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Giro d’Italia Stage 15: Yates earns hat trick of wins to extend lead

Woods' bold move leads to a drop in GC, Froome distanced

May 20, 2018
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Pink jersey holder Simon Yates (Great Britain/Mitchelton-Scott) needed more time over main rival and Giro d’Italia title holder Tom Dumoulin before Tuesday’s time trial, and on Sunday Yates seized 47-seconds by winning the 15th stage, his third victory since May 13. Michael Woods, who put in another brave attack Sunday, suffered from his efforts to drop from 12th to 17th , while Chris Froome lost time after gaining back so much on Saturday.

The Course

The riders faced a tricky medium mountain course the day after Zoncolan and the day before the final rest day. Organizers had placed three Cat. 2 climbs in the last half of 176-km, one of which was 8.35-km of 7.5 percent. The uphill finish was 6.5-km in length, with a 2.5-km section of 6.6 percent. Light rain chilled the field.

Early Action, Breakaway Forms, Woods Tries Again

With the road tilting up from the gun in Tolmezzo, the pace was frantic, and several attacks were snuffed out. Even Fabio Aru tried to bounce away with 131-km remaining. Finally, a platoon of 25 riders shuffled clear. A few of the escapees tried a further decanting of the fugitive group before the first Cat. 2 but they came back together, the EF-Drapac-led peloton keeping them on a short leash.

With the pink armada continuing to draw the escape closer, the breakaway started to fragment on the Passo Tre Croci. Michael Woods lit out after the fugitives when the gap came down to 1:20. By the top of the ascent, Woods was still 55-seconds behind the four escapees at the sharp end of the race but 1:10 ahead of the peloton. Could he bridge?

It was the descent of Passo Tre Croci that stymied the Canadian. He came back to the peloton with 43-km to go.

Passo di Sant’Antonio

Dumoulin’s Sunweb took over the front of the soggy peloton on the steepest of the Cat. 2 climbs. Only two men were left in the breakaway.  In the favourites group, Aru blew up in a dramatic way, while Woods’ earlier efforts saw him fall away.

Costalissoio and the Finale

On the final categorized climb of the day, Saturday’s winner Chris Froome was dropped straight away. Yates then attacked, but his main rivals sans Froome made it to his wheel. Again, Yates surged on the grades to go solo in the lead, the last fugitives having been dispatched.

With 13-km to go, Yates held 23-seconds over Dumoulin, Thibaut Pinot, Domenico Pozzovivo, Richard Carapaz and Angel Lopez, and 1:17 over Froome. The chasers wouldn’t cooperate–only Pinot and Dumoulin were willing to work–and Froome’s group drew closer to them.

Carapaz attacked with 4-km to go and every chaser but Dumoulin was able to go with him. Impressively, Dumoulin came back in the final 1.5-km. Lopez won the sprint for second, but Dumoulin’s third gave him four bonus seconds.

Yates became the first pink jersey wearer to win three road stages of a Giro since Gilberto Simoni in 2003.

Froome came in 1:33 in arrears and drops to 7th from 5th. Surely +4:52 is too much to make up in the final week.

Woods was 22nd, +4:13, and drifts down to 17th.

Monday is the final rest day before a grueling final week

2018 Giro d’Italia Stage 15
1) Simon Yates (Great Britain/Mitchelton-Scott)Chris Froome (Great Britain/Sky) 4:37:56
2)  Angel Lopez (Colombia/Astana) +0:41
3) Tom Dumoulin (The Netherlands/Sunweb) s.t.
22) Michael Woods (Canada/EF-Drapac) +4:13

2018 Giro d’Italia GC
1) Simon Yates (Great Britain/Mitchelton-Scott) 65:57:37
2) Tom Dumoulin (The Netherlands/Sunweb) +2:11
3) Domenico Pozzovivo (Italy/Bahrain-Merida) +2:28
17) Michael Woods (Canada/EF-Drapac) +9:49

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