OFFICIAL Stage 18 Results: Juan Ayuso ABANDONS!

[Laurens De Jong]

Hello, Giro d’Italia Gamers!

 

STAGE Grade: B-

 

I rate today’s stage a B-. Four stars because the peloton decided early they didn’t want a bunch sprint, and then Nico Denz winning the stage, is probably a bit overrated. But it was more or less the only good aspect of today’s race. It was okay to watch, but even the Dutch highlights on YouTube were only eleven minutes, and they’re normally double that.

 

Route: 3/5         GC: 1/5             Tactics: 2/5       Sprint: 1/5         Surprises: 4/5

 

We follow our focus team Polti – VisitMalta and their quest to win the minor classifications. But another race within the 2025 Giro d’Italia, briefly mentioned before, is the UCI team rankings. It’s a factor relevant to understanding the race. How else do you explain Christian Scaroni winning all three Gran Premio Montagna sprints today? He’s second in the mountains classification and he can’t make up the difference to first.

 

The answer: those UCI team rankings. UCI points are awarded to riders who classify well in UCI races. Those points are aggregated for teams. The team’s twenty best riders are added together. You can easily see how there’s a UCI team ranking based on those points.

 

The UCI then takes a three-year window and ranks teams accordingly. There was a 2020 – 2022 window that ended in, naturally, 2022. UCI points scored during those years were added up, a ranking made. The top 18 teams were given World Tour status. A World Tour team is automatically invited to the major races, including the grand tours.

 

The next window is 2023 – 2025. Being in the top 18 by the end of 2025 is critical for the teams. But there’s also a new rule: you have to be in the top 30 or you can’t even be given a wild card to the 2026 – 2028 grand tours. That’s huge for the Polti-VisitMalta and Euskatel-Euskadi teams out there!

 

XDS Astana Team is fighting to keep their World Tour status. Before the 2025 Giro d’Italia, they were 21^st.  Winning stage 16 gained them 180 points for the win, and 130 points for second place.

 

Diego Ulissi finished third in stage 8 (110 points), but also took the maglia rosa. That’s also 20 points!

 

All those points are huge given the small margins between teams hovering around 18^th place in the rankings. And here we come to Scaroni today. Winning the mountains classification is worth 180 UCI points. Second place earns 130 points.

 

Scaroni’s efforts are part of a well-executed plan by XDS Astana Team to take every point they can, and remain in the top 18. VF Group – Bardiani CSF – Faizanè understand this as well. They’re 25^th and want to at least stay in the top 30. Manuele Tarozzi was sprinting for every GPM point. If he finished third in the competition, that’s 95 UCI points. I’m sure Bardiani would love to take second place from Tarozzi, I don’t see that happening though.

 

I’m not saying the others teams don’t want to win points. But Astana definitely tries a little harder. When Nico Denz powered away from his breakaway group, it was Astana’s Nicola Conci who tried to chase him down. That’s a mismatch. Denz, the time trial rider, against Conci, the pure climber. But he tried. He understood the assignment: get as many UCI points out of this stage as possible.

 

A good rule of thumb in breakaways: the rider who is the last to join the breakaway wins the race. Karsten Kroon, the Dutch commentator, amended that rule: the next to last rider will win the race. That was Nico Denz. Watching a bike race is completely different if your commentators confidently predict the outcome of the race 30 kilometers before the finish.

 

In cycling you attack as late as possible, but before the others. Denz understood that perfectly. A number of riders could have beaten him in the sprint. But he was gone before they could attack.

 

Mirco Maestri won the sprint for second place today and then slapped the top of his head with his hand. I don’t speak Italian gestures, I don’t know what that means. Perhaps dismay or regret about what could have been. Fair enough: he could have beaten Denz in the sprint. But Denz got away, and that was all.

 

Second place is 130 UCI points. Our Team Polti-VisitMalta isn’t worrying about the UCI ranking — they’ll be lower than 18^th but higher than 30^th. A win would be nice; we’re still without a pro cycling victory in 2025. We would like to win a minor classification in the 2025 Giro d’Italia, though. But it doesn’t look good.

 

Mads Pedersen and Dries de Bondt took all the traguardo volante points today, increasing their lead ahead of Alessandro Tonelli. And Manuele Tarozzi (him again) is 50 points ahead in the fuga competition. That means Tonelli has to be in the breakaway for 51 more kilometers than Tarozzi. In the mountains. It does not look good.

 

For long-time readers: one of the commentators today called our focus team EOLO-Kometa. Kometa used to be our name sponsor, all the way since we began in 2018. Polartec-Kometa, then just Kometa, then Kometa Xstra, EOLO-Kometa, and finally Polti-Kometa. Kometa is a Hungarian/Italian pork processing company. “Our goal is to be the champions of the European meat industry by 2030,” they say on their website. They sponsor the Giro d’Italia and it still says Kometa on our team’s sleeves. But they’re not our name sponsor anymore. So we don’t need to feel obligated to get Kometa ham, we can just buy Hillshire Farm.

 

Watch the final kilometer HERE.

Watch the official Giro d’Italia highlights HERE.

Read the TNT Sports report HERE.

 

A bee sting is one of the more unusual reasons to abandon a grand tour. Now we’ve seen it all. Juan Ayuso was on most teams, except Team Grace, Team Noah, and Team Thomas.

 

Spoiler alert: Team Ansel and Team Joshua traded places today, everything else is unchanged.

 

A tie for first place again! Very small points on the day. Team Tadej had most points from classifications and takes first place together with Team Thomas. Team Charles were third, Team Noah fourth and most points from the stage: Filippo Magli made that happen.

 

Team Joshua were fifth, Team Oliver sixth, Team Katja seventh, Team Sam eighth.

