2018 Giro d'Italia Stage 15 Results & Recap
Stage 15 of the 2018 Giro d'Italia is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
It’s a hat-trick as Simon Yates takes his third victory in pink! \nBy Stas Uittenbogaard
Another transitional stage gone and dusted, still no luck for the break-away as the Giro d’Italia’s 15th stage turns into another epic episode in the fight for pink. As EF Education First – Drapac chased back the break of the day in search of a stage win for Michael Woods, the classification teams saw an opportunity to put each other to the test once again. The test brought out a clear and resounding winner, as Maglia Rosa put in a double acceleration at 18 kilometres out, and was not seen back again. The British rider crossed the finish line 41 seconds before his main rivals, who could not organize the chase among themselves. Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb), despite losing contact with his fellow chasers, finished together with the other GC favourites in third position.
A visibly emotional Simon Yates talked to the press after the finish: “My attack was a little bit on instinct. I saw a little gap, then George attacked. I felt good, so I tried the first time. I gave everything the second time to get away. It's fantastic. I feel emotional after today. I've been fighting since Israel to build a good lead. I'm happy with the gap I have now but it's far from over. It could vanish in 35 kilometres.”
Simon Yates now has more than two minutes on his closest rival, Tom Dumoulin. Even before today’s stage, the Dutchman admitted it would be difficult to gain enough time in the upcoming time trial to take the pink jersey to Rome, with three mountain stages in the last week. Farther back are Fabio Aru, who after another ‘giornata no’ disappears from the general classification battle altogether and Chris Froome, who, after yesterday’s resurgence, loses a minute and 32 seconds on the stage winner, dropping back to seventh overall. Tomorrow, the riders will have a rest day to recover, although the Maglia Rosa has already told us he’ll spend the better part of the day on the bike, doing a reconnaissance of Tuesday’s vital time trial!
PLAY BY PLAY
The day started with a hard chase after several break-away attempts, with Ruben Plaza (ICA), Luis Leon Sanchez (AST) and Alessandro de Marchi being extraordinarily active during this phase of the race. It took almost 75 kilometres for a break to form, when a group of 24 riders crossed the intermediate sprint. Michael Woods’ EF-Drapac team was set on a stage win, which is why, despite having Sacha Modolo in the front group, the American team chased down the front group to within one and a half minute on the Passo Tre Croci. There, the break group splintered with Nico Denz, Mickaël Chérel (both ALM), Krists Neilands (ICA), Giulio Ciccone (BAR), Giovanni Visconti (TBM) and Dayer Quintana (MOV) upping the pace and staying out of reach of Michael Woods’ attempt to bridge.\n \nPrompted by Woods’ move, the speed increased significantly on two front, in the Maglia Rosa group as well as in the break. As Giulio Ciccone took KOM point on top of the Passo Sant’Antonio, Team Sky’s Wout Poels and Team Sunweb’s Sam Oomen push the pace. The first victim of the pace was Fabio Aru (UAD), who has not managed to recover form after his lacklustre performance so far. The Italian finished back in the grupetto today, any hopes of classification squashed. One rider who did seem to have regained confidence on Zoncolan was Chris Froome, but despite his team putting the pressure on, Froome dropped away unexpectedly at the Costalissoio, eighteen kilometres from the finish. An attack from George Bennett saw the remaining favourites put under stress, which was the signal for Simon Yates to move. The race leader accelerated once, got caught back and accelerated again and went solo.
At the top of the Costalissoio, Yates had an advantage of 30 seconds over a chasing group consisting of Pinot (FDJ), Dumoulin (SUN), Pozzovivo (TBM), Lopez Moreno (AST) and Carapaz (MOV). With the latter two more concerned about each other than the pink jersey up the road, the chasing group had a hard time getting organised and as Yates’ advantage increased, a frustrated Pinot and Pozzovivo resorted to attacks which saw Tom Dumoulin dropped. On the uphill finish, Simon Yates increased his lead to its maximum of a minute over Dumoulin. The time-trialist clawed his way back to the other chasers on the final kilometre, allowing Simon Yates to increase his total lead by 47 seconds including bonification. \n
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