Greipel wins Giro 18th stage

Germany's Andre Greipel won the 18th stage of the Tour of Italy yesterday as Spaniard David Arroyo held onto the overall leader's pink jersey with three stages left.

The shortest regular stage of the Tour over 151km from Levico Terme to Brescia came down to a sprint finish despite a two-man breakaway that had lasted for more than 100km.

Colombia sprinter Greipel edged New Zealander Julian Dean of Garmin and Liquigas's Tiziano dell'Antonia in the final dash.

Following the fireworks of earlier in the week, this stage was a chance for the overall title contenders to rest their legs ahead of the next two potentially decisive mountain stages today and tomorrow.

About 20km in, Oliver Kaisen of Omega Pharama-Lotto and Alan Marangoni of Conlago made a break but with the pace relatively high in the bunch due to the short stage, they never managed to open up more than a three-minute gap.

With the peloton closing in, Kaisen gave up with 4km to go but Marangoni kept battling for another 2km before he saw the train pass him.

At that point Sky were in command of the lead-out, trying to set-up Henderson for the big finish.

However, Greipel got himself on Henderson's wheel and when he kicked for home, there was nothing anyone could do about it.

In the overall standings Arroyo maintained his two minutes 27 seconds lead over Italian Ivan Basso.