Stage 18

The road

At the start

The sprinters' last chance, 231 km of it

Simon Yates took 53 seconds on the Sega di Ala and is up to third at 3:23, Caruso holds second at 2:21, and the pink jersey spent yesterday's last four kilometres pedalling squares. Remco Evenepoel does not start, a day after flipping over a guardrail. Today is the longest stage of the race, 231 kilometres back to the plain — though the run-in tilts into the Pavia hills.

How it was won

1. 197 km to go

   Twenty-three up the road

   After waves of attacks from the gun it takes Sagan, Oss and Ganna riding to the front and asking for a truce before the break of twenty-three is finally allowed to settle.

2. 223 km to go

   Cavagna's ambush

   The Frenchman's acceleration is so sudden it nearly bowls over the race motorbikes. He takes thirty seconds and holds it by attacking every corner on the descent, using time-trial power on the flat between the last two climbs.

3. 37 km to go

   Bettiol picks him off

   Having dropped Roche, Bettiol drops down the gears with 500 metres of climbing left, rises from the saddle and grinds his way onto Cavagna's wheel — then rides off it three hundred metres later. If Flanders in 2019 was opportunism, this is pure calculation.

4. 4At the line

   Stradella

   Bettiol survives the last descent with the gap growing and the chase fragmenting behind, and takes his first win on home soil.

The result