Emanuel Buchmann has climbed one place in the overall standings of the Giro d'Italia due to the corona infection of podium contender Joao Almeida.
Big gap for Buchmann
Before the last two mountain stages and the final time trial of the 105th edition, the 29-year-old is in seventh place, but is 7:13 minutes behind the leader Richard Carapaz from Ecuador. Buchmann's Australian colleague from Team Bora-hansgrohe, Jai Hindley, is only three seconds behind Carapaz in second place overall.
The 18th stage was won by Dries de Bondt. The Belgian won the sprint of a four-man escape group after 156 kilometres in Treviso ahead of the Italian Edoardo Affini and Magnus Cort from Denmark. Almeida had been forced to abandon the race in the morning after the 23-year-old tested positive for coronavirus. This was confirmed by his team UAE. The Portuguese rider was in fourth place overall at the time and was considered a serious candidate for the podium due to his time trial qualities.
Podium barely within reach
On Wednesday, Buchmann lost a good two and a half minutes to Carapaz and Co. on the difficult mountain stage to Lavarone.
With a gap of over six minutes to third-placed Mikel Landa from Spain, a place on the podium is almost out of reach. Friday sees the penultimate mountain finish in Santuario di Castelmonte, where there could be further shifts in the overall standings.
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