[ad_1]
Portuguese cyclist João Almeida (Deceuninck-QuickStep) gave up the Tour lead to Italy, in an 18th stage that Sunweb won with Australian Jai Hindley and in which he wore the rose with Dutch Wilco Kelderman, “abandoned” on the climb.
The Australian Jai Hindley (Sunweb), who took the leadership of the youth classification that was also Portuguese, won the stage, after 6:03:03 hours, necessary to cover the 207 kilometers between Pinzolo and Laghi di Cancano, ahead of El British Tao Geoghegan Hart (INEOS), second.
Spaniard Pello Bilbao (Bahrain-McLaren) was third and climbs to fourth overall, which is now led by Kelderman, fifth on the stage, 12 seconds ahead of Hindley and 15 for Hart, third.
João Almeida, meanwhile, is now fifth, 2.16 behind Kelderman, after cutting the goal in seventh place, 4.51 minutes behind the winner, on a day that included ‘Cima Coppi’, the highest point of the Giro , in this case Stelvio.
The day ended for 15 days in a row wearing the leader’s shirt of the ‘corsa rosa’, but Portugal was able to celebrate, as Rubén Guerreiro, who today climbed to 37th overall, mathematically secured victory in the mountain classification.
Giovanni Visconti, the most direct rival in the fight for the mountain, surrendered and Rúben Guerreiro could become the first Portuguese to win a jersey on a grand tour. With 112 points ahead of Thomas de Gendt and 98 to be awarded, the Montijo rider only needs to complete the 463kms remaining to the finish.
It is an unprecedented feat in any grand tour classification for a Portuguese cyclist, which the rider from Pegões, municipality of Montijo, has to confirm at the end of the race on Sunday in Milan, after scoring 36 points today and keeping the Belgian Thomas de Gendt. (Lotto Soudal) at an already unreachable distance, still benefiting from the abandonment of Italian Giovanni Visconti (Vini Zabù-KTM).
In the end, there were three stages left, one dedicated to the ‘sprinters’, on Friday, a new mountain day on Saturday, redone after the restrictions of the covid-19 pandemic, including a triple climb to Sestriere, and the individual time trial of Sunday in Milan, which will celebrate the winner of the 103rd edition.
On Friday 19 of 21 stages it joins Morbegno with Asti over 258 kilometers of flat profile.
[ad_2]
