2018 Tour of the Alps

The race itinerary was announced in November 2017, including a final-day finish on the route of the men's road race for the 2018 UCI Road World Championships, to be held the following September in Innsbruck.[4]

Stage schedule

Stage	Date	Route	Distance[5][6]	Type		Winner
1	16 April	Arco (Italy) to Folgaria (Italy)	134.6 km (84 mi)		Medium-mountain stage	Pello Bilbao (ESP)
2	17 April	Lavarone (Italy) to Alpe di Pampeago–Fiemme (Italy)	145.5 km (90 mi)		Mountain stage	Miguel Ángel López (COL)
3	18 April	Auer (Italy) to Merano (Italy)	138.3 km (86 mi)		Medium-mountain stage	Ben O'Connor (AUS)
4	19 April	Klausen (Italy) to Lienz (Austria)	134.3 km (83 mi)		Medium-mountain stage	Luis León Sánchez (ESP)
5	20 April	Rattenberg (Austria) to Innsbruck (Austria)	164.2 km (102 mi)		Medium-mountain stage	Mark Padun (UKR)

On 25 January 2018, the race's twenty competing teams – up from eighteen in 2017 – were announced at the 2017–18 FIS Nordic Combined World Cup event in Seefeld in Tirol, Austria.[7] These included nine UCI WorldTeams, eight UCI Professional Continental teams, two UCI Continental teams and an Italian national team.[8]

In the 2018 Tour of the Alps, four different jerseys were awarded.[23] The general classification was calculated by adding each cyclist's finishing times on each stage. Time bonuses were awarded to the first three finishers on all stages: the stage winner won a ten-second bonus, with six and four seconds for the second and third riders respectively. The leader of the general classification received a fuchsia[23] jersey; this classification was considered the most important of the 2018 Tour of the Alps, and the winner of the classification was considered the winner of the race.

The second classification was the sprints classification, the leader of which was awarded a red jersey.[23] In the sprints classification, riders received points for finishing in the top three at intermediate sprint points during each stage. Points were awarded on a 6–4–2 scale for all stages.[23]

There was also a mountains classification, for which points were awarded for reaching the top of a climb before other riders. Each of the ten climbs were categorised as either first, second, or third-category, with more points available for the more difficult, higher-categorised climbs.[23] For first-category climbs, the top five riders earned points; on the other climbs, only the top three riders earned points.[23] The leadership of the mountains classification was marked by a green jersey.[23]

The fourth jersey represented the young rider classification, marked by a white jersey.[23] Only riders born after 1 January 1995 were eligible; the young rider best placed in the general classification was the leader of the young rider classification.[23] There was also a classification for teams, in which the times of the best three cyclists in a team on each stage were added together; the leading team at the end of the race was the team with the lowest cumulative time.[23]

Stage	Winner	General classification	Mountains classification	Young rider classification	Sprints classification	Team classification
1[24]	Pello Bilbao	Pello Bilbao	Giulio Ciccone	Iván Sosa	Pascal Eenkhoorn	Astana
2[25]	Miguel Ángel López	Iván Sosa	Stephan Rabitsch		Marco Frapporti
3[26]	Ben O'Connor	Thibaut Pinot	Thibaut Pinot	Ben O'Connor	Manuel Senni
4[27]	Luis León Sánchez		Domenico Pozzovivo		Ben Hermans
5[3]	Mark Padun		Óscar Rodríguez		Pascal Eenkhoorn
Final[3]		Thibaut Pinot[1]	Óscar Rodríguez[28]	Ben O'Connor[29]	Pascal Eenkhoorn[30]	Astana[31]

• Official website