Tirreno-Adriatico: Simon Yates wins stage 5 summit finish

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Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) won stage five of Tirreno-Adriatico, breaking clear from  the other favourites on the fearsome Sassotetto summit finish.

Yates also becomes the new overall leader of the race, after Michael Woods (EF Pro Cycling) was dropped earlier on the climb. Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) and Rafał Majka (Bora-Hansgrohe) finished second and third 35 seconds behind Yates, with Alexander Vlasov (Astana) in fourth a further four seconds adrift. 

"A really good day. A lot of good work from the team," Yates said after the finish. "I knew I had good legs from yesterday already so today was a big opportunity to take the jersey, to take some time because with the TT on the last day I need a buffer.

"It was already a fast pace first by EF and then also Astana. Rafał Majka attacked to really start the show. I saw an opportunity and really took it. I saw straight away that I got a gap and then it was just full gas.

"We have to defend. It's always difficult to defend the jersey. Then of course the time trial is not my strongest point, so we'll see. But we'll enjoy this today and then go from there."

The final climb was as decisive as expected, with all of the GC favourites left scattered across the road at the finish. 

Yates made his attack 4.5km from the finish, just as Woods had been left isolated. Fausto Masnada (Deceuninck-QuickStep) and Gianluca Brambilla (Trek-Segafredo) initially attempted to stay on his wheel, but the Mitchelton-Scott quickly dropped them both, to solo up the rest of the climb, holding off a strong chase group, to take victory.

How it unfolded

The queen stage of the Tirreno-Adriatico saw the riders head uphill from kilometre zero, with an unclassified 4.2 kilometre incline up the Forca di Ancarano. Ten riders used this rise to form the first breakaway of the rolling day, including Dutch champion Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix), who lost enough time on yesterday’s stage to be allowed up the road.

He was joined by Mathias Fränk (Ag2r La Mondiale), Jhonatan Restrepo (Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec), Marco Canola (Gazprom-RusVelo), Carl Fredrik Hagen (Lotto-Soudal), Hector Carretero (Movistar), Amanuel Ghebreigziabiher (NTT Pro Cycling), Julien Bernard (Trek-Segafredo), Edoardo Zardini and Giovanni Visconti (both Vini Zabù-KTM). 

With no GC threat present, they were allowed considerable leeway by the peloton, and extended their lead to 6:23 after just over one hour of racing. 

Canola took maximum points over the first two climbs of the day: Santa Margherita, crested 164km from the finish, and San Ginesio, at 78.9km. Carretero was second behind him on each occasion, taking enough points to become the new virtual leader of the King of the Mountains classification. 

EF Pro Cycling controlled the pace at the front of the peloton in defence of Woods’ overall lead, keeping the gap to the break at around four minutes. The team suffered a blow when one of their most important domestiques, Michael Clarke, had to seek medical from his team car after he cut his face in a crash. 

Second man overall Majka was also delayed briefly when he suffered a mechanical, while Chris Froome (Ineos Grenadiers) was another faller later in the day. 

Although there were no classified climbs between San Ginasio and Sassotetto, the undulating roads made for a very difficult run-in to the summit finish. Despite his injury, Michael Clarke did most of the pace-setting during this period, keeping the gap steady and thinning the peloton. 

Up in the break, an impatient Restrepo was unhappy with the pace being set, attacking a couple of times over the rolling terrain that led up to the final climb. With Zardini having dropped back earlier, and Carretero and Canola being dropped as a result of Restrepo’s accelerations, the break had been reduced to seven riders at the 60km to go mark. 

Restrepo’s concerns about the pace were proven right as their advantage over the peloton began to come. With 50km to go it was at around 3:30, and continued to fall to just 2:40 at 42km from the line, at which point Visconti helped reverse the trend by upping the pace.  

That merely delayed the inevitable, however, as the gap plummeted again as the peloton raced towards the base of Sassotetto, with Mitchelton-Scott assisting EF Pro Cycling with the pace-setting. 

With the gap down to 1:20, Bernard and Ghebreigziabhier broke clear from the rest of the break at 26km from the finish. 5.5km later, Van der Poel, Frank and Visconti managed to rejoin the duo, but all five were swept up once they began climbing Sassotetto. 

Rui Costa (UAE Emirates) and Luca Wackermann (Vini Zabù-KTM) attacked at the bottom of the climb, but neither were able to stay clear due to the fast pace set by EF Pro Cycling, which whittled the peloton to around just 25 riders 7km from the summit.

Vincenzo Nibali (Trek-Segafredo) and Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) also put in some accelerations, but were closed down by Woods’ final remaining teammate, Ruben Guerreiro.

Only when Majka attacked 4.8km from the top was Guerreiro no longer able to follow, leaving Woods isolated, at which point the situation became something of a free-for-all. One by one the favourites attacked the overall leader, with Yates putting in the most decisive move.

Behind Yates, a group of five eventually formed, consisting of Majka, Vlasov, Thomas, Masnada and Brambilla, which soon thinned to a trio after the latter two were dropped.

Despite working well together up the rest of the climb, Majka, Thomas, and Vlasov were still unable to catch the flying Yates, who claimed his first win of the season.