There is never a quiet day in the Giro d'Italia.

Some days nothing much happens, some days the race explodes, and some days, like Treviso, the breakaway group even holds off the sprinters. But as Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe), Juanpe Lopez (Trek-Segafredo), and the sprinters realized, something can always happen to ruin their day or ruin their race.

Hindley got a flat tire with 3km to go. For a moment he thought he had lost any chance of winning the Giro d'Italia. At the start of stage 18, he was three seconds behind Richard Carapas (Ineos Grenadiers), but the Ecuadorian suddenly pulled away from the rest of the field.

According to one sports director who witnessed Hindley's problems, the Australian panicked and stopped on the left (wrong) side of the road, perhaps thinking his hopes of winning the overall were over.

Fortunately, Hindley's trouble occurred inside the final 3km, so according to UCI race rules, he was given the same time as the rider he was with when the trouble occurred.

Initially, Hindley, his team, and everyone else were not sure if he was inside the 3 km marker. However, the race commissaire eventually confirmed that he was at the 3-kilometer mark, and the official results showed that he remained in second place overall, three seconds ahead of Kalapas.

"I think he had a mechanical problem in the last 2.5 kilometers," said Kalapas.

"It was not a relaxing stage, it was quite a hard day. The last 30 km were quite stressful. I'm sorry about the mechanical, but it shouldn't be a problem."

Kemna was right, Hindley finished 1:05 behind in the official results, but was given the same time and remains in second place overall. Mikel Landa (Bahrain Victorious) was 1:05 behind in third place, and Vincenzo Nibali (Astana Kazakstan) moved up to fourth place by 5:48 after Joan Almeida did not start the stage after catching up to COVID-19.

"For us it was all about getting Jai from A to B safely. He got a flat tire in the last 3km, but we were on the safe side thanks to the rule that riders who suffer mechanical problems in the last 3km do not lose time," said coach Jens Zemke with a look of relief.

"The next stage will be very challenging.