Simon Yates on Sunday made it a hat-trick of wins at the Giro d’Italia on the 15th stage and the British rider consolidated his overall lead as the race headed into its final week.
After unsuccessfully attempting a similar move just moments earlier, Yates set off on a solo attack with 17km remaining.
He looked back after a few meters and continued to accelerate.
Miguel Angel Lopez of Astana edged out Tom Dumoulin for second to lead a group of five cyclists over the line, 41 seconds behind Yates at the end of the 176km route through the Dolomites from Tolmezzo to Sappada.
The grueling leg saw riders almost continuously climbing and descending.
“It was really hard from the bottom of the climb. I still felt good so I chose my moment to go,” said Yates, who was struggling to hold back the tears.
“They responded the first time, but then I tried again and I gave it everything to get away,” Yates added. “It’s fantastic. I don’t know why I’m a bit emotional after today. I gave everything.”
Yates is clearly on a different level to his rivals and it is hard to see anyone managing to wrestle the leader’s maglia rosa off the Mitchelton-Scott cyclist.
Yates extended his lead over defending champion Dumoulin of Team Sunweb to 2 minutes, 11 seconds.
Domenico Pozzovivo of Bahrain-Merida remained third, 2:28 behind.
Yesterday was the Giro’s third and final rest day before the individual time trial today, which is Dumoulin’s specialty.
“He can take two minutes out of me on the TT, on one stage. So it’s not over, but I’m happy with what I did today,” Yates said.
However, Dumoulin believes Yates is in such good form that he is favorite to clinch overall victory when the Giro ends in Rome on Sunday.
“He’s in such great shape that maybe he can also do a really good time trial. We’ll just have to see,” Dumoulin said. “Even if I have an excellent TT and he doesn’t, and I take the lead, it’s still going to be very difficult. He’s riding away from us whenever he wants.”
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