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The Portuguese couldn’t keep up with Sunweb and Ineos in the middle of the long mountain and dropped to fifth place overall. Rúben Guerreiro has already won the mountain.
On the 15th, João Almeida’s pink shirt passed to the Dutchman Wilco Kelderman, who dethroned the young Portuguese after a strong attack from his team, Sunweb and Ineos, on the ascent from Stelvio, the mountain of almost 25 kilometers.
Almeida was also overtaken overall by Sunweb’s Jai Hindley, who won the stage, and Ineos’s Tao Geoghegan Hart, who accompanied the Australian to the end of the 207 km, in Laghi di Cancano, after a final climb of 9 kilometers, and also from Pello Bilbao (Bahrain), author of a magnificent recovery from this last difficulty.
The stage was also marked by the good performance of Rúben Guerreiro, who took advantage of the abandonment of Italian Giovani Visconti (Vini Zabù), due to tendonitis, scored again and guaranteed victory on the mountain.
The Portuguese from Education First now has 112 points ahead of Belgian Thomas de Gendt (Lotto Soudal), with a maximum of 98 to be assigned, all in the twentieth and penultimate stage.
With Almeida in fifth place overall, the Giro will have a flat stage tomorrow -Morbegno to Asti, 258 kilometers-, before another high mountain race on Saturday, with three climbs to Sestriere, and on Sunday the final time trial, of 15.7. km, in Milan.
If he maintains his position, João Almeida will equal the best final result of a Portuguese in the Giro, the fifth place of José Azevedo in the 2001 edition, still remaining as the national runner-up who most days led a Grand Tour (15).
RATINGS
18th stage: Pinzolo-Laghi di Cancano (207 km)
1st Jai Hindley (Sunweb), 6h03m03s
2nd Tao Geoghegan Hart (Ineos), mt
3rd Pello Bilbao (Bahrain), 46s
4th Jakob Fuglsang (Astana), 1m25s
Wilco Kelderman (Sunweb), 2m18s
6th Patrick Konrad (Bora), a 4m04s
7th João Almeida (Deceuninck), at 4:51
8th Vincenzo Nibali (Trek), mt
Individual General
Wilco Kelderman (Sunweb), 77h46m56s
2nd Jai Hindley (Sunweb), a 12
3rd Tao Geoghegan Hart (Ineos), 15th
4th Pello Bilbao (Bahrain), 1m19s
5th João Almeida (Deceuninck), at 2m16s
6th Jakob Fuglsang (Astana), 3m59s
7th Patrick Konrad (Bora), a 5m40s
8th Vincenzo Nibali (Trek), at 5:47 am
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