Yates moves into pole position for Giro after stunning solo win

Briton leads by over two minutes from Dumoulin ‘Emotional’ Bury rider triumphs in Sappada

An “emotional” Simon Yates tightened his grip on the maglia rosa ahead of the Giro d’italia’s final rest day by taking his third stage victory courtesy of a bold solo attack 11 miles from the finish in Sappada.

Yates ended up winning by a significant margin – 41 seconds – to move 2min 11sec ahead of his nearest rival, Sunweb’s Tom Dumoulin, who was third over the line.

The Bury-born rider’s buffer is roughly what he is expected to lose to Dumoulin, the world champion, in tomorrow’s 35km (21.7miles) time trial in Trento. Crucially, however, Yates will then have three big mountain stages in which to secure his first grand tour victory.

As the 25-year-old is now climbing better than anyone else in this race, for the first time since the start two weeks ago, Yates looks the clear favourite for victory.

However, it was a chastening day for Yates’s compatriot Chris Froome. Team Sky’s leader had roared back into contention with his win on the Monte Zoncolan on Saturday. But Froome paid for that effort yesterday, unable to stay with Astana’s Miguel Angel Lopez when the Colombian accelerated on the climb to Costalissoio.

Froome, who had risen to fifth overall after Zoncolan, was left Crucial stage: Simon Yates celebrates after a breakaway win in Sappada exposed, without team-mates, and Yates took full advantage. A first attack was nullified by a high-quality group including Dumoulin, Lopez, