Pink jersey attacks after Mikel Landa is caught up in crash
Thursday 28 May 2015 17:48, UK
Alberto Contador took advantage of his rivals' misfortune to extend his overall lead of the Giro d'Italia on stage 18 as breakaway rider Philippe Gilbert claimed his second win of the race.
Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) attacked out of the peloton at the foot of the day’s only climb, the category-one Monte Ologno, with 42km to go and went on to cross the line 1min 13sec ahead of Astana pair Mikel Landa and Fabio Aru, second and third overall, 12th on the day.
There was an element of controversy about the move, as it came shortly after Landa had been held up by a crash in what appeared to be an act of revenge for Astana attacking Contador following a puncture on stage 16.
The result extends the Spaniard's gap at the top of the standings to 5min 15sec over Landa and 6min 5sec over Aru.
Gilbert (BMC Racing), meanwhile, left his fellow escapees behind with 19km remaining of a long descent to the finish line in Verbania and held on to win by 47 seconds from runner-up Francesco Bongiorno (Bardiani-CSF) and 1min 1sec from third-placed Sylvain Chavanel (IAM Cycling).
The Belgian, who also won stage 12, said: “In the meeting in the bus we said the breakaway had a big chance and I knew it was possible for me to not be so far behind on the big climb.
“My team-mate attacked first and then I attacked form behind. It was perfect for me. I took some risks on the descent and I didn’t know the corners, but to win stages you have to take some risks.”
Contador easily road away from Aru after the crash and, having later been joined by Ryder Hesjedal (Cannondale-Garmin), the pair built up a lead of two minutes over the Italian.
Landa, meanwhile, caught up with Aru's sizeable group thanks to a superb piece of recovery riding, and Astana's losses were further minimised when Contador shed his chain on the climb and had to stop to re-seat it.
Stage 18 result
1 Philippe Gilbert (Bel) BMC Racing, 4:04:14
2 Francesco Bongiorno (Ita) Bardiani-CSF, +47
3 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) IAM Cycling, +1:01
4 Matteo Busato (Ita) Southeast, same time
5 Amael Moinard (Fra) BMC Racing, st
6 David de la Cruz (Esp) Etixx – Quick-Step, st
7 Rinaldo Nocentini (Ita) Ag2r-La Mondiale, st
8 Kanstantsin Siutsou (Blr) Team Sky, st
9 Chad Haga (USA) Giant-Alpecin, +2:42
10 Pieter Weening (Ned) Orica-GreenEdge, +3:55
Selected others
12 Alberto Contador (Esp) Tinkoff-Saxo, +6:05
23 Mikel Landa (Esp) Astana, +7:18
24 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana, st
General classification
1 Alberto Contador (Esp) Tinkoff-Saxo, 72:23:09
2 Mikel Landa (Esp) Astana, +5:15
3 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana, +6:05
4 Andrey Amador (Cos) Movistar, +7:01
5 Yuri Trofimov (Rus) Katusha, +9:40
6 Leopold Konig (Cze) Team Sky, +10:44
7 Damiano Caruso (Ita) BMC Racing, +11:05
8 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo, +12:53
9 Ryder Hesjedal (Can) Cannondale-Garmin, +13:01
10 Alexandre Geniez (Fra) FDJ.fr, +14:01
