Giro d’Italia 2022 Stage 18 – Last dance for Mark Cavendish? Or more joy for Arnaud Demare?

Mark Cavendish’s last dance

As Mark Cavendish (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team) slogged through the mountains, two words will have been echoing around his head: ‘Stage 18, Stage 18, Stage 18’.

Two brutal days of climbing at the Giro d’Italia mean everyone will be hoping for a largely chilled run from Borgo Valsugana to Treviso, leaving the fast men free to squabble over the final bunch sprint… assuming the breakaway does not rip up the plan.

Arnaud Demare (Groupama-FDJ) is the in-form rider with three wins already, while Cavendish is chasing his first win since the race arrived in Italy, having won Stage 3 in Hungary during the Grande Partenza.

But with so many hard metres now in the legs, who will be freshest on the gentle run into Treviso on Thursday? And could any weakness from the sprint teams be pounced on by a break?

Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) staved off the threat of Jai Hindley (Bora-hansgrohe) in the maglia rosa battle on Stage 17, with the gap still at three seconds and the race increasingly likely to be decided on the final-day time trial.

The Ecuadorian should enjoy a day off from following attacks, although we can expect his Ineos team-mates to be stationed at the front… just in case.

STAGE 17 RECAP: Buitrago wins Stage 17 after crash; Van der Poel shines, Carapaz keeps pink

Tears of sadness on Sunday turned to tears of joy on Wednesday as Santiago Buitrago picked up a maiden Grand Tour stage win with a fantastic solo effort in Lavarone.

Three days after agonisingly missing out to Guilio Ciccone in Cogne, the 22-year-old Colombian bounced back on an explosive Stage 17 in the Italian Alps as Bahrain-Victorious team-mate Mikel Landa moved into the podium positions at the expense of Portugal’s Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates).

Buitrago picked himself up from a nasty crash with 80km remaining before reeling in a leading Dutch duo of Gijs Leemreize (Jumbo-Visma) and the indefatigable Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) on the final climb, the latter having ridden clear of the day’s breakaway on at least three occasions in a bid to secure a second stage win in his debut Giro.

Keeping his cool on the descent to Lavarone, Buitrago, with his jersey and shorts scuffed from his earlier spill, pointed to the sky as he crossed the line to take an outstanding win by 35 seconds on the impressive Leemreize, another 22-year-old Giro debutant who himself came close to victory in Genova in Stage 12.

Czech climber Jan Hirt, the Intermarche-Wanty-Gobert rider who won Tuesday’s Stage 16, continued his fine purple patch with third place ahead of Britain’s Hugh Carthy (EF Education-EasyPost) as the last two riders from the initial 24-man break held on before the GC favourites battled tooth and nail in their wake.

A succession of attacks from Bahrain Victorious duo Landa and Wout Poels had decimated the maglia rosa group on the decisive ascent of Monterovere – most notably dropping the white jersey of Almeida on the second of two successive first-category climbs at the end of the 168km stage.

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Stage 18 profile and route map

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