Giro d'Italia: Chaves wins on Mount Etna

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Mitchelton-Scott dominated the first mountain finish of the Giro d'Italia on Mount Etna, with Esteban Chaves winning the stage and Simon Yates taking the maglia rosa after they came together in the final kilometre of the 15km volcano climb.

Chaves was in the break of the day, deserving his stage victory, while Yates took the race lead by attacking from the select peloton of overall contenders. Yates indicated to Chaves to take the win before celebrating their day of double success with an emotional hug.

Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) finished third at 26 seconds, with George Bennett (LottoNL-Jumbo), Domenico Pozzovivo (Bahrain-Merida), Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana), Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb), Fabio Aru (UAE Team Emirates) and Chris Froome (Team Sky) all in the same time after emerging from the peloton of overall contenders.

Rohan Dennis (BMC) dug deep but was ultimately unable to handle the pace and keep the pink jersey. He slipped to sixth overall, 53 down on Yates.

Yates now leads Dumoulin by 16 seconds, with Chaves moving up to third at 26 seconds. Everyone else is spread across a minute.

"It was a great day for us," Chaves said, his smile wider than ever.

"I went for it after a lot of attacks, and then we won the stage and got pink jersey. It's fantastic. I can only thank Simon for letting me win the stage. Things like that don't happen every day."

Yates was equally as happy.

"It's a special feeling and special to do it with this guy. We've kind of grown up together and this is the final result," he said before they joked when asked who was the team leader going forward.

"There's still a long way to go," Yates said.

"He has the pink jersey," Chaves joked.

The first mountain finish

There was a party atmosphere at the start in Caltanissetta but only amongst the residents who were happy to have a major sporting event start in their central Sicilian town. The riders and their directeur sportif were in a far more serious mood as the minutes ticked down to the start of the first mountain finish of this year's Giro d'Italia.

Chris Froome (Team Sky) was the last to sign on just like yesterday as he avoided the attention and perhaps questions about his form.

The riders enjoyed the downhill start to the 169km stage, but that did not help the formation of the early break. On Wednesday, the peloton let four riders go when the flag dropped. This time the attacks came one after another, but different teams in the peloton refused to let anything go clear.

The average speed was close to 50 kph, but the elastic continued to hold the riders together. Even several efforts by Tony Martin (Katusha-Alpecin) were kept in check, and the race radio announced 'gruppo compatto' time and time again.

After 50km of attacks and chasing, the peloton finally became tired of the aggression and suddenly a big group got a gap. Numerous teams had rolled the dice and managed to get riders in the move. The gap opened and they were clear.

It took a while to understand the quality of the break, and so the move gained a minute before teams realised that Esteban Chaves was in it for Mitchelton-Scott, and with Jack Haig to help drive it along. Team Sky were happy because they had Sergio Henao in the break.

Also named in the move were Haga and Oomen (Team Sunweb), Tonelli, Ciccone (Bardiani-CSF), Cherel, Jauregui and Denz (AG2R La Mondiale), De La Cruz and Henao (Team Sky), Frapporti and Gavazzi (Androni Giocattoli), Mori, Polanc and Ulissi (UAE Team Emirates), Dombrowski (EF Education First-Drapac), Zardini (Wilier Triestina), Gesink (LottoNL Jumbo), Hermans and Plaza (Israel Cycling Academy), Reichenbach and Roy (Groupama-FDJ), Haig and Chaves (Mitchelton-Scott), Eg (Trek-Segafredo) and Quintana (Movistar). Alessandro De Marchi was left up front by BMC and so sat on.

After a few moments of bluffing, BMC were forced to lead the chase in defense of Rohan Dennis' maglia rosa. Other teams kept their card close to their chest, playing a high-stakes game. Chaves was a major overall threat, so were Henao and Oomen, yet teams refused to panic.

Fortunately, BMC rode a solid tempo in the middle section of the stage, with Astana eventually helping them, as Etna loomed larger and larger on the horizon.

In the break some riders played smart as they tried to get a free ride towards, others, like Haig, Mori, Roy and Tonelli sacrificed their chances for teammates. The gap rose and fell but was kept to a maximum of three minutes. The break was a threat but not as much as it could have been.

Nate Brown (EF Education First-Drapac) crashed at speed in the feed zone after 95km of racing but got going again despite being in pain.

Froome dropped back amongst the team cars but soon got back into the safety and slipstream of the peloton.

The Bahrain-Merida team began to help with the chase and with Astana also helping; the gap came down to two minutes with 35km to race. However, Chaves was looking good and even helping in the break up front. The 30-rider break made the stage a handicap race and he had a head start on many of his rivals.

A 25km climb to the finish

The climb to the Astrophysics observatory is officially 15km long but the road starts to climb with 25km to go. Tonelli pushed the speed for Ciccone, with Haig giving his very all for Chaves after passing through the crowded streets of Ragalna with 20km to go. Behind, Froome made sure he was well-placed at the head of the peloton. The gap was down to 1:20.

Davide Formolo (Bora-Hansgrohe) crashed in the middle of the road but got going again thanks to a push from a teammate.

The end game amongst the breakaway riders began with 14km when Robert Gesink attacked and upped the pace. When he was caught De Marchi tried his hand. Behind there were only half a dozen riders left in the break and the gradient hurt their legs.

Behind Astana set the pace at the head of the peloton, with Kangert and Sanchez leading Lopes. Wout Poels and Froome were tucked tight on their wheels, but the Dutchman was soon distanced, leaving just Kenny Elissonde to help him in the select peloton.

Nine survivors emerged from the break as the road head up towards the lava fields with 9km to go, but Ciccone soon split the group again. Behind Astana set an infernal pace, cracking Louis Meintjes (Dimension Data) and Formolo, and reducing the peloton to just 20 riders.

Dennis tried to stay on the wheels but was alone as the gap to the break fell to 50 seconds.

Chaves finally showed his hand with 5.5km to go on the steepest part of the climb. He got a gap, had the power and speed and committed to a solo attack.

It was the right move. Ciccone, Henao and the others were unable to close the gap, and they were eventually caught by the peloton. Lopez, Bennett and Dumoulin made several attacks, putting Froome and Aru in trouble but the strongest overall contenders were able to stay together.

Yates was unable to attack because Chaves was up the road, but he threw caution to the wind with 1.5km to go and quickly showed his real strength. His rivals were unable to go after him, further indicating Yates' brilliant form.

He opened a 20-second gap and joined up with Chaves with 600 metres to go, dragging the Colombian to the finish line before sportingly moving over to allow him to win.

It cost Yates four bonus seconds, but he was still in pink and secured a loyal teammate for the rest of the Giro d'Italia as they try to defend the race lead.

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