YATES EXTENDS LEAD
IRELAND’S Sam Bennett won a mass sprint to third, 34 seconds behind stage winner Slovenian rider Matej Mohoric who edged Nico Denz in a two-man sprint to win yesterday’s stage 10 of the Giro d’Italia.
Overall leader Simon Yates gained three bonus seconds as all of the other leaders finished safely in the main pack but it was a difficult day for his Mitchelton-Scott team as Esteban Chaves dropped out of contention.
Chaves started the day in second but dropped behind early on in the 244km stage from Penne to Gualdo Tadino in Umbria (the race’s longest) apparently struggling with throat and allergy problems.
Yates won an intermediate sprint and now leads defending champion Tom Dumoulin by 41 seconds with Thibaut Pinot up to third, 46 seconds behind. our-time Tour de France champion Chris Froome moved up one spot to 10th, 2:30 back.
The lengthy stage was a brutal wake-up call after the race’s second rest day, especially with two early climbs and constant rolling terrain along the rest of the route.
The route passed by the site of the Rigopiano avalanche, which killed 29 hotel guests and staff last year. Four children and five adults were pulled alive from the snow and debris days after the avalanche.
Another hilly stage is scheduled for today with a 156-kilometer leg from Assisi to Osimo that concludes with a short but steep climb. THE Irish team for the 2018 Ras Tailteann which begins in Drogheda on Sunday next has been confirmed. Robert Jon McCarthy, Darnell Moore, Marc Potts, Jake Gray and James Curry will don green in the race which runs over eight days and 1168.7 kilometres. It will feature four gruelling category one climbs plus 30 other categorized climbs with stage finishes in Athlone, Tipperary, Listowel, Glengarriff, Mitchelstown, Carlow, Naas and Skerries.