The Belgian continues to have a shot at making his way into the top ten.

Exhausted, gasping for air, but satisfied with the fantastic effort he produced once again on a brutal course – this is how Ilan Van Wilder concluded stage 18, which ended in Val di Zoldo, the famous land of the ice cream makers.

The riders, however, didn’t have the time to enjoy a stracciatella cornetto Thursday afternoon, as the race was complete bonkers from the very beginning, a big tempo putting a stop to any breakaway attempts in the first 40 kilometers. Only on Passo della Crosetta, the day’s first climb, a group of seven managed to put some daylight between them and a peloton that numbered 30-odd men with a solid 125 kilometers to go.

Ilan Van Wilder was there for Soudal Quick-Step and remained with the best until the final seven kilometers, when the GC favourites began showing their intentions and trading attacks that ended up fragmenting the group before the top of the penultimate ascent. Just like on the stage to Monte Bondone, the 23-year-old Belgian rode his own tempo and this helped him pick make up ground as he gradually began passing other riders that had been dropped.

Out of the saddle, jersey flapping, Ilan came home completely spent but strong as a rock mentally after the huge display of strength and self-belief on one of the race’s hardest days. Just outside the top 10 on the stage won by Filippo Zana (Jayco-Alula), Soudal Quick-Step’s rider – fifteenth at the start of the stage – jumped an impressive two places in the standings ahead of Friday’s trek to the legendary Tre Cime di Lavaredo.

“Today was very fast and much harder than the stage to Monte Bondone. The bunch rode full gas from kilometer zero, which meant spending more energy in the first part of the day. When the big attacks came, I decided to remain calm and do my own race, which in the end was a good thing, because I ended up making some significant inroads in the general classification. We have a couple of stages left here and we’ll continue fighting”, an upbeat Ilan said in Val di Zoldo.

 

Photo credit: ©Tim De Waele / Getty Images

Race details

1 Filippo Zana
Team Jayco AlUla
4:25:12
2 Thibaut Pinot
Groupama - FDJ
0:00
3 Warren Barguil
Team Arkéa Samsic
0:50
4 Derek Gee
Israel - Premier Tech
1:03
5 Aurélien Paret-Peintre
AG2R Citroën Team
1:24
6 Marco Frigo
Israel - Premier Tech
1:24
7 Primož Roglič
Jumbo-Visma
1:56
8 Geraint Thomas
INEOS Grenadiers
1:56
9 João Almeida
UAE Team Emirates
2:17
10 Eddie Dunbar
Team Jayco AlUla
2:32
15 Ilan Van Wilder
Soudal - Quick Step
3:13
60 Pieter Serry
Soudal - Quick Step
20:00
1 Geraint Thomas
INEOS Grenadiers
76:25:51
2 Primož Roglič
Jumbo-Visma
0:29
3 João Almeida
UAE Team Emirates
0:39
4 Eddie Dunbar
Team Jayco AlUla
3:39
5 Damiano Caruso
Bahrain - Victorious
3:51
6 Lennard Kämna
BORA - hansgrohe
4:27
7 Thibaut Pinot
Groupama - FDJ
4:43
8 Andreas Leknessund
Team DSM
4:47
9 Thymen Arensman
INEOS Grenadiers
4:53
10 Laurens De Plus
INEOS Grenadiers
5:52
13 Ilan Van Wilder
Soudal - Quick Step
9:03
59 Pieter Serry
Soudal - Quick Step
2:09:07
1 Jonathan Milan
Bahrain - Victorious
215 pt
2 Derek Gee
Israel - Premier Tech
140 pt
3 Pascal Ackermann
UAE Team Emirates
95 pt
4 Michael Matthews
Team Jayco AlUla
93 pt
5 Toms Skujiņš
Trek - Segafredo
79 pt
6 Nico Denz
BORA - hansgrohe
77 pt
7 Magnus Cort Nielsen
EF Education-EasyPost
56 pt
8 Marius Mayrhofer
Team DSM
53 pt
9 Vincenzo Albanese
EOLO-Kometa
51 pt
10 Mark Cavendish
Astana Qazaqstan Team
51 pt
49 Ilan Van Wilder
Soudal - Quick Step
10 pt
1 Thibaut Pinot
Groupama - FDJ
227 pt
2 Ben Healy
EF Education-EasyPost
164 pt
3 Davide Bais
EOLO-Kometa
144 pt
4 Einer Augusto Rubio Reyes
Movistar Team
118 pt
5 Derek Gee
Israel - Premier Tech
66 pt
6 Aurélien Paret-Peintre
AG2R Citroën Team
56 pt
7 João Almeida
UAE Team Emirates
55 pt
8 Filippo Zana
Team Jayco AlUla
54 pt
9 Toms Skujiņš
Trek - Segafredo
48 pt
10 Marco Frigo
Israel - Premier Tech
44 pt
44 Ilan Van Wilder
Soudal - Quick Step
4 pt
1 João Almeida
UAE Team Emirates
76:26:30
2 Andreas Leknessund
Team DSM
4:08
3 Thymen Arensman
INEOS Grenadiers
4:14
4 Einer Augusto Rubio Reyes
Movistar Team
6:24
5 Ilan Van Wilder
Soudal - Quick Step
8:24
6 Santiago Buitrago Sánchez
Bahrain - Victorious
11:23
7 Filippo Zana
Team Jayco AlUla
28:44
8 Laurens Huys
Intermarché - Circus - Wanty
34:35
9 Brandon McNulty
UAE Team Emirates
1:01:53
10 Marco Frigo
Israel - Premier Tech
1:04:26
1 Bahrain - Victorious 229:00:00
2 INEOS Grenadiers 23:25
3 Jumbo-Visma 33:44
4 UAE Team Emirates 46:47
5 BORA - hansgrohe 1:11:53
6 AG2R Citroën Team 1:15:23
7 Astana Qazaqstan Team 1:15:57
8 EF Education-EasyPost 1:22:32
9 Team Jayco AlUla 1:31:37
10 Israel - Premier Tech 1:33:47

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23/05/2023 - Race report
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