Tour of the Alps: Simon Yates takes solo victory on stage 2

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Simon Yates (Bike Exchange) took control of the Tour of the Alps and indicated he was on form as the Giro d'Italia approaches, winning the short but mountainous stage 2 to Feichten im Kaunertal in southern Austria.

The Briton followed the attacks on the final climb of Piller Sattel and then attacked alone after forcing a quality selection that included Pavel Sivakov (Ineos Grenadiers), Nairo Quintana (Arkea-Samsic) and Hugh Carthy (EF Education-Nippo).

Yates looked the strongest and opened a 30-second gap in the final two kilometres of the climb. He dove down the fast descent and time trialied to the finish to win alone and take the race lead.

Sivakov tried to limit his losses but finished 41 seconds down on Yates. Dan Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation) beat Aleksandr Vlasov (Astana) to finish third at 58 seconds.

Thanks to time bonuses, Yates now leads Sivakov by 45 with Martin third at 1:04.

It was Yates' first win of 2021 on his debut at the Tour of the Alps.

"I tried really hard, it was a very tough climb, those guys weren't easy to get rid of," Yates said modestly after making a series of stinging attacks to drop his rivals.

"I tried several times but that really took it out of me for the valley road to the finish.

"It's a good day for us, my first win of the year so I'm happy."

Stage 3 is over 161km from Imst to Naturno in Italy and includes three major climbs and a fast ride to the finish. It'll be a day of hard work Bike Exchange as they work to defend Yates' lead.

"So far so good, still a lot of hard stages to come. We'll see what we can do in the next few days and then go from there," Yates said.

How it unfolded

Gianni Moscon celebrated his birthday in the race leader's green jersey and was feted at the start in Innsbruck but the Italian faced a day of suffering in the mountains during the 121km stage.

The stage included 2500m of climbing, with most of it in the final part of the stage and on the two climbs of Piller Sattel from different sides of the snow-covered mountain.

The overall contenders were happy to allow an early break go clear and Kiwi Reuben Thompson (Groupama-FDJ), Reinardt Janse van Rensburg (Qhubeka Assos), Mathias Vacek (Gazprom-RusVelo), Davide Bais (Eolo-Kometa), Morten Hulgaard (Uno-X) and Felix Engelhardt (Tirol KTM) surged away in the early kilometres on the valley west of Innsbruck.

They opened a 2:45 gap after 20km as Ineos set the pace behind.

The gap rose to 3:05 as Bais became the virtual leader on the road and Engelhardt won the intermediate sprint after 37km to extend his lead in the red jersey competition.

As the first climb of Piller Sattel approached, Janse van Rensburg was dropped but the others pressed on and climbed the 7.5km pass at speed.

Thompson rides for the Groupama development team but is a guest of the WorldTour team at the Tour of the Alps. He took advantage of the spotlight to surge clear and lead over the top of the Piller Sattel. Ineos lead the peloton, 2:30 behind as Bias joined Thompson for the final moments of the attack.

The fast descent lead to the valley road and a short flat road before climbing Piller Sattel from the Kaunergrat side. This time the speed in the peloton was much higher, with a bunch sprint to the foot of the climb to ensure position in the early corners.

Arkea-Samsic took over for Quintana and set a high-pace for half of the 7.5km climb and pulled back Thompson and Bias. Quintana waited for the hardest middle part of the climb and made a first attack. It drew out Carthy, Sivakov and others. Quintana made a second surge after Sivakov made a move, with Carthy also active as gaps opened amongst the overall contenders and best climbers.

Ineos had Dani Martinez to help Sivakov as Moscon suffered, lost ground and his race lead but they were unable to take control of the race.

Quintana and Sivakov tried other attacks but then Yates came across to take charge. He waited for several attacks to cancel each other out and then took charge, dancing away on the pedals with three kilometres to go. Sivakov, Quintana and Carthy were able to go with him but they were soon in the red and Yates dispatched them with 2.5km to go. Sivakov got on his wheel but soon paid for it.

Yates looked cool, composed and far from his limits. He pushed on and opened a gap over the top of the climb, indicating his superb form.

He hurtled down the descent and then kept his speed on the riding valley road to the finish. He is not a renowned time trialist but had the form to hold off the chasers, winn the stage, take the 10-second time bonus and so take control of the Tour of the Alps.