 

Team Amalia had most riders in the Top-25 (three): Kaden Groves, Giovanni Lonardi, and Wout van Aert. They were ninth.

 

Tenth were Team Ansel, eleventh place for Team Hugo and Team Grace were in twelfth.

 

Bring it on for two days in the mountains here in the 2025 Giro d’Italia. On Friday, the stage counts five categorized climbs. Cleverly situated to give a breakaway a chance to succeed. But after fifty kilometers, the real climbing starts. And the final climb should decide the GC for some. It’s five kilometers to the finish after the top, not enough to come back if you cracked on the climb.

 

Therefore: this should be a Richard Carapaz kind of day. As long as he attacks as late as possible. Before the others. If he doesn’t attack as late as possible, Giulio Pellizzari will win. If he doesn’t attack before the others, then Isaac del Toro will win.

 

Standings after stage 18:

Rank	Name	Points	WAS	MOVES
1	Team Tadej*	3133	1	0
2	Team Oliver*	2716	2	0
3	Team Joshua*	2687	4	1
4	Team Ansel*	2677	3	-1
5	Team Charles*	2650	5	0
6	Team Katja*	2413	6	0
7	Team Hugo*	2343	7	0
8	Team Sam*	2197	8	0
9	Team Thomas*	2081	9	0
10	Team Amalia*	1726	10	0
11	Team Noah*	1252	11	0
12	Team Grace*	808	12	0

 

Standings after stage 18 (including adults):

 

Rank	Name	Points	WAS	MOVES
1	Team Tadej*	3133	1	0
2	Team Andrew	3051	2	0
3	Team Kent	2998	3	0
4	Team Amelia	2884	4	0
5	Team Feng	2757	5	0
6	Team Laurens	2736	6	0
7	Team Oliver*	2716	7	0
8	Team John	2688	10	2
9	Team Joshua*	2687	9	0
10	Team Ansel*	2677	8	-2
11	Team Ed	2661	11	0
12	Team Charles*	2650	12	0
13	Team Rob	2574	13	0
14	Team Campbell	2486	14	0
15	Team Katja*	2413	15	0
16	Team Hugo*	2343	16	0
	Team Kari	2343	17	1
18	Team Sam*	2197	18	0
19	Team Thomas*	2081	19	0
20	Team Adam	2015	20	0
21	Team Doug	2006	21	0
22	Team Julie	1946	22	0
23	Team Amalia*	1726	23	0
24	Team Noah*	1252	24	0
25	Team Kate	1036	25	0
26	Team Grace*	808	26	0

 

Complete breakdown of points from stage 18:

 

Name	STAGE RESULTS	PINK JERSEY	PURPLE JERSEY	BLUE JERSEY	WHITE JERSEY	POINTS/CLASS	TOTAL	PREVIOUS	CUM. TOTAL
Team Amalia*	21	10	7	1	0	18	39	1687	1726
Team Ansel*	2	24	9	0	1	34	36	2641	2677
Team Charles*	13	31	12	0	0	43	56	2594	2650
Team Grace*	11	11	3	0	0	14	25	783	808
Team Hugo*	13	2	12	1	1	16	29	2314	2343
Team Joshua*	13	25	12	0	0	37	50	2637	2687
Team Katja*	13	24	8	1	0	33	46	2367	2413
Team Noah*	35	10	7	2	0	19	54	1198	1252
Team Oliver*	13	18	12	1	3	34	47	2669	2716
Team Sam*	13	19	8	0	0	27	40	2157	2197
Team Tadej*	13	27	13	0	8	48	61	3072	3133
Team Thomas*	26	21	9	0	5	35	61	2020	2081

 

Complete breakdown of points from stage 18 (including adults):

 

Name	STAGE RESULTS	PINK JERSEY	PURPLE JERSEY	BLUE JERSEY	WHITE JERSEY	POINTS/CLASS	TOTAL	PREVIOUS	CUM. TOTAL
Team Adam	11	13	8	1	0	22	33	1982	2015
Team Amalia*	21	10	7	1	0	18	39	1687	1726
Team Amelia	13	25	12	5	3	45	58	2826	2884
Team Andrew	13	32	12	0	1	45	58	2993	3051
Team Ansel*	2	24	9	0	1	34	36	2641	2677
Team Campbell	13	18	12	0	0	30	43	2443	2486
Team Charles*	13	31	12	0	0	43	56	2594	2650
Team Doug	13	21	12	0	0	33	46	1960	2006
Team Ed	25	19	12	4	1	36	61	2600	2661
Team Feng	13	24	12	0	1	37	50	2707	2757
Team Grace*	11	11	3	0	0	14	25	783	808
Team Hugo*	13	2	12	1	1	16	29	2314	2343
Team John	23	35	4	4	5	48	71	2617	2688
Team Joshua*	13	25	12	0	0	37	50	2637	2687
Team Julie	11	12	7	1	0	20	31	1915	1946
Team Kari	13	31	8	0	0	39	52	2291	2343
Team Kate	48	10	3	0	0	13	61	975	1036
Team Katja*	13	24	8	1	0	33	46	2367	2413
Team Kent	13	32	12	0	1	45	58	2940	2998
Team Laurens	13	25	12	0	1	38	51	2685	2736
Team Noah*	35	10	7	2	0	19	54	1198	1252
Team Oliver*	13	18	12	1	3	34	47	2669	2716
Team Rob	2	10	9	0	1	20	22	2552	2574
Team Sam*	13	19	8	0	0	27	40	2157	2197
Team Tadej*	13	27	13	0	8	48	61	3072	3133
Team Thomas*	26	21	9	0	5	35	61	2020	2081

 

Kometa - il gusto piu giusto che c'e in giro!

 

-Laurens.