Giro 2014 Stage 18 Report - Arredondo climbs to stage win

Julian Arredondo showed just why he leads the mountains classification in this year's Giro, infiltrating yet another breakaway and climbing away to the stage win. It's been quite a Giro for Colombia and compatriot Quintana stays in pink. (Slideshow route/profile)

Results 18th stage Giro 2014

1. Julian Arredondo (col)
2. Fabio Duarte (col) + 0.17
3. Phillp Deignan (Irl) + 0.27
4. Franco Pellizotti (ita) + 1.20
5. Edoardo Zardini (ita) + 1.24
6. Thomas de Gendt (bel) + 1.38
7. Ivan Basso (ita) + 1.43
8. Dario Cataldo (ita) + 1.59
9. Fabio Aru (ita) +2.43
10. Nairo Quintana (col) + 2.46

GC after stage 18
1. Nairo Quintana (col)
2. Rigoberto Uran (col) +1.41
3. Pierre Rolland (fra) + 3.29
4. Fabio Aru (ita) + 3.31
5. Rafal Majka (pol) s.t.
6. Domenico Pozzovivo (ita) + 3.52
7. Ryder Hesjedal (can) + 4.32
8. Wilco Kelderman (Nld) + 4.37
9. Cadel Evans (aus) + 4.59
10. Robert Kiserlovski (Cro) + 8.33

Report
A strong breakaway went up the road today with some big names. The full group consisted of Julian Arredondo (Trek Factory Racing), Dario Cataldo (Team Sky), Edoardo Zardini (Bardiani CSF), Emanuele Sella and Franco Pelitzotti (Both Androni), Tim Wellens (Lotto-Belisol), Phil Deignan (Team Sky), Thomas de Gendt (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) and Ivan Rovny (Tinkoff-Saxo)

Basso was the highest place on GC but at 22 minutes downn was not a major concern to Quintana’s Movistar team.

The group built up a big lead and with over 7 minutes going into the last cimb, the stage was set to be won by one of the men up the road.

Multiple attacks by mountain leader Arredondo and countryman Duarte were closed down by Irishman Deignan and Thomas de Gendt who both had digs of their own.

Back in the GC group, it seemed all the contenders bar Evans and Quintana tried to attack at some point. Evans was struggling again in the mountains while Quintana was marking Uran and Rolland.

Rolland again looked strong, with the Europcar rider eventually getting away and being let away it seemed by the pink jersey who did not try to chase on this occasion. He was reeled in in the closing kilometres as has been the case on a lot of stages but on this occasion, his pressing has put him into the podium positions.

Up front, the impressive Arredondo managed to get away and rode off to the stage win while Duarte made it a Colombian 1-2.

Fabio Aru tried to escape the GC group but only managed a couple of seconds on the pink jersey.

The big change on GC is that Cadel Evans loses his podium place and drops to 9th. With just over a minute from 3rd place Rolland to 7th place Hesjedal, as well as 2nd place Uran time-trialing better than pink jersey Quintana, tomorrow’s mountain TT will be very interesting.