Super strong yates extends lead – froome collapses
Ahead of tuesday’s time trial, the formidable simon yates has extended his lead at the top of the 101-stage race. Giro d’italia is once again being brutalized.
The british wearer of the pink jersey won the 15. Stage in sappada after 176 kilometers with 41 seconds lead over colombian miguel angelo lopez and celebrated his third stage win. The solo winner yates, anything but a specialist in the fight against the clock, goes into the third rest day with a reassuring 2:11 minute lead over last year’s winner tom dumoulin.
To make up this gap in the 34.2-kilometer battle against the clock in rovereto could also mean hard work for the reigning time trial world champion from the german sunweb team. The dutchman finished the day in third place at the same time as lopez. Yates was beaming all over: "I feel fantastic" and said in view of the upcoming time trial: "this is a good lead, but it can also disappear quickly".
Among the big losers was four-time tour de france winner chris froome, who had celebrated a sporting resurrection on the rutted zoncolan the day before. This burden was apparently too much for the spindly british athlete, who continues to face a supplementary doping ban because of the salbutamol affair. In sappado at the finish of the mountain tour over four demanding climbs froome lost at his 33. Birthday over one and a half minutes on yates, who is now 4:52 minutes ahead of the sky-kapitan in the overall classification.
A strong race was run by nico denz from the french AG2R team. The 24-year-old professional cyclist from waldshut-tiengen was the strongest of an originally 24-strong group of riders and withstood the pressure of the pursuers for the longest time. Denz was only stopped 18 kilometers from the finish line. At that very moment, yates had launched his attack and successfully pulled it off.
"Everything is possible," froome had optimistically declared after the "enormous motivation boost" from his first win of the season on the zoncolan ahead of yates. But in sappada the humiliation followed. At a height of 1730 meters, according to police reports, around 100.000 fans celebrated a roaring cycling festival.
