Cima denies the sprinters on Giro stage 18: Daily News Digest
Welcome to your Daily News Digest. Here’s what’s happening today: Damiano Cima wins stage 18 of the Giro d’Italia from the breakaway, Nairo Quintana expects to lead Movistar at the Tour de France, Edvald Boasson Hagen takes the lead in Norway. Those stories and more in today’s Daily News Digest.
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Welcome to your Daily News Digest. Here’s what’s happening today:
Damiano Cima wins stage 18 of the Giro d’Italia from the breakaway, Nairo Quintana expects to lead Movistar at the Tour de France, Edvald Boasson Hagen takes the lead in Norway. Those stories and more in today’s Daily News Digest.
Story of the Day: Cima denies the sprinters on stage 18 of the Giro d’Italia
Damiano Cima (Nippo Vini Fantini) denied the sprinters their final chance at this Giro d’Italia, winning stage 18 from the break in a nail-biting finale.
The 25-year-old Italian held on by the slimmest of margins to triumph ahead of Pascal Ackermann (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Simone Consonni (UAE-Team Emirates) after a long day off the front in Italy.
“I’ve spent so many kilometers in breakaways during this Giro,” Cima said. “I thought I’d never make it but I’ve won today. It’s insane. It’s the dream of a lifetime.”
Richard Carapaz finished safely to maintain his grip on the pink jersey, while Ackermann’s effort at least earned him the consolation prize of taking over the points classification from Arnaud Démare (Groupama-FDJ).
Cima, Nico Denz (Ag2r-La Mondiale), and Mirco Maestri (Bardiani-CSF) formed the main breakaway of the day a little over an hour into the 222-kilometer stage from Valdaora to Santa Maria di Sala.
The gap topped out around six minutes before the peloton tightened the leash. The break’s advantage was down to around three minutes by the intermediate sprint with around 50 kilometers to go, but then the chasing teams eased off the throttle and the gap started to grow again. With 35 kilometers to go and the advantage at four minutes, the pack seemed to realize the danger, but the trio up front was working well together and would not be brought to heel easily.
With Bora-Hansgrohe and Israel Cycling Academy doing much of the work at the front of the peloton, the gap began to fall, but the break still had 45 seconds with five kilometers to go, making it clear that the stage would come down to the wire. Denz tried a flier off the front two kilometers later, but could not open much of a gap on his breakaway companions. Nonetheless, the escapees took an advantage of around 10 seconds under the flamme rouge—but then their pace slackened as each rider looked at the other, holding back for the ensuing sprint.
That was almost enough for the pack to gobble up the break. The sprinters wound up to speed with the trio just in front. Cima launched his move and found some separation on his two companions, but Ackermann was closing quickly.
The sprinters swallowed up Denz and Maestri, but Cima had just enough space to snatch the stage 18 victory ahead of Ackermann, who banged his bars in frustration at the missed opportunity.
Ackermann’s anger turned to joy, however, after he realized that he now has the maglia ciclamino in hand with no sprinters’ stages left on the docket.
🇮🇹 #Giro
That moment you realise you got back the Maglia Ciclamino 🙌🏻 pic.twitter.com/jpO2iMaeMO
— BORA – hansgrohe (@BORAhansgrohe) May 30, 2019
The Giro continues Friday with a mountainous stage 19, 151 kilometers from Treviso to San Martino di Castrozza.
Stage 18 results
1 CIMA Damiano (Nippo Vini Fantini Faizanè)
2 ACKERMANN Pascal (BORA – hansgrohe)
3 CONSONNI Simone (UAE-Team Emirates)
4 SÉNÉCHAL Florian (Deceuninck – Quick Step)
5 GIBBONS Ryan (Team Dimension Data)
6 BELLETTI Manuel (Androni Giocattoli – Sidermec)
7 CIMOLAI Davide (Israel Cycling Academy)
8 DÉMARE Arnaud (Groupama – FDJ)
9 BENNETT Sean (EF Education First)
10 MAESTRI Mirco (Bardiani – CSF)
GC
1 CARAPAZ Richard (Movistar Team)
2 NIBALI Vincenzo (Bahrain Merida)
3 ROGLIC Primoz (Team Jumbo-Visma)
4 LANDA Mikel (Movistar Team)
5 MOLLEMA Bauke (Trek – Segafredo)
6 LÓPEZ Miguel Ángel (Astana Pro Team)
7 MAJKA Rafal (BORA – hansgrohe)
8 YATES Simon (Mitchelton-Scott)
9 SIVAKOV Pavel (Team INEOS)
10 FORMOLO Davide (BORA – hansgrohe)
Moving Pictures
For reasons unknown, a spectator walked into the road and deposited a bicycle in the riders’ path with some 61 kilometers left to race in stage 18 of the Giro d’Italia.
Er, what? #Giro pic.twitter.com/YUi7WyAGBH
— Simon P. (@thepuncheur) May 30, 2019
Fortunately, the trio of breakaway riders managed to avoid the obstacle, and another spectator quickly ran into the road to clear it before the peloton arrived.
Race Radio
Quintana expecting to lead Movistar at the Tour de France
Nairo Quintana expects to be Movistar’s leader at the upcoming Tour de France, and he is hoping Richard Carapaz, currently leading the Giro d’Italia, will make the start as well.
Quintana talked to media in Colombia about the summer ahead, saying that his team has informed him he will be the featured rider even with other big names – like Alejandro Valverde and Mikel Landa – likely to make the start as well.
“Eusebio Unzué has told me that I will be the leader for the Tour, so I have been preparing for that and I hope to count on the support of my team-mates,” Quintana said, according to Cycling Weekly.
Boasson Hagen wins stage 3 at the Tour of Norway
Edvald Boasson Hagen (Dimension Data) won stage 3 and took the race lead at the Tour of Norway.
The 32-year-old Norwegian topped Joris Nieuwenhuis (Sunweb) and Alexander Kristoff (UAE-Team Emirates) after 180 kilometers of racing from Lyngdal to Kristiansand. Boasson Hagen now leads the general classification with a seven-second advantage over Cees Bol (Sunweb).
Police offering AU$500,000 reward for info that helps catch shooter of 72-year-old cyclist
Kelvin Tennant was riding his bike in Everton, Victoria on a Saturday in 2017 when he was shot multiple times by an unknown assailant. The then-72-year-old was found unconscious and airlifted to a nearby hospital. Although it took months, he fortunately recovered from his wounds, albeit with lingering problems with his vision and hearing.
Two years later, detectives still don’t know much about who might have shot Tennant or why. Police have announced a reward of up to AU$500,000 for information that leads to catching the perpetrator.
Socially Speaking
If you went out on the bike but didn’t come back with your clothing brand imprinted on your leg, did you even ride at all? Impressive stuff.
Tech News
Continental to offer tires made from dandelion rubber in Germany
Continental will offer road bike tires using rubber derived from dandelions this summer in Germany, BRAIN reports.
Dandelions, which grow in a range of environments, could serve as a more sustainable source for rubber than rubber trees. Continental has already made truck tires using dandelion rubber. According to BRAIN, a limited number of Continental’s “Urban Taraxagum” tires will be on offer for German consumers in time for the Tour de France.
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Feature Image: Damiano Cima wins stage 18 of the Giro d’Italia. Photo: Miwa Iijima/Cor Vos © 2019