Three Brutal Mountain Stages will leave no doubt in the Battle for Pink!

Three final mountain stages before the Giro concludes in a grand finale in Rome, will leave no doubt as to who will win the Magila Rosa

Just two day's ago, Adam Yates look ot have sewn up the GC battle for the Pink Jersey, the Maglia Rosa, will an epic show of strength, his distanced his rivals and took time on them all. 

However, this was a predetermined move to take time ahead of the time trial. Yates had to dig deep and certainly paid for it on the time trial. He lost time to his rivals, especially defending champion Tom Dumoulin who now trails by just 56 seconds.

It's up to Dumoulin to attack and for Yates to defend, unless he attacks again.

His other rivals Pozzovivo, Froome, Pinot, Lopez or Bennett  will have to launch huge long range attacks to crack the Pink jersey, however at this stage Pozzovivo, Froome and Pinot will have their own battle for a podium place and could well not risk their Top 10 position.

That leaves Carapaz, Dennis, Bilbao and Bennett to put in huge attacks.

The next three stages could see anything happen, so the battle for Pink is really on, and Yates will be under immense pressure from his rivals all the way to Rome/

GC before Stage 18

1 Simon Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott 69:59:11 
2 Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Sunweb 0:00:56 
3 Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) Bahrain-Merida 0:03:11 
4 Chris Froome (GBr) Team Sky 0:03:50 
5 Thibaut Pinot (Fra) Groupama-FDJ 0:04:19 
6 Rohan Dennis (Aus) BMC Racing Team 0:05:04 
7 Miguel Angel Lopez (Col) Astana Pro Team 0:05:37 
8 Pello Bilbao (Spa) Astana Pro Team 0:06:02 
9 Richard Carapaz (Ecu) Movistar Team 0:06:07 
10 George Bennett (NZl) LottoNL-Jumbo 0:07:01

Thursday May 24 2018 - Abbiategrasso to Prato Nevoso - 196 km Mountain Finish

Stage 18 features a Mountain top finish at Prato Nevoso at 1,600m after 196 kms of racing, although this stage is hard, it probably won't worry Yates too, too much as his form and climbing ability should see him follow wheels, or even attack again.

Friday May 25 2018 - Venaria Reale to Monte Jafferau - 181 km Mountain Finish

Stage 19 is the must brutal of them all, the Queen Stage, features the 1,311m climb of Colle Del Lys, the 2,178 climb of the Colle delle Finstre, the Cima Coppi, the highest point on the race this year, half the climb is unpaved. The rider to reach the top first takes the coveted Cima Coppi prize.

The riders descent very fast before hitting the climb of Sestriere at 2,053 metres before ascending down on again narrow, trecherous roads before hitting the final brutal climb of Monte Jafferau at 1,908 metres.

It's this stage that could see the biggest change on the overall GC. Riders are now getting tired and if anyone has a bad day it could spell disaster for their podiums ambitions.

The roads are narrow, steep and winding, 11 kms of the Colle delle Finstre aren't even paved. Anyone who loses contact with the favorites on this stage, and they could never be seen again.

This will be a hectic, fraught, risky and absolutely brutal stage, throw in ten of thousands of fans on the upper slopes of the Finestre and cycling fans will be in for one hell of treat.

The Colle delle Finestre is a mountain pass in the eastern Italian region of Piemonte, Italy, linking the Susa Valley and Val Chisone. The road was built around 1700 to gain access to the fortresses in the area, mainly the Forte di Fenestrelle. It reaches is 2178 m high in altitude.

Colle delle Finestre translates to "Mountain of many Windows" which describes the climb which is heavily wooded. On many of the hairpin turns which offer the only respite from the steady 9% gradient, you can catch a glimpses of the surrounding mountains.

The road is very popular for both cyclists and motorbikes with magnificent views of the surrounding mountain ranges, the last 8 kms of the road leading to the summit from the Susa is hard packed gravel. From Susa the mountain pass is 18.6 kilometres long at an average of 9.1% (height gain: 1694 m), the maximum gradient being 14%.

Saturday May 26 2018 - Susa to Cervinia - 214 km Mountain Finish

Stage 20 again is another hard mountain top finish. The stage begins in Susa, and ends in the Ski Resort of Cervinia, a long 214 kilometers, in terribly hard terrain. At the start of the stage is a reletively flat for 140 kilometers, before the stage turns into slaughter.

The first climb, the Colle secore, 16.4 km long at an average gradient of 7.5%, up to 1,617 metres. The peloton descends down to the same level to hit the second climb of the Col de Saint Pantaleon which is 16.4 km long at an average gradient of 7.4%, back up to 1,670 metres. Immediately after there is a steep fast descent before the final mountain finish up to Cervinia, which is 15.2 km long, with an average slope of 5.7%. The stage feature in total around 48 kilometers of climbing.

Stage 21 sees the race move to Rome for the big final celebrations. The GC will have already been decided on these three previous stages!