Cycling: The 18th stage ended with the expected spectacle on Monte Castrove. In the end, the Italian Fabio Aru (Astana) showed the staying power and secured the day's victory ahead of Chris Froome (Sky) - his second on this tour. Third was Alejandro Valverde (Movistar).
The 157 kilometers to be driven only promised to get hot in the finale. Monte Castrove had to be climbed twice. Nevertheless, Luis Leon Sanchez (Caja Rural), who is the leader in the mountains classification, escaped relatively early along with Johan Le Bon (FDJ.fr) and Hugo Dupont (Ag2R-La Mondiale). He succeeded in his goal of securing the points the first time he crossed the mountain. In the descent, however, it was all about the breakaways.
In general, the field didn't give them a big lead. Led by Sky, every attack in the final was over until Fabio Aru took over four kilometers from the finish line. At first nobody could follow the Italian. Only Froome managed to catch up with Aru with just under two kilometers to go. He caught the overall leaders Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo), Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha) on the wrong foot. The trio ended up losing 13 seconds.
Although Froome had to admit defeat to the stronger Aru in the fight for the day's victory, he was still able to take second place in the overall ranking. In addition to the second place on the day, an intermediate sprint and the final bonus also helped him.
Contador remains in the red jersey, taking a 1:19 lead over Froome and 1:32 over Valverde into the last three stages.