Scarponi Wins Giro D'Italia Stage 18; GC Men Wait Until Tomorrow

Michele Scarponi (Diquigiovanni) won the Giro d'Italia's Stage 18 today out of a breakaway that lasted most of the day.  This is the second stage win of this year's Giro for the Diquigiovanni rider, adding to his Stage Six victory that finished in Austria.

Today's 182-kilometer stage was mostly flat, save for a small categorized mountain very early on in the day.  After the overall contenders' exertions on yesterday's stage to Blockhaus, as expected, a breakaway formed, featuring some riders from teams who were out foraging for their first stage win.

An emourmous group of 25, the largest breakaway of the race so far, made it clear.  They quickly built up a lead of six minutes over the Rabobank-led peloton.  Race leader Denis Menchov was more than content to let his team shepherd him through the race and let the breakaway go.

Later on in the proceedings, with about 30 kilometers remaining until the arrival in Benevento, the breakaway started to lose its advantage.  Teams such as Fuji-Servetto and Milram dragged the peloton forward in the hopes of bringing the group back together for a bunch sprint.

Why these teams, who do not even have sprinters on them, were taking up the chase is beyond many.

The breakaway up ahead started to break up.  After a flurry of attacks coming minute after minute, a group of seven managed to escape from their companions, featuring Danny Pate (Garmin), Felix Cardenas (Barloworld), Lars Bak and Jason McCartney (Saxobank), Michele Scarponi (Diquigiovanni), Andrey Zeits (Astana), Dmytro Grabovskyy (ISD), and Dries Devenyns (Quick Step).

Still holding an advantage of almost three minutes over the peloton, this group of six played cat and mouse to the line. 

The 2009 Tirreno-Adriatico winner Scarponi timed his sprint to perfection and took the day ahead of Cardenas and Pate.  The peloton came in almost four minutes behind after giving up the chase.

Tomorrow's Stage 19 will once again be pivotal for the GC contenders.  Relatively short at 164 kilometers, it features several minor bumps along the way, but contains the decisive mountaintop finish on Mount Vesuvius, the still-active volcano that buried Pompeii in ancient Roman times. 

Runner-up Danilo DiLuca (LPR-Brakes) will no doubt try and attack again to gain time on Menchov ahead of Sunday's time-trial in Rome.