Giro d'Italia stage 14: Simon Yates bounces back with solo stage win as GC standings reshuffle

Simon Yates (BikeExchange-Jayco) kicked away from a power-packed four-rider attack to win stage 14 of the Giro d’Italia.

Victory marks some consolation for Yates after the crushing disappointment of crumbling out of GC last weekend on the Blockhaus climb. The Brit scored his second stage of this Giro in the toughest and most dramatic day of the race so far with his searing acceleration over the final climb of the day at 5km to go.

Jai Hindley (Bora Hansgrohe) won the sprint for second over Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) and Vincenzo Nibali (Astana Qazaqstan).

Overnight leader Juan Pedro López (Trek-Segafredo) finally lost his grip on the pink jersey after being dropped by a searing acceleration from Carapaz at around 30km to go.

Earlier, Bora-Hansgrohe had blown the races to pieces, reducing the lead group to just a dozen riders before they had reached the top of the first of the day’s four cat.2 climbs.

That group became more and more select as the stage went on, as Yates, Carapaz, Hindley and Nibali went clear of Domenico Pozzovivo (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux), João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates), Mikel Landa, Pello Bilbao (both Bahrain-Victorious), Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) on the final climb.

Already almost 20 minutes down on GC, Yates’ only interest was in the stage win, and he was one of several riders (including Mathieu van der Poel, who spent the first 10 kilometers at the front on his own) to unsuccessfully try and get into the day’s break at the start of the stage.

“I tried a few times in the beginning but it was not possible,” Yates explained at the finish. “I made a couple of moves, but maybe the group was too big, or I was not allowed to go, I dunno. So we had to change tactics.”

Asked if the win made up for falling out of GC contention, Yates was brutally honest.

“Not really. Not to put a downer on the day, but I came here to win the race, so for me, it’s another stage, I have five already, and this is number six,” he said.

“I hope the legs stay as good as today. Today was a really, really big effort, not just for me but for everybody. I think the gaps today, they’re enormous. If this heat stays around it’s going to be a very hard final week.”

Bora-Hansgrohe ignites the race

A third of the way into this compact 147km stage, a twelve-man break eventually went clear. Iván Sosa (Movistar), Alessandro Covi (UAE Team Emirates), Joe Dombrowski (Astana Qazaqstan), Nans Peters (Ag2r Citroën), Sylvain Moniquet (Lotto-Soudal), Oscar Riesebeek (Alpecin-Fenix), James Knox (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl) Ignatas Konovalovas (Groupama-FDJ), Filippo Zanna (Bardiani-CSF-Faizanè), Diego Andrés Camargo (EF Education-EasyPost), Ben Zwiehoff (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Diego Rosa (Eolo-Kometa) all made the first move.

However, the break was only able to gain a gap of over two minutes before Bora-Hansgrohe detonated the race.

“It was lucky that Bora decided to chase,” said Yates, “whether for the stage or the GC, I don’t know. From there onwards I did my best.”

Bora’s pace-setting in the rolling terrain split the race into pieces, at one point briefly having just three riders still on the wheel of their leading quartet.

All this was enough to bring the break back 69km from the finish, meaning a dramatically reduced peloton was now leading the race.

Absent from that bunch was Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), the most high-profile victim of the carnage. Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) also was in trouble for a short period, dangling out the back of the group by a handful of seconds, until making the junction on the first climb of Superga, 65km from the finish.

By now only a dozen riders were left in the lead group, featuring all of the GC top fourteen apart from Valverde, Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) and Thymen Arensman (DSM).

Wilco Kelderman (Bora-Hansgrohe) single-handedly made sure none of these riders came back, leading the 12-man group over both the Superga and then the Colle della Maddalena.

Kelderman at last finished his mammoth turn at the foot of the second ascent of Superga, prompting a flurry of attacks that saw Carapaz, Hindley, Nibali, Landa and López to go clear from the rest.

Almeida, Buchmann, Pozzovivo, Bilbao and Yates were dropped initially, but each clawed their way back later on the steep climb.

Carapaz then launched his big move towards the top of the climb, despite there being 28.6km still to ride until the finish. No one else even tried to follow him, while Lopez, despite having looked so good earlier on the climb, was ejected from the group.

Carapaz’s lead over the chasers was over 20 seconds by the top of the climb, and remained at about that by the time he reached the foot of the Colle della Maddalena for a second time, as Bilbao and Buchmann led the chase.

Nibali was the first to attack on that final climb from the chasing group, and only Hindley was able to follow. Then Hindley himself attacked having sat in Nibali’s wheel, and managed to drop the Italian before catching Carapaz.

As the gradient eased off towards the top, first Nibali and then Yates bridged up to Carapaz and Hindley, forming the definitive four-man group. They crested the climb with a 15-second lead over Pozzovivo and Almeida.

The quartet worked well together as they looked to maximize their gains over the other GC rivals, but Yates’ only concern was with the stage win, which he sealed with an attack 5km from the finish.

Next up: Another GC day

The GC contenders won’t have much time to recover from their efforts today before having to do battle all over again, on a mountainous day in the Alps tomorrow.

Pre-race favorite Carapaz may now be in pink, but with Hindley hot on his heels and Almeida, Landa and Pozzovivo all still within 1:01 of him, the race for overall victory at this Giro d’Italia is still very much alive.