Giro d’Italia: Geraint Thomas holds firm as Filipo Zana earns home stage 18 win

The Italian road race champion, Filippo Zana, outpaced Thibaut Pinot in a dramatic two-man final sprint in Val di Zoldo on Thursday to clinch his first grand tour win on stage 18 of the Giro d’Italia.Pinot led the dash for the finish line after a typically swashbuckling performance in the Dolomites, only for Zana to launch the decisive effort from behind, scoring victory on his home roads in the region of Veneto.

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In the general classification, Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) moved up to second, 29sec behind Geraint Thomas (Team Ineos), who marked his 37th birthday by ticking off another stage in the maglia rosa, successfully defending his lead against attacks on the attritional final climb from Roglic and teammates.João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) dropped to third, 39sec behind Thomas, while the Irishman Eddie Dunbar (Jayco AlUla) moved up to fourth, 3min 39sec behind the overall leader. Pinot had the consolation of retaking the lead in the king of the mountains classification.

“It was a decent day,” Thomas said. “To gain time on Almeida and not get dropped by Primoz, it was a good day, a solid day for sure. I felt pretty good, pretty in control. Primoz, he likes to go hard, then take it easy, then go hard. I gave him a few turns, then I wasn’t sure how he was feeling.

“In the last two kilometres he [Roglic] really squeezed on it again, he was super strong, but I was pretty happy with how it was,” Thomas added. “Obviously it’s nice [to gain time] but Primoz had a bad day the other day and Almeida did today. I’ve just got to keep being consistent day by day, climb by climb.”

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