Paul Magnier (Soudal-Quick Step) stormed to a clear sprint win on stage 18 of the Giro d'Italia, outkicking Edoardo Zambanini (Bahrain Victorious) and Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) in Pieve di Soligo.
In an action-packed finale that saw splits on a short but steep climb, the race ultimately came back together for a final sprint, where Magnier capitalized on an excellent lead-out from Jasper Stuyven to take his third win so far in this race. The points he earned at the line propelled him back into the lead in the Giro points classification, where he remains locked in a tight battle with Jhonatan Narváez (UAE Team Emirates-XRG).
Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) and the other overall contenders finished safely together to keep the top of the GC standings unchanged ahead of Friday's queen stage.
[race_result id=13 stage_id=89983 count=5 gc=0 year=2026]
[race_result id=13 stage_id=89983 count=5 gc=5 year=2026]
How it happened
- The 171 km stage from Fai della Paganella had the sort of profile that gave all sorts of different riders some hope of contending, and that made for another fierce breakaway battle in the early goings. After some early splits and regroupings, the main break went clear with 120 km to go and came to include four riders after some chasing.
- Unfortunately for those escapees, the sprinters' teams were not interested in giving the break much breathing room on the day. Lidl-Trek did much of the work to keep the gap from growing much beyond two minutes.
- With some 50 km to go, former overall leader and current youth classification leader Afonso Eulálio (Bahrain Victorious) hit the deck in a crash that forced him to chase for a time. He caught back onto the peloton and would soon show that he had not been too badly affected by the fall.
- The gap was down near a minute when the break passed through the intermediate sprint, with Narváez nabbing the single remaining point out of the bunch. With 30 km to go, the gap began to come down quickly, while there was a short-lived split in the peloton as riders descended towards the start of the Cat. 4 Muro Ca' del Poggio.
- Jonas Geens (Alpecin-Premier), the last survivor of the break, was caught at the start of the climb, where Lidl remained prominent at the front but with Visma joining in. Before long, Eulálio jumped clear, opening up a small gap.
- Visma's Sepp Kuss closed most of that gap down as the summit neared before Vingegaard himself made the final catch.
- The race leader's pace forced splits behind, with the sprint stars and their teammates forced into chase mode on the descent.
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