Simon Yates cut a frustrated figure beyond the finish line in the Champoluc valley after stage 19 of the Giro d'Italia. The stunning mountain views offered little sense of peace and calm after the Visma-Lease a Bike rider lost 24 precious seconds to Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Richard Carapaz (EF Education-Easypost).
Carapaz attacked 1.5km from the summit of the Col de Joux climb and Del Toro followed him. Yates was able to chase a few counterattacks but then seemed to struggle and became stuck in a chase group that lacked the power and desire to chase Del Toro and Carapaz.
The British climber is now a more distant 1:21 down on the Mexican and 38 seconds down on Carapaz with Saturday's final mountain stage including the Colle delle Finestre to come.
"I felt good, but those two guys are just much more explosive than me. I can't follow them when they explode," Yates said.
Asked about Visma-Lease a Bike's strategy for the stage and why the team took over the pacing early on the Col de Joux, Yates claimed the plans had gone haywire. Grand Tour tactics are rarely perfect but Yates was clearly not happy.
"It was completely different to what we did, so I'll have to review that with the team," Yates bluntly, refusing to go into further detail.
Directeur sportif Marc Reef contradicted his team leader to defend the team's tactics.
"It went exactly as we agreed. We wanted to make the race hard where possible and I think the guys did a great job," Reef said to Eurosport.
"In the end, it came down to who had the best legs and Isaac del Toro and Richard Carapaz were just a bit stronger. On the penultimate climb, Simon was able to follow those guys, but in the final, that was no longer possible. Then it is a fair fight."
"They probably wanted to make me suffer," Del Toro suggested when asked about Visma-Lease a Bike's tactics, also explaining how the wind in the mountain valleys stunted the attacks.
"They saw that I cracked that one day and so they hope to do it again. They pushed early, saw something but in the end, I was able to be up there," the race leader said.
Wout Van Aert went in the early break to be there to somehow help Yates. That didn't work out but the Belgian understood Yates' tactical frustrations.
"I think what he means is more based on how he wanted to approach the final. He may have had to follow his gut feeling more than he expected," Van Aert said.
Yates eventually put on a warm jacket and a whistle around his neck to alert the fans before he descended to the Visma bus with several teammates.
His final thoughts were about Saturday's stage to Sestriere via the Colle delle Finestre. He suffered there in 2018 due to illness and Chris Froome's long-range attack.
Yates struggled to be optimistic about his chances of turning the Giro d'Italia GC upside down and redeeming his defeat in 2018.
"We'll see if we can come up with something else," Yates said, trying to transform his pessimism into optimism.
"I don't know… There's also gravel halfway and I prefer not to do that. We'll see how the legs are. They were good today and hopefully, they'll be good tomorrow and I can try something."
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