Woods loses Tirreno-Adriatico lead on mountain summit finish
Simon Yates win stage, pulls on blue jersey
Photo by:
Sirotti
Michael Woods couldn’t hold his Tirreno-Adriatico lead on Friday’s mountain summit finish, losing the maglia azzuri to stage winner Simon Yates. Yates’ Mitchelton-Scott has won two stages in a row. Woods sifted down to eighth place on GC.
What a ride from @SimonYatess who wins the Queen stage and moves into the overall race lead! ???? pic.twitter.com/51t1kS8IXc
— Mitchelton-SCOTT (@MitcheltonSCOTT) September 11, 2020
The Course
The riders felt the Apennine mountains right away with an unclassified 4.5-km climb right from the gun and an HC climb hard on its heels. After many little climbs along the 202-km route, the 11 km, 7 percent Sarnano-Sassotetto ascent capped off the day.
?This stage takes in several ascents, including 3 categorised climbs.
The route is challenging in both course and profile.
The closing climb from Sarnano to Sassotetto (14.2 km) has a 5.8% average gradient, with peaks topping out at 12%. #TirrenoAdriatico pic.twitter.com/S72FIQ3XWZ— Giro d'Italia (@giroditalia) September 11, 2020
The Breakaway
Six riders bounced away early and soon Woods was no longer the KOM leader on the road. The fugitive group grew to 10 and included Matthew van der Poel.
?#TirrenoAdriatico @eolo_it 2020
⚡️Break @MathiasFrank, @mathieuvdpoel, @JhonatanRVal, @CFHagen, @AmanuelGerezgh1, @giovisco, @JulienBernard17
⏱️? @h_carretero > 2'40''
⏱️ Gruppo > 3'38''
? Km 53
? Live https://t.co/AeuU61Ymez pic.twitter.com/Xi5QprEyB9
— Tirreno Adriatico (@TirrenAdriatico) September 11, 2020
By 35-km to go, the lead group was down to seven and had a 2:50 gap over the EF Pro Cycling-driven peloton.
Yates’ Mitchelton-Scott and CCC grabbed the reins on the way to Sassotetto as the breakaway began to fragment.
Sassotetto
We are on the Sassotetto climb (11.8km, 7.1%) and the attackers have been pulled back by the #TirrenoAdriatico bunch, where we have @masnada_fausto and @JamesKnoxx, both sitting in the top 10 overall. pic.twitter.com/l3iKtnvSCd
— Deceuninck-QuickStep (@deceuninck_qst) September 11, 2020
Five escapees started the Sassotetto with a minuscule lead. Once reeled in, Rui Costa made the first move from the peloton. Woods still had three teammates with him and they took over from Astana at the front of the group.
Rusty had Rafal Majka (+0:09) and Fausto Masnada (+0:18) as his main danger men. Soon, Astana had the most riders in the group. Vincenzo Nibali, over 2:00 back, attacked with 6.8-km to go, but to no avail. Jakob Fuglsang tried his luck a kilometre later. Again, all for naught.
Yates’ surge with 4.5-km to go urged Masnada to make a dig too. Then Majka and Geraint Thomas left Woods behind.
Yates beat on alone with Thomas, Masnada, Majka and Alexandr Vlasov in pursuit and Woods continuing to bleed time. Yates needed 25-seconds over Majka and 16-seconds on Masnada to take the blue jersey. He kept a healthy gap to assume the lead, but he’ll be wary of Geraint Thomas in Monday’s concluding time trial. Woods came in 1:46 later.
2020 Tirreno-Adriatico Stage 5
1) Simon Yates (Great Britain/Mitchelton-Scott) 5:30:43
2) Geraint Thomas (Great Britain/Ineos) +0:35
3) Rafal Majka (Poland/Bora-Hansgrohe) s.t.
11) Michael Woods (Canada/EF Pro Cycling) +1:46
2020 Tirreno-Adriatico GC
1) Simon Yates (Great Britain/Mitchelton-Scott) 23:36:59
2) Rafal Majka (Poland/Bora-Hansgrohe +0:16
3) Geraint Thomas (Great Britain/Ineos) +0:39
8) Michael Woods (Canada/EF Pro Cycling) +1:22
