Giro d'Italia 2024 - Stage 18: Hectic sprint! Merlier wins narrowly ahead of Milan
Thomas Huber
· 23.05.2024
Tim Merlier (Soudal - Quick Step) has broken the dominance of Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) and celebrated his second stage win at the Giro d'Italia 2024. After Milan excelled in the last sprints, the Belgian was once again in the lead. In the end, Merlier came out on top just ahead of Milan, with Kaden Groves (Alepcin-Deceuninck) in third.
While Alberto Dainese (Tudor Pro Cycling Team) and Kaden Groves opened their sprints quite early, Milan and Merlier stayed covered for longer and only attacked a short time later. In a hectic sprint, the early starters around Groves increasingly ran out of breath on the finishing straight. Meanwhile, Merlier and Milan had to make their way past the remaining sprinters - at this point, none of them had any riders of their own left. While Milan had to slow down briefly on the left, Merlier passed his rivals on the right and ultimately took the stage win just a few centimetres ahead of the Italian.
Giro d'Italia 2024: Results - the top 10 of the 18th stage
- Tim Merlier (Soudal - Quick Step) 3:45:44
- Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) +0:00
- Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) +0:00
- Alberto Dainese (Tudor Pro Cycling Team) +0:00
- Stanislaw Aniolkowski (Cofidis) +0:00
- Fernando Gaviria (Movistar) +0:00
- Madis Mihkels (Intermarche-Wanty) +0:00
- Caleb Ewan (Team Jayco-AlUla) +0:00
- Davide Ballerini (Astana Qazaqstan Team) +0:00
- Juan Sebastian Molano (UAE Team Emirates) +0:00
The current standings in the overall standings
- Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) 67:17:02
- Daniel Felipe Martinez (Bora-Hansgrohe) +7:42
- Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) +8:04
- Ben O'Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) +9:47
- Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain-Victorious) +10:29
- Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers) +11:10
- Romain Bardet (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL) +12:42
- One Rubio (Movistar) +13:33
- Filippo Zana (Team Jayco-AlUla) +13:52
- Jan Hirt (Soudal - Quick Step) +14:44
How the 18th stage of the Giro d'Italia 2024 went
A bunch sprint was inevitable on the 18th stage from Fiera di Primiero to Padua. After a rainy start, the race began with a short climb, where Mirco Maestri (Polti-Kometa) took the only mountain classification of the day. However, it then went downhill for a long time before the second half of the race was flat as a plate.
A quartet of runaways forms
Around 15 kilometres into the race, four riders attacked and formed the leading group of the day. It consisted of Mikkel Frölich Honore (EF Education-EasyPost), Mirco Mastri (Polti-Kometa), Andrea Pietrobon (Polti-Kometa) and Filippo Fiorelli (VF Group-Bardiani CSF - Faizane). The quartet rode in front for a long time. Meanwhile, Pietrobon took the intermediate sprint in Valdobbiadene and Fiorelli the InterGiro.
The sprinter teams Lidl-Trek and Soudal - Quick Step in particular took care of the chase and kept the leading quartet under control, with Florian Stork from the Tudor Pro Cycling Team also repeatedly showing himself in the wind. The maximum lead was around 2:30 minutes. As the race progressed, the weather improved and the roads were dry in the finale.
Affini closes the gap to the front
As the peloton was closing in on the breakaway with 60 kilometres to go, it slowed down a little so as not to catch them too early. Edoardo Affini (Visma | Lease a Bike) took advantage of this hesitation to break away and extend the leading quartet. Fiorelli took the final intermediate sprint of the day a little later.
The lead of the five riders quickly dropped to less than twenty seconds, but the peloton still kept the breakaway alive for quite a long time. It wasn't until ten kilometres before the finish that the peloton swallowed up Affini and co. In the end, it came down to a bunch sprint, which Tim Merlier won just ahead of Jonathan Milan. As expected, there were no shifts in the overall standings.
