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Mitchelton-Scott dominates Giro d’Italia battle on Mount Etna

Esteban Chaves wins the first summit finish, teammate Yates takes the pink

May 10, 2018
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Mitchelton-Scott was already leading the Giro d’Italia team competition over night, but who would have believed the team would boss first summit finish of the race to such an extent? On Thursday Colombian Esteban Chaves took the second Giro stage win of his career, finishing alongside Brit Simon Yates atop Sicily’s Mount Etna, with Yates taking over the pink jersey from Rohan Dennis (Australia/BMC).

The Course

Thursday’s stage was the final one in Sicily. The riders faced 169-km of typically rolling Sicilian fare, with a single categorized climb, the Cat. 1 scramble up Mount Etna. Climbed last year as well, the 2018 course tackled it from the opposite side. First would come a 15-km gradual ascent before the real assault. At 15-km of 6.5 percent, the toughest part of Etna was a 3.7-km section of 8% in the final third, before it flattened out near the peak.

Whoever was the day’s winner would take over the blue mountains jersey.

The Breakaway

After a frenetic first hour in which no moves were allowed to break free, a whole raft of riders, 28 in all, were able to pull loose. Mitchelton-Scott had 14th place Chaves in the escape, while Sky’s top representative was 25th place Sergio Henao. With 65-km to go, the mob had 3:30 over the pink jersey peloton. With 48-km to go Chris Froome suffered a mechanical and had to work with teammates to latch back on.

BMC and Astana teamed up to try to bring the peloton to heel. The gradual climb before Mount Etna was 14-km of 3.2 percent. Here, Bahrain-Merida and Katusha pitched in on the pacemaking, but the gap stayed steady at around 2:00.



Mount Etna

The fugitives had a 1:15 gap when Mount Etna’s first slopes kicked up. Dutchman Robert Gesink of LottoNL-Jumbo attacked from the escape and a small group formed around him. Astana led the peloton.

At the steepest part of the climb lively Giulio Ciccone attacked from the Gesink group, drawing Chaves. Chaves then went solo. Another Colombian, Angel “Superman” Lopez attacked and both race leader Dennis and Froome at first couldn’t hang on. Another surge with 3.5-km remaining dropped Dennis.

Yates attacked inside the 2-km mark and bridged over to Chaves in a flash. The duo finished 26-seconds in front of Thibaut Pinot, Lopez, Tom Dumoulin, Fabio Aru, Domenico Pozzovivo, George Bennett and Froome.

Yates leads Dumoulin on GC by 16-seconds. Chaves is now in third place 26-seconds back and wears blue to Yates’ pink. Pozzovivo is closest to Chaves’ final podium spot and Dennis remains in the top-10.

Michael Woods finished in 16th place, 57-seconds back of Chaves in a small group with Dennis. He moved up to 14th on GC.

Although there’s a lump near the finish, Friday’s seventh stage in Calabria on mainland Italy should be a straightforward day for the sprinters.

2018 Giro d’Italia Stage 6
1) Esteban Chaves (Colombia/Mitchelton-Scott)
2) Simon Yates (Great Britain/Mitchelton-Scott) s.t.
3) Thibaut Pinot (France/Groupama-FDJ) +0:26
16) Michael Woods (Canada/EF-Drapac) +0:57
107) Guillaume Boivin (Canada/Israel Cycling Academy) +19:43
144) Svein Tuft (Canada/Mitchelton-Scott) +24:31

2018 Giro d’Italia GC
1) Simon Yates (Great Britain/Mitchelton-Scott) 22:46:03
2) Tom Dumoulin (The Netherlands/Sunweb) +0:16
3) Esteban Chaves (Colombia/Mitchelton-Scott) +0:26
14) Michael Woods (Canada/EF-Drapac) +1:39
87) Guillaume Boivin (Canada/Israel Cycling Academy) +26:03
159) Svein Tuft (Canada/Mitchelton-Scott) +47:29

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