Nico Denz surged to victory on stage 18 of the Giro D’Italia, offering some respite for his struggling Red Bull team.
The German produced a powerful finish to take the win at Cesano Maderno, a much-needed injection of good news following the injury withdrawals of general classification hopefuls Jai Hindley and Primoz Roglic.
“This is probably the most emotional of my victories at the Giro. Losing Jai Hindley early then the whole team, staff included, was fully committed to help Primoz Roglic win the Giro. We spent two months in altitude for that,” Denz said.
“I was three months away from home to prepare for the Giro. A dream was lost when we lost Primoz. We’ve thought all this hard work was for nothing. Luckily things turned around.”
Denz, now a three-time stage winner at the Giro, moved with a group of 35 in the opening stages and held his spot as the breakaway thinned to 11. With just over 10km still to go, the 31-year-old made his move and found nobody able to match him.
Mirco Maestri, representing Polti-VisitMalta, won the battle for second around a minute further back and Edward Planckaert came in third for Alpecin-Deceuninck.
The GC riders in the peloton crossed almost 10 minutes after Denz stopped the clock, leaving Isaac Del Toro in possession of the pink jersey on behalf of UAE Team Emirates. Richard Carparaz (EF-Education EasyPost) is in second and Great Britain’s Simon Yates remains third (Team Visma).
Del Toro’s teammate Juan Ayuso was forced to abandon his own bid after a nasty bee sting around his eye added to existing knee problems, leaving him unable to race on.
The race now moves on to the climbs of the 166km Biella-Champoluc stage.
