Giro d'Italia Daily – Stage 17 and 18

Once again, life has gotten in the way so we get a double stage report today.

The stages: Both were medium mountain stages with descent finishes. Nothing absurd on the climbing end, but enough to make the legs hurt a little.

Who won the stages? Stage 17 controversially went to Diego Ulissi of the Lampre-ISD team after presumed stage winner Giovanni Visconti was relegated to the back of the group for shoving his way past Ulissi. Stage 18 was won by Eros Capecchi, giving the Liquigas-Cannondale team of Vincenzo Nibali its first win of this year's Giro. Capecchi outsprinted Marco Pinotti and Kevin Seeldrayers to take the win out of a three man breakaway.

What matters in the GC race? Not a whole lot. Everyone high up other than Kanstantin Svitsov (more on him in the next section) refused to attack knowing they would likely be brought back and therefore saved themselves for the mountain stages on Friday and Saturday and the time-trial on Sunday.

Biggest surprises: The GC teams let Svitsov get into the breakaway on stage 17. Svitsov has been good but not great in this race, but he now sits in 5^th overall after finishing with the front group yesterday. On stage 18, nobody of any GC importance even tried to get in the break.

Biggest disappointments: On stage 17 it was obviously Visconti losing his head and getting relegated. He likely didn't need to shove anyone to win the stage and paid for it. He has seemed almost too desperate to get a win in this year's race. On stage 18, Visconti then missed the break and wasted himself attempting to attack needlessly. Not a good two days for the Italian National Road Race Champion.

Other items of note: Race leader Alberto Contador's doping case hearing was pushed back allowing him to start the Tour de France. Knowing he will likely be in the race, Contador now moves to energy conservation mode. Vincenzo Nibali and Michele Scarponi have now pretty much conceded the win to Contador, but they will now be marking each other for the second spot on the podium.

What is coming tomorrow? Another summit finish, but not a steep one. The category 1 climb in the middle of the stage will force the GC guys to be ready, but I don't expect any of them to gain or lose a ton of time.

Tomorrow's stage profile

Any GC changes tomorrow? Only on time-bonuses. It is possible we will see a GC threat win the stage and close down the gap between himself and the next rider up, but there likely won't be any major position changes.