Andre Greipel of
HTC-Colombia won a bunch sprint to claim victory on stage 18 of the Giro
d’Italia in northern Italy. The German outpaced Julian Dean
(Garmin-Transistions) and Tiziano Dall’Antonia (Liquigas) to take the
win on the streets of Brescia at the end of the 140km run.
David Arroyo (Caisse d’Epargne) retained the pink jersey with just
three stages of this year’s race remaining.
The Spaniard still
holds a lead of two minutes, 27seconds over Ivan Basso (Liquigas) in
second with Richie Porte (Saxo Bank) a further 17 seconds behind. The
largely flat stage – the shortest of this year’s race – started from
Levico Terme in poor weather with the peloton remaining intact until
Alan Marangoni (Colnago) and Olivier Kaisen (Omega Pharma-Lotto)
launched a breakaway with 120km left. Friday and Saturday herald a
return to the mountains before Sunday’s time trial in Verona brings the
curtain down on this year’s race.
