Tejay van Garderen claimed his first career Grand Tour stage victory on Thursday's 18th stage of the Giro d'Italia. The BMC rider bested mountains classification leader Mikel Landa (Sky) at the finish line in Ortisei after a long afternoon in the breakaway.
Just over a minute later, race leader Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb) arrived at the finish line on the same time as Nairo Quintana (Movistar) and Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) after fiercely defending his pink jersey in the face of repeated attacks by his rivals.
FDJ's Thibaut Pinot was the big winner of the day among the general classification contenders, setting off in pursuit of van Garderen and Landa and nearly bridging to them in the final kilometres. The Frenchman finished third on the day and, with bonus seconds, clawed back 1:02 on Dumoulin, Quintana, and Nibali.
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Van Garderen and Landa were the last men standing from a large early breakaway move following a day of five categorised climbs. Landa took a sizable bounty of mountains points on the stage but, still without a win in the race, pressed on out front as the battle among the GC favourites heated up behind.
Quintana delivered a powerful attack on the second-category Passo Gardena shortly after the midway point of the stage, bridging up to teammates that had been in the breakaway and opening up a small gap. Dumoulin, lacking teammates, found himself in a stressful situation when Nibali jumped to join the move, but the Dutchman proved his strength on the Alpine slopes, tapping out a rhythm in pursuit of his rivals that slowly but surely closed down the gap.
Brought to heel by the summit of the ascent, Nibali and Quintana were thereafter unable to shake Dumoulin, whose GC campaign looks that much stronger with now just two road stages remaining before a final time trial in Milan sure to suit his talents.
How it unfolded
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