It was hard to tell exactly what was going on, especially given the high pace and the somewhat erratic peloton behind, but Affini explained later. Up front the four men in the break were in clear discussions at several points during the stage. The Portuguese rider's efforts gained some questions from the likes of Démare's lead-out man Jacopo Guarnieri, though the gap eventually grew again – with some fluctuation – heading into the final 70km. They gained – or were allowed to gain – two minutes in short order, before Rui Costa (UAE Team Emirates) shaved almost a minute off on his own at 40km into the day. Groupama-FDJ and QuickStep-AlphaVinyl quickly blocked the peloton soon afterwards, happy for the move to get away, though it was something of a struggle for the move to get any sort of decent advantage out front. That dash for the line was the culmination of a hard day of work shared between the four riders, who jumped out into the break inside the opening 10km of the stage three hours earlier. Yeah, I think he was half a wheel faster." 'Always all together with good work and the same goal'ĭe Bondt beat Affini by half a wheel in the final sprint after a day of collaboration (Image credit: Michael Steele/Getty Images) Then I decided to follow my instincts and I decided to go. "It was perfect to have Cort in front of me to have a bit of slipstream. Especially, I'm not really explosive in taking up sprints, so I needed a long sprint. "Unfortunately, I found Dries faster than me but chapeau to him," he said after the finish. The Italian, who hails from Mantova some two hours west of the stage 18 finish, said that his time trialling strength did not translate to winning sprints, especially against fast finishers like De Bondt and Cort. By playing the game like I did, I pulled it off."Īffini, who said later he hadn't won a sprint of any kind since stage 4 of the Tour of Norway almost exactly three years ago, said that he had to go long due to his characteristics as a rider. Everybody thought Magnus was the fastest, so he had to lead but I knew Edoardo had to go first to have a chance, so he actually did a perfect lead out for me. "He can do a very long sprint and that's the only chance to beat Magnus, I think. "That was to go from far because he's not a pure sprinter but he's amazingly strong. "I knew Edoardo had one choice," De Bondt said after the stage, talking through the finish to Eurosport (opens in new tab). It was time triallist Affini who jumped first, some 250 metres out, before De Bondt edged past in the dying metres to take win number three of the Giro for Alpecin-Fenix. In the end, the quartet – unusually strong for a very flat stage with little on offer for a break – made it to the finish, with Cort leading out ahead of Affini, De Bondt, and Gabburo. Giro d'Italia: GC standings after stage 18 João Almeida out of Giro d'Italia following COVID-19 positive Breakaway holds off the sprinters as De Bondt wins Giro d'Italia stage 18
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