Simon Yates wins stage 9 to extend lead – Giro d’Italia

Giro d’Italia 2018

Stage 9

Britain’s Simon Yates strengthened his grip on the pink jersey with a historic victory on the mythical Gran Sasso d’Italia as compatriot Chris Froome cracked in a dramatic finale to Stage 9 of the Giro d’Italia to drop out of the top 10.

Yates rode clear of his rivals near the summit of the highest peak in the Apennines to win his first stage of the Giro while sporting the maglia rosa – beating Frenchman Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) and Colombian team-mate Esteban Chaves.

If the Mitchelton-Scott duo failed to repeat their impressive one-two on Mount Etna from the opening week of the race, they mirrored these lofty standards in the new general classification: Yates now leads Chaves by 32 seconds after Dutchman Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) faded in the final kilometre.

Defending champion Dumoulin came home 12 seconds down on Yates in eighth place – behind Domenico Pozzovivo (Bahrain Merida), Richard Carapaz (Movistar), Davide Formolo (Bora-Hansgrohe) and George Bennett (LottoNL-Jumbo) – to drop to third on GC, 45 seconds down on Yates, who picked up an additional 10 bonus seconds for his win.

But the big loser of the day was the under-fire Team Sky rider Froome, whose horror race continued when he was distanced by a series of stinging accelerations to finish more than a minute down on Yates and plummet out of the top 10.

Froome took 23rd place on the stage 1’07” down on Yates and one place ahead of the equally out-of-sorts Italian national champion, Fabio Aru (UAE Team Emirates).

Concluding with a GC showdown on the first mountain used in the Giro d’Italia back in 1909 – some 90 years before the race’s most recent visit, famously won by Marco Pantani almost two decades ago – Stage 9 of the 101st edition of La Corsa Rosa always promised fireworks. And so it proved.

A large 14-man group formed quickly after the start of the 225km stage into the mountainous Abruzzo region in central Italy.

Mickael Cherel (Ag2R-La Mondiale), Davide Ballerini and Fausto Masnada (Androni-Giocattoli), Manuele Boaro and Giovanni Visconti (Bahrain Merida), Simone Andreetta (Bardiani CSF), Cesare Benedetti (Bora-Hansgrohe), Tim Wellens (Lotto-Fix All), Natneal Berhane (Dimension Data), Hugh Carthy (EF Education First-Drapac), Maxim Belkov (Katusha-Alpecin), Gianluca Brambilla and Laurent Didier (Trek-Segafredo), and Alex Turrin (Wilier Triestina) combined to build up a maximum lead of eight-and-a-half minutes.

Trailing Yates by 6’40” going into the stage, Brambilla was propelled into the virtual maglia rosa as the break’s chances of survival looked good going into the business end of the race.

Italian youngster Masnada was denied maximum points on the Cat.2 Roccaraso after the race jury penalised him for being pushed over by his team-mate Ballerini having dropped a chain near the summit.

After Ballerini beat Belkov in both intermediate sprints, Masnada didn’t make the same mistake twice when leading the break over the summit of the Cat.2 ascent to Calascio – the amuse bouche to the final iconic climb.

Behind, the Astana team of Miguel Angel Lopez had come to the front of the peloton to pave the way for the Colombian and help share the pace-setting duties with Mitchelton-Scott, halving the arrears to just over four minutes ahead of the final 23-kilometre uphill slog to the finish.

Soon there were just six of the escapees remaining ahead as Boaro, Visconti, Cherel, Carthy, Masnada and Brambilla shrugged off the rest of the break.

Riding his debut Giro, 24-year-old Masnada darted clear with 18km remaining to provoke a counter attack by Boaro. With the streamlined pack being driven by Mitchelton-Scott’s Jack Haig bearing down, Carthy managed to pass Boaro before succumbing to the inevitable with 5km remaining.

The peloton during today’s challenging stage.

One Italian tyro soon handed the reins over to another as the brave Masnada was gobbled up and Giulio Ciccone (Bardiani-CSF) bounded clear.

It was the first of a series of attacks from livewire Ciccone which managed to shuffle the pack and see both Aru and Froome drop back.

A last roll of the dice from Ciccone with one kilometre remaining looked set to see the 23-year-old add to his previous stage win from his debut Giro in 2016. But veteran Italian Pozzovivo led the chase and pulled Pinot, Yates, Chaves and Carapaz back into the fray.

It was Pozzovivo who led the quintet into the final hundred metres – but Yates had other ideas. Having gifted the win to team-mate Chaves on Etna, the 25-year-old sniffed out an opportunity to open his account in the Giro – and strengthen his lead in the overall standings.

Pinot and Chaves rallied but it was Yates who punched the air. Pozzovivo and Carapaz crossed the line four seconds down to complete the top five before the other race favourites arrived in dribs and drabs.

One day after crashing on a slippery corner on the climb to Montevergine, Froome showed that his troubles are far from behind him after a wretched showing in the final few kilometres.

The four-time Tour de France champion betrayed that he’s either short of form or severely undercooked, coming home more than a minute down to sink to 11th on GC, 2’27” down on Yates.

After his maiden stage scalp on the Giro, the pink jersey paid tribute to his Mitchelton-Scott team-mates who marshalled the break and kept him out of trouble during another long day in the saddle.

“That one was actually for the boys – the big guys who ride on the front of us all day. They’ve had a couple of tough days and they’re always riding on the front during these very long stages. This is for those guys,” said Yates, who also moved above team-mate Chaves in the maglia azzurra climber’s classification.

“We always thought that if we kept the breakaway close enough there might be a possibility for the stage. Once Astana showed some interest, I thought it was possible then.”

Asked why he thought Froome and Aru had struggled so much, Yates remained diplomatic.

“It was a very difficult day. It could have been a bad day [for them]. I don’t know – Chris crashed yesterday, maybe he’s affected by that.”

For Froome, 32, the second rest day can’t come soon enough. The 101st edition of the Giro d’Italia continues on Tuesday with the longest leg of the race – the rolling 239km Stage 10 from Penne to Gualdo Tadino.

If Yates enters the second phase of the Giro with flying colours and safely in pink, then he will be aware that the mountain-heavy final week – which also includes a 34.2km individual time trial – means this race is far from over.

Froome, Aru and, to a lesser extent, Dumoulin, may all be firing blanks for now, but they still have ample time to turn things around and rekindle their pink aspirations – provided they can stop the rot, and fast.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *