Tour of Italy
The Italian Filippo Zana celebrated a home win at the 106th Giro d’Italia on the first mountain stage in the Dolomites. The Jayco teammate of the Austrian Lukas Pöstlberger prevailed on the 161-kilometer 18th stage from Oderzo to Val di Zoldo in front of the Frenchman Thibaut Pinot. Geraint Thomas defended his overall lead on his 37th birthday.
Zana and Pinot were part of a breakaway group of seven and ultimately fought a sprint duel for the stage win. For 24-year-old Zana it was the first stage success in a grand tour. Pinot moved up to seventh place overall (+4:43 mins) and retains the mountain jersey.
Patrick Konrad (59./+20:00) again did help for Bora captain Lennard Kämna, who was stage 14. (+3:03) maintained his sixth place overall (+4:27). Former Tour de France champion Thomas remains at the top, finishing eighth with the recovered Slovenian Primoz Roglic (7th) 1:56 minutes behind the escapees in Val di Zoldo.
Roglic new overall second
Roglic moved up to second place on the Portuguese Joao Almeida (9./+2:17) and can continue to dream of his first Giro triumph. The Slovenian still showed weaknesses during the stage, but was on top of things in the final. Thomas is now 29 seconds ahead of Roglic in the overall standings, closely followed by Almeida (+0:39). Konrad dropped from 19th to 22nd place (+30:32), Pöstelberger, the stage 109th. (+35:38) is 93 overall. (+3:23:57 hrs).
Before the 106th Tour of Italy concludes in Rome on Sunday, the riders still have to complete two challenging stages in the Dolomites. On Friday, the king’s stage over 183 kilometers from Longarone to Tre Cime di Lavaredo with the extremely difficult final ascent to the Drei Zinnen with gradients of 18 percent is on the program. On Saturday, the 18.6-kilometre mountain time trial from Tarvisio to Monte Lussari follows, before the final stage starting and finishing in Rome (135 km) on Sunday should be a matter for the sprinters.