Overall leader Isaac Del Toro has had a chance to take it relatively easy during the 18th stage of the Giro d’Italia, which was won by German rider Nico Denz with a solo breakaway.
Del Toro, the first Mexican rider to wear the pink jersey, finished safely in the main pack following the 144km route from Morbegno to Cesano Maderno, which featured three minor climbs early on before a relatively flat finale.
It will likely be much tougher for the 21-year-old Del Toro over the next two days, with gruelling back-to-back mountain stages before the mostly ceremonial finish in Rome on Sunday.
Del Toro said: “I don’t know what the situation will be. I cannot predict the future. But, of course, if I can be with the GC (general classification) riders, and more or less everything in control for the team, I will be happy enough. I hope to be mentally ready.”
Del Toro maintained his advantage of 41 seconds ahead of 2019 champion Richard Carapaz and 51 seconds ahead of British rider Simon Yates.
Denz was part of a breakaway group of 11 riders – which included Australia’s Alexander Edmondson (Picnic PostNL) – and the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe rider attacked with 11km to go on the final flat section of the stage.
The 31-year-old outfoxed the group and held a 32-second lead with five kilometres left, blowing kisses to the fans lined up along the final stretch and looking back to see no rider behind him.
By the time he crossed the finish line with his arms outstretched, he had finished a minute ahead of the chasing pack for the third Giro stage win of his career.
Edmondson finished the stage in fifth place, one minute and one second behind Denz, but is 142nd overall.
Victory allowed Denz’s team to salvage something from this year’s Giro as they celebrated a first stage win after they had seen pre-race favourite Primoz Roglic abandon the race on Tuesday following a crash on stage 16.
“This is probably the most emotional of my victories at the Giro. Losing Jai Hindley early then the whole team, staff included, was fully committed to help Primoz Roglic win the Giro. We spent two months in altitude for that,” Denz said.
“I was three months away from home to prepare for the Giro. A dream was lost when we lost Primoz. We’ve thought all this hard work was for nothing. Luckily things turned around.”
Juan Ayuso, Del Toro’s UAE Emirates teammate, abandoned the race early on in the stage after struggling for days. Considered a pre-race favorite, Ayuso stood 26th, nearly 50 minutes behind Del Toro, and was battling through knee pain and a bee sting.
“Obviously this is not how I wanted my Giro to end but some things are out of my control,” Ayuso said in a team statement. “I wish the guys all the best and hope Isaac can keep pink all the way to Rome.”
Australia’s hopes had been hampered on Wednesday by the withdrawal of Jayco AlUla’s Luke Plapp and the fading of the fancied Michael Storer (Tudor) who drifted back to 10th place.
Storer remains the leading Aussie, still 10th and seven minutes and 46 seconds behind the leader in the GC. Chris Harper (28th) and Daniel Howson (42nd) are the only other Australians in the top 50.
