A sprinters stage today in the Giro d'Italia 2010 and despite a leading duo continuing almost until the end of the stage, the sprinters teams were decided to take them back. That was done at 2 kilometers from the finish and André Greipel used the Team Sky train to take the stage victory at the finish ahead of Julian Dean.

The summary of the 18th stage of the Giro d'Italia 2010 from Levico Terme to Brescia

151 riders came to the start early this afternoon in Levico Terme for a 195 kilometer long stage of which I said yesterday already that it was made for the sprinters.

After 21 kilometers, Alan Marangoni of the Colnago - CSF Inox team and Olivier Kaisen (Omega Pharma-Lotto) get away from the peloton but their gap never gets higher than 2'45" at kilometer 38 before the sprinters teams, HTC-Columbia and Team Sky, start the pursuit.
At the intermediate sprint in Toscolano-Maderno, won by Olivier Kaisen ahead of Alan Marangoni and Tom Stamsnijder (Rabobank), their gap still is 2 minutes however with only 43 kilometers to go to the finish.

The sprinters teams however continue to anticipate a bunch sprint and at 10 kiloeters from the finish the gap is down to 44 seconds and with some help from the Liquigas-Doimo team this gap is divided by two at 5.5 kilometers from the finish. Matthias Brändle (Footon-Servetto) tries to attack from the peloton but a bit after Olivier Kaisen decides to give up his lead (at 3.6 kilometers from the finish), the Austrian rider is taken back as well. Marangoni tries to stay ahead but can't resist the sprinters trains either and is taken back at 2 kilometers from the finish.

After a difficult start of this Giro d'Italia 2010 due to health problems, André Greipel today was perfectly placed in Greg Henderson's wheel behind the Team Sky train. When the sprint starts, the German rider is rather quickly in front of the other sprinters and he shows his usual power to stay ahead in what it seems to be a quite easy way. After Matthew Goss' stage victory, Team HTC-Columbia thus takes its second victory in this Giro d'Italia 2010. The New Zealander Julian Dean of the Garmin-Transitions team takes the second place behind Greipel and ahead of Tizziano Dall'Antonia (Liquigas-Doimo).
photo : © TDWSport.com, source Team HTC-Columbia

The comments from the winner, André Greipel

After this stage victory André Greipel (HTC-Columbia) declared: This win took a long time coming, I was sick at the start of the race. It was very hard at times but I kept on going.
Today has made all that effort worthwhile. The team trusted me throughout, and today's stage win was the ideal finish for a great performance by the whole squad. I'm very proud of them. The Giro is certainly ending the way I wanted it to!

The videos of the 18th stage of the Giro d'Italia 2010

>> Watch the video of the sprint won by André Greipel

>> Watch the stage summary

The upcoming stages: a route change in Saturday's stage?

Tomorrow the riders will return to the mountain stages, first between Brescia and Aprica with the climb of the Passo del Mortirolo. You can find all details about this stage, the stage profile for the 19th stage and the route on Google Maps by reading my article The Giro d'Italia 2010 route on Google Maps/Google Earth and the route- and time schedule.

On Saturday the climb of the Passo di Gavia - the rooftop of this Giro - is planned between Bormio and Ponte di Legno. On the road there's still a lot of snow but it's considered accessible for the Giro for the time being. However, the organisation did prepare an alternative stage already just in case. In that cas, after the start from Bormio, the beginning of the stage will be as originally planned with a loop around the start city. However, before returning to the start, the riders would turn after Tirano to climb to Trivigno. From there, they'll continue to Aprica (finish city for the previous stage) before getting back to Tirano and continuing to Grosio where they'll start a new climb of the Mortirolo, but this time from the north-west side for the very first time in the Tour of Italy history. At 3 km from the top the riders would be back on the classical climb of the Mortirolo before the descent towards Monno and the final climb towards the finish in Ponte di Legno - Tonale.

The classifications after the 18th stage of the Giro d'Italia 2010

The stage classification

The top 10 of sprinters in this stage was as follows:

1/ André Greipel (HTC-Columbia) - 3h14'59" (43,08 km/h)
2/ Julian Dean (Garmin-Transitions)
3/ Tiziano Dall'Antonia (Liquigas-Doimo)
4/ Gregory Henderson (Team Sky)
5/ Danilo Hondo (Lampre-Farnese Vini)
6/ Graeme Brown (Rabobank)
7/ Lucas Sebastian Haedo (Team Saxo Bank)
8/ Michiel Elijzen (Omega Pharma-Lotto)
9/ Fabio Sabatini (Liquigas-Doimo)
10/ William Bonnet (Bbox Bouygues Telecom)

photo : © TDWSport.com, source Team HTC-Columbia

The general classification

No changes in the general classification and the Spanish rider David Arroyo of the Caisse d'Epargne team thus keeps his precious pink jersey.

1/ David Arroyo (Caisse d'Epargne) - 76h26'37"
2/ Ivan Basso (Liquigas-Doimo) - +2'27"
3/ Richie Porte (Team Saxo Bank) - +2'44"
4/ Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) - +3'09"
5/ Carlos Sastre (Cervélo TestTeam) - +4'41"
6/ Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Doimo) - +4'53"
7/ Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana) - +5'12"
8/ Michele Scarponi (Androni Giocattoli-Diquigiovanni) - +5'24"
9/ Damiano Cunego (Lampre-Farnese Vini) - +9'21"
10/ Robert Kiserlovski (Liquigas-Doimo) - +9'32"

The classification by points

The top 5 of the classification by points remains the same as well:

1/ Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) - 106 points
2/ Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana) - 91 points
3/ Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Doimo) - 78 points
4/ Jérôme Pineau (Quick Step) - 74 points
5/ Ivan Basso (Liquigas-Doimo) - 68 points

The King of the Mountains classification

No climbs in today's stage, thus no changes in the King of the Mountains classification either:

1/ Matthew Lloyd (Omega Pharma-Lotto) - 29 points
2/ Ivan Basso (Liquigas-Doimo) - 25 points
3/ Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) - 25 points
4/ Ludovic Turpin (AG2R La Mondiale) - 20 points
5/ Michele Scarponi (Androni Giocattoli-Diquigiovanni) - 17 points
6/ Stefano Garzelli (Acqua & Sapone) - 17 points

Best young rider classification

In the classification of best young riders, Valerio Agnoli (Liquigas-Doimo) switches places with Francis de Greef (Omega Pharma-Lotto) who thus enters the top 5:

1/ Richie Porte (Team Saxo Bank) - 76h29'21"
2/ Robert Kiserlovski (Liquigas-Doimo) - +6'48"
3/ Dario Cataldo (Quick Step) - +11'26"
4/ Bauke Mollema (Rabobank) - +12'40"
5/ Francis de Greef (Omega Pharma-Lotto) - +25'53"

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Giro d Italia | Giro d'Italia 2010

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