May 28, 2026
After yesterday's all out battle royale for the stage win, those riders in the break will be exhausted but they must try again because time is running out. Stage 18 offers another potential win from a break. The riders will leave Fai della Paganella and Trentino behind as they head East into the Veneto for the finish in Pieve di Soligo. It's a shorter stage at 171 km with a hair under 2,000 meters of climbing but the roads are constantly twisting and turning making it a classic third week transitional stage before the GC fireworks on Friday and Saturday. The break will have a chance to form after 20 km of racing when they reach the 4.9 km, 6.2% climb to Civezzano. Afterwards, the course rolls up and down through Levico Terme, Primolano, Feltre, and Fener before the intermediate sprint in Guia with 39 km to go and the Redbull Sprint in Tarzo, 20 km later. One might think the day could be for the sprinters if it were not for the Muro Ca'del Poggio 11 km from the finish. The climb is 1.1 km long but averages over 11%. It would be a risk for a sprint team to control for 160 km just to be blasted away right before the finish which is why the break has more than a good chance at going the distance.
Race Summary
The race got underway on the valley road into Mezzolombardo with vineyards surrounding the town. Across the Adige River after 5 km of racing, only Johan Jacobs of Groupama-FDJ United and Filippo Magli of Bardiani CSF 7 Saber were up the road with Lidl-Trek marking attacks in the bunch. The peloton settled and were a over a minute behind the two leaders when the climb to Civezzano began. A fire was lit in the peloton when they reached the climb but it was quickly dampened and only a handful of riders managed to break free. Visma-Lease a Bike and Soudal Quickstep lined up across the road to try and call it a day but orders came through the radio and more moves went off the front.
All of the early attacks were swept up by the top in Civezzano with 143.5 km to go but racing wasn't done. The terrain for the lighter guys to get in the break was behind them which made it much harder for anyone to break free. Through Levico Terme, passed the Lago di Levico with 129 km remaining, only Mattia Bais and Andrea Mifsud of Polti-VisitMalta were at the head of the race by only about 15 seconds. As the race carried on, the landscape changed from steep mountain slopes to wider valley's with more and more cultivated land.
James Shaw of EF-Education EasyPost got across to the Polti-VisitMalta riders with 109 km to go and Jonas Geens of Alpecin-Premier Tech did the same 3 km later and that was the break of the day. UAE-XRG and Lidl-Trek started to control and all of the conversation about it being a day for the break was looking unlikely. The gap was held at or below 90 seconds the whole way to the start of the 3 km, 4% climb to Fastro with 86 km remaining. The bunch backed off which allowed the gap to nudge over 2 minutes but once the race went over the top and entered the Veneto, UAE-XRG and NSN Cycling got more involved in the chase and had the break well under control.
6 km out from the intermediate sprint in Guia, the riders reached Valdobbiadene, home of the Prosecco Superiore DOCG. Views of the valley and hillsides were spectacular with almost every inch of land being covered in grape vines. The gap was under 1 minute and dark clouds were gathering on the horizon as villages in the distance were getting rain. Bais took maximum points in Guia but with four riders up the road, one point was remaining and Jhonatan Narváez of UAE-XRG jumped out of the bunch to pad his lead for the Ciclamino jersey.
Lidl-Trek upped the pace with 28 km to go through Miane which stretched the peloton into single file. 3 km later, the gap was down to 20 seconds. Geens attacked the rest of the break and went clear while the others filtered back into the peloton after a disappointing day. GC teams came forward with the Muro Ca'del Poggio about 10 km away. Geens took the cash at the Redbull Sprint and the battle for position began on twisting downhill roads.
Netcompany-Ineos and Unibet Rose Rockets were best drilled in their lead outs coming into the base of the Muro Ca'del Poggio. Lidl-Trek were also there with Jonathan Milan as were Visma-Lease a Bike for Maglia Rosa, Jonas Vingegaard. There was a bit of a standoff as the gradients pitched up to over 15% but a flying attack came from the Maglia Bianca, Afonso Eulálio of Bahrain Victorious. The Portuguese rider had crashed earlier in the stage and looked banged up but he made a strong recovery and was leading the race through the throngs of cheering fans that had gathered on the climb and through pink smoke flares creating atmosphere overhead. Sepp Kuss set a controlling pace for Visma-Lease a Bike which slowly reeled Eulálio back by the top with 9 km remaining. Around 20 riders were in the first group including the GC guys plus Corbin Strong of NSN Cycling and Orluis Aular of Movistar. They had forced open a 10 second gap but the chase group behind contained Milan, Narváez, and Paul Magnier Soudal Quickstep.
NSN Cycling made the sprint group work to get back to the front group and they still had 10 seconds to close with 6 km to go. There was a little bit of looking around in the front which gave Johannes Kulset of Uno-X Mobility a chance to attack. He was followed by Eulálio, all the while the gap to the sprinters group was still at 10 seconds with 5 km remaining. With 3.5 km to go, the catch was made between the GC and sprint groups and Lidl-Trek went straight to the front with Derek Gee to track down Kulset and Eulálio. Soudal Quickstep found themselves with numbers and took over the chase which was frantic by this point. The collective strength of Soudal Quickstep and Lidl-Trek brought Kulset and Eulálio back with just 1,200 meters to go. There were two 90 degree corners in the last kilometer which shuffled the lead outs, making things even more chaotic. Soudal Quickstep regained the front with Jasper Stuyven expertly guiding the peloton through the final corner at 350 meters with Magnier on his wheel, followed by Edoardo Zambanini of Bahrain Victorious and Milan in fourth. Magnier was launched with 220 meters to go, just as the bunch hit wet roads from a previous rain shower. There was no chance for anyone to come around because the road was relatively narrow and it gently curved left and right. Magnier took the shortest line and was able to fend off Zambanini and Milan who finished in that order. Magnier scored his third win of the race and the points on the finish vaulted him back into the lead for the Maglia Ciclamino by 47 points over Narváez.