Friday 27 May 2016 00:57, UK
Steven Kruijswijk moved another step closer to Giro d’Italia victory by retaining his overall lead on an 18th stage won in fine style by breakaway rider Matteo Trentin.
Trentin (Etixx - Quick-Step) trailed leaders-on-the-road Gianluca Brambilla (Etixx - Quick-Step) and Moreno Moser (Cannondale) by more than 10 seconds heading into the last 1km in Pinerolo, but he caught them with 300m to go and then rode straight past to claim the first Giro stage win of his career.
Brambilla saw his team-mate coming and, having already won a stage of this year's race, he refused to help Moser's efforts to maintain their lead.
Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo) and the rest of the general classification contenders eventually crossed the line all together more than 13 minutes later.
It means Kruijswijk remains three minutes ahead of second-placed Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEdge) in the general classification and 3min 23sec in front of third-placed Alejandro Valverde (Movistar).
The Giro continues on Friday with a mountainous, 162km 19th stage from Pinerolo to Risoul. Find out more about the route in our race guide.
Stage 18 result
1 Matteo Trentin (Ita) Etixx - Quick-Step, 5:25:34
2 Moreno Moser (Ita) Cannondale, same time
3 Gianluca Brambilla (Ita) Etixx - Quick-Step, st
4 Sacha Modolo (Ita) Lampre-Merida, +20sec
5 Nikias Arndt (Ger) Giant-Alpecin, +30
6 Ivan Rovny (Rus) Tinkoff, +34
7 Matteo Busato (Ita) Wilier-Southeast, +1:10
8 Christian Knees (Ger) Team Sky, +1:16
9 Axel Domont (Fra) Ag2r-La Mondiale, +1:24
10 Davide Malacarne (Ita) Astana, +4:28
General classification
1 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo, 73:50:37
2 Esteban Chaves (Col) Orica-GreenEdge, +3:00
3 Alejandro Valverde (Esp) Movistar, +3:23
4 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana, +4:43
5 Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) Katusha, +4:50
6 Rafal Majka (Pol) Tinkoff, +5:34
7 Bob Jungels (Lux) Etixx - Quick-Step, +7:57
8 Andrey Amador (Cos) Movistar, +8:53
9 Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) Ag2r-La Mondiale, +10:05
10 Kanstantsin Siutsou (Blr) Dimension Data, +11:03
