Simon Yates wins at Gran Sasso d'Italia

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Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) won stage 9 of the Giro d'Italia at the race's third summit finish at Gran Sasso d'Italia. He out-sprinted Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) to extend his GC lead, while Esteban Chaves (Mitchelton-Scott) took third.

It was a slow burner of a stage that saw the tension rev up to a frantic finish over the tough final kilometres. With Fabio Aru (UAE-Team Emirates) and Chris Froome (Team Sky) dropping from the lead group two kilometres from the line, it was Giulio Ciccone (Bardiani-CSF) and Domenico Pozzovivo (Bahrain-Merida) who pushed things on up front.

Only four men - Yates, Pinot, Chaves and Movistar's Richard Carapaz - could follow Pozzovivo's push, but heading into the final 100 metres it was the previously-quiet Yates who picked the right time to strike. He came around the outside of Pinot to take Mitchelton-Scott's second win in four days.

"That was for the boys, the big guys who ride on the front all day," Yates said after the stage. "They've had a couple of tough days, always riding on the front for some very long stages, so that's for those guys.

"From the beginning of the stage we always looked to think maybe if we keep the breakaway close enough there might be a possibility for the stage. Once Astana showed interest, I thought it was possible then, but you never know really deep in the final."

Today's result sees Yates' lead swell to 32 seconds ahead of tomorrow's rest day. Teammate Chaves now lies second, while Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) drops to third, 38 seconds back. Only five riders now lie within a minute of the maglia rosa, while Aru and Froome both lost over a minute and dropped out of the top 10.

"I was having a tough, tough day," Froome said. "I’ve definitely had a rough start to this Giro. So today I was just trying hang on as best I could, obviously make it to the rest day tomorrow and then reevaluate the position from there."

Aru is also looking toward the rest day to recover. He lost seven more seconds than Froome and dropped to 15th place at 2:36. "It has been a difficult day for me. I could not keep up with the pace of the other riders on the final climb," he said. "I didn’t have a good feeling so the result was not what I had hoped. These things happen during the period of 21 days, it is part of our sport. Tomorrow there will be a rest day, then we will be ready to face two weeks during which I am aiming to improve my riding and results."

How it happened

Stage 9 of the Giro d'Italia saw another summit finish, this time to the Apennine ski resort of Gran Sasso d'Italia. Giovanni Battaglin and Francesco Chioccioli are among the past stage winners here, while its last inclusion saw Marco Pantani take victory during his ill-fated 1999 Giro.

The second category climb at Roccaraso (6.9km at 6.5%) was the first obstacle of the 225km day, coming at 118.1km into the stage. Then followed two intermediate sprints in quick succession, at Popoli and Bussi sul Tirino at 161.2km and 167.6km respectively.

At 178.2km, the stage got serious with the first category climb to Calasio (13.5km at a steady 6 per cent). Soon after the official final climb of Gran Sasso d'Italia (another first category climb) started, clocking in at 26.5km at 3.9 per cent. It's not an overly-strenuous set of numbers with much of the climb featuring gentle gradients and false flats, but the main action would surely come in the last 4.5km, which averaged an 8.2 per cent gradient.

A large group shot away in the early kilometres of the stage, with Gianluca Brambilla (Trek-Segafredo), Hugh Carthy (EF Education First-Drapac), Tim Wellens (Lotto-Fix All) and Giovanni Visconti (Bahrain-Merida) among the more notable names to make it.

Other riders in the breakaway were Davide Ballerini, Fausto Masnada (both Androni-Sidermec), Manuele Boaro (Bahrain-Merida), Simone Andreetta (Bardiani-CSF), Cesare Benedetti (Bora-Hansgrohe), Natneal Berhane (Dimension Data), Maxim Belkov (Katusha-Alpecin), Laurent Didier (Trek-Segafredo) and Alex Turrin (Wilier-Selle Italia).

Up front in the break, whose gap fluctuated between six and eight minutes for much of the day, Masnada took the points on Roccaraso in dubious fashion. After dropping his chain, Masnada relied on teammate Ballerini to push him over the line. Berhane was later awarded his points by the race jury.

As Mitchelton-Scott led the pace-setting at the front of the peloton, Ballerini beat Belkov to both sprints, moving into the lead of the Traguardo Volante intermediate sprint competition. Meanwhile, Wilier Triestina sprinter Jakub Mareczko abandoned mid-stage, leaving much of his team languishing at the bottom of the GC standings.

On the lower slopes of Calasio, around 40km from the finish, Astana started to work in service of team leader Miguel Ángel López, quickly taking chunks of time back from the break. As Masnada took maximum points over the top, the gap was a mere four minutes with 30km remaining.

The attacks started in the break over the early kilometres of the day's final climb, with Wellens, who crashed on stage 8, one of the first to drop back. Some 15km from the top, and with several kilometres of false flat up ahead, Masnada ventured off alone with Boaro leading the chase ahead of Cherel, Visconti, Brambilla and Carthy.

As he hit the tough final five kilometres, Masnada's gap to the peloton was 1:30, as the remains of the break were reabsorbed. For a long time it looked touch and go, but the Italian's heroic effort was brought to an end as the slimmed-down favourites group caught him 2.7km from the line.

With Jack Haig (Mitchelton-Scott) still working away as the leaders hit the snowline 2km out, Chris Froome (Team Sky) was dropped. Giulio Ciccone (Bardiani-CSF) was the main man pushing things on with repeated attacks until Domenico Pozzovivo (Bahrain-Merida) took over with 600 metres remaining.

The Italian took Pinot, Yates, Chaves and Richard Carapaz (Movistar) with him, but within sight of the line it was maglia rosa Yates who went for it, sprinting to his third victory of the season, and first at the Giro.

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