Cycling: Mikel Nieve (Mitchelton-Scott) won the final mountain stage of the 2018 Giro d'Italia on his birthday. The Spaniard ultimately won as a soloist from a breakaway group. Despite a multitude of attacks from Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb), he was able to Chris Froome (Sky) defend their lead in the overall standings. The Briton is therefore close to the (provisional) overall victory at the Giro d'Italia 2018. Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) had another pitch-black day. And Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) also flew off the podium. Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) won the fight for white. Patrick Konrad (Bora-hansgrohe) can look forward to a top 10 placement.
After Yates, Pinot gets it too
Last chance for the escapees. That's what several professionals thought on the 214 kilometers from Susa to Cervinia. 26 of them were able to break away from the peloton and quickly extend their lead. Also there were with the Austrian Felix Grossschartner (Bora-hansgrohe), the Swiss Steve Morabito (Groupama-FDJ) and the Germans Andrew Schillinger (Bora-hansgrohe) and Tony Martin (Katusha-Alpecin) German speaking drivers. In the peloton, Team Astana took control. Although the pace was not too high, got Simon yates (Mitchelton-Scott) fell behind in the first climb. Should also collapse completely Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ), who was able to keep up with the best yesterday and was third in the overall standings. Even before the second climb, you could see him and his teammates behind the group of favorites - completely exhausted and depressed. In the end he would lose more than half an hour and not only fall off the podium, but also out of the top 10.
El 'pajarón' de Thibaut Pinot 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻
— COPEdaleando (@Copedaleando) 26 Maj 2018
Nieve wins a stage, Froome takes overall victory and mountain prize
In the three climbs in the first category, not only was the main field thinned out properly, but also the leading group. Eventually it turned out Mikel Nieve (Mitchelton-Scott) as the strongest outlier. was in pursuit Felix Grossschartner, but the Austrian couldn't get close. Behind them it was about the overall ranking and the mountain prize. Both jerseys will probably also change tomorrow in Rome Chris Froome (Sky) may slip over. The Brit defended his lead Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb), although he attacked several times on the final climb. Also the attempt of Julius Ciccone (Bardiani-CSF) narrowly missed out on the mountains classification. After four victories in the Tour de France and one in the Vuelta a Espana, the Briton will also be considered the winner of the Giro d'Italia - at least for the time being. Because there is no weakness in cycling, Chris Froome should actually be banned later because of his Salbutamol case. Thus, if he had a corresponding term, his victories at the Vuelta and the Giro would be denied - and Tom Dumoulin can be described as a successful defending champion.
Mikel Nieve says on the stage! #tour #giro101 pic.twitter.com/zUNOXWGKPK
— Eurosport Nederland (@Eurosport_NL) 26 Maj 2018