Hart, Hindley and a struggling Kelderman alone in the thin, snowbound air.

2. 236 km to go

   Kelderman off the back

   Five kilometres from the summit Kelderman cannot hold the Ineos pace and drifts away, riding in virtual pink but alone as the leaders press on.

3. 332 km to go

   Over the roof of the Giro

   Dennis leads Geoghegan Hart and Hindley over the 2,758m Stelvio, the Cima Coppi, with Kelderman 46 seconds down and Almeida haemorrhaging over three minutes.

4. 48 km to go

   Ineos steal the bonuses

   At the intermediate sprint before the last climb Ineos pull a fast one, Geoghegan Hart taking three seconds and Dennis two to vault Tao a single second up on Hindley in the virtual GC.

5. 55 km to go

   Kelderman rides into pink

   Caught and passed by Bilbao and Fuglsang, Kelderman grinds up the Torri di Fraele in dire straits, doing just enough to inherit the maglia rosa from the collapsing Almeida.

6. 63 km to go

   The duel up Torri di Fraele

   Geoghegan Hart leads Hindley up the 21 hairpins to Laghi di Cancano, the pair glued together, saving everything for a sprint that will decide the stage and reorder the podium.

7. 7At the line

   Hindley wins at the lakes

   Jai Hindley outsprints Geoghegan Hart at Laghi di Cancano after six hours in the Dolomites, as Kelderman limps home to take the pink jersey by 12 seconds over the Australian.

The result