Woods up to 9th on Giro Stage 10 as Chaves suffers terrible day

Matej Mohoric took the victory, but Tuesday’s story at the Giro d’Italia was the disastrous day of Stage 6 winner Mitchelton-Scott’s Esteban Chaves. Second place overnight, the Colombian got caught out on a very early climb and never made it back to the favourites’ group, losing a large chunk of time. Chaves’ misfortune means that Michael Woods, 22nd on the day, moves up to 9th on GC.

The Course

The riders wouldn’t have appreciated the 244-km length returning from the second rest day. There was 4161-metres of climbing for the field as well. A Cat. 2 climb sat immediately after the start in Penne. The route included two more categorized climbs, with a Cat. 4 peaking 31-km from the line.

Long day at the office today for the #Giro101 riders, 244 kilometers from Penne to Gusldo Tadino. pic.twitter.com/s8SaFLHNO6

— Deceuninck-QuickStep (@deceuninck_qst) May 15, 2018

The Chaves Situation

Among the riders who fell off the back of that Cat. 2 climb was two-stage winner Elia Viviani and, of course, Chaves. His team management cited allergies as the reason for his plight. Sky, Sunweb and UAE-Emirates all chipped in to distance the Colombian, who was 3:25 in arrears at the 60-km mark.

Things have got so desperate for Chaves that he's having to lead the chase on his own after QuickStep ease up. #Giro101 pic.twitter.com/f9PvJcZLm0

— Felix Lowe (@saddleblaze) May 15, 2018

Chaves had a couple of teammates with him, as did Viviani. With the pace frenetic, there was no way for a breakaway to survive. With his teammate flailing behind him, race leader Simon Yates took three bonus seconds at an intermediate sprint, with Thibaut Pinot earning two.

Chaves’ sizeable group got within two minutes of the pink jersey gang, but faded as the stage headed to its conclusion. With 70-km to go, the group was 6:00 adrift.

Endgame

The rider who was third to Yates and Pinot at the intermediate sprint, Marco Frapporti (Italy/Androni-Sidermec), kept going and soon was leading solo. In the breakaways of Stages 2,3 and 6, the likely lad yanked out a 2:30 gap.

The Chaves group is now nearly 10 minutes down with 50km left. @FabioAru1 is sitting comfortably in the Maglia Rosa group with Frapporti 2'38" ahead. #UAETeamEmirates #Giro101 pic.twitter.com/P0AgyYQ0ka

— @UAE-TeamEmirates (@TeamUAEAbuDhabi) May 15, 2018

Rain started to fall, but this didn’t prevent several attempts to bridge over to Frapporti in the last 40-km. Davide Villella and Mohoric made the junction with Frapporti with 31-km remaining. Both Tom Dumoulin and Richard Carapaz had to chase back on after bike changes on the downhill of the last climb.

AG2R’s German Nico Denz reached Villella and Mohoric, but it would be Denz and Mohoric fighting it out for the win. The Slovenian led out the sprint, but the German couldn’t come around him. Mohoric adds a Giro victory to a Vuelta stage triumph.

Yates now leads second place Dumoulin by 41-seconds, with Pinot now third, 46-seconds back. Chaves, keeping teammate and race leader Simon Yates’ blue jersey warm while the Brit is in pink, can no longer be used strategically as part of a one-two punch. A cheerful fellow, Chaves was second in the 2016 Giro and third in that season’s Vuelta a España.

2018 Giro d’Italia Stage 10
1) Matej Mohoric (Slovenia/Bahrain-Merida) 6:04:52
2) Nico Denz (Germany/AG2R) s.t.
3) Sam Bennett (Ireland/Bora-Hansgrohe) +0:34
22) Michael Woods (Canada/EF-Drapac) s.t.

2018 Giro d’Italia GC
1) Simon Yates (Great Britain/Mitchelton-Scott) 43:42:38
2) Tom Dumoulin (The Netherlands/Sunweb) +0:41
3) Thibaut Pinot (France/Groupama-FDJ) +0:46
9) Michael Woods (Canada/EF-Drapac) +2:28