Giro d'Italia: Yates continues comeback after Blockhaus crash

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Sixth place on stage 14 of the Giro d'Italia saw Adam Yates continued his climb back up the general classification after his unforgettable stage 9 crash. Sitting in third place overall on the morning of the Blockhaus stage, Yates has since continued to improve upon his overall standings and proved his form with his equal best result of this year's Giro and best result in a Grand Tour.

"I was up there with the best guys in the world until about two-kilometres to go. I needed to hang on a couple of hundred most metres before the flat and downhill but I just fell short," said Yates. "I lost a couple of seconds but I also gained some time on a lot of other GC guys so all-in-all I'm pretty happy."

While Yates shipped 41 seconds to maglia rosa Tom Dumoulin and now sits 7:43 minutes in arrears to the Dutchman, he was able to jump over Davide Formolo, a rival for the white jersey, and Rui Costa.

For sports director Matt White, the flat stage culminating with the climb to Oropa wasn't a true indicator of which riders are likely to be the most damaging in the high mountains. However, White was pleased with the performance from the 24-year-old and his ability to continue riding for GC despite the Blockhaus accident.

"Today was panned flat with one climb, we saw the best guys go head-to-head and Yatesy put up a great fight," White said.

"We have seen mountain finishes, but not proper mountain stages and we won't see that until next week. The Dolomites are where the action is coming and that is next week."

Stage 15 of the Giro is likely to suit the breakaway with a possibility for a minor reshuffle. A rest day then follows on Monday before the testing third week of high mountains which is sure to see further shake-ups of the GC. 

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