Rigoberto Urán put in an impressive time trial performance to move into striking distance of second place at the Giro d’Italia.
Nibali extends race lead
Rigoberto Urán put in an impressive time trial performance to move into striking distance of second place at the Giro d’Italia.
The Colombian gave a perfectly measured performance to clock a time good enough for sixth on stage 18 to close to within 10 seconds of second-placed Cadel Evans (BMC Racing).
Urán led home a strong day for Team Sky, with two riders in the top 10, Dario Cataldo seeing his early effort stand up well to finish ninth on the 20.6-kilometre Polsa climb.
There was no stopping Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) on the test as the race leader powered to victory by 58 seconds over nearest rival Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi).
The end result saw the Italian open out his advantage in the maglia rosa to 4:02 over Evans, with Urán just 10 seconds further back as the fight for the podium places intensified.
Damiano Caruso (Cannondale) and Michele Scarponi (Lampre-Merida) were the next riders home, the latter taking just five seconds out of Urán on the climb as heavy rain began to fall on the leading contenders.
Kanstantsin Siutsou finished the stage just outside the top 20 as Team Sky cemented their position at the top of the team classification, taking a 5:49 advantage into the remaining two mountain stages.
Climbing legs
After the stage Sports Director Marcus Ljungqvist praised the effort of the team's GC leader and insisted the team will give everything to move Urán further up the leaderboard.
“It was a really good performance from Rigo," he said. "He paced himself well there and got a strong result and is just 10 seconds now off second place.
“We’ll see what happens now with the two mountain stages but it really gives us something to fight for. We know they will be too hard days regardless of how the stages are run with the weather.
“We’re getting towards the end of the race now and we want to leave it all out there and really go for it.”
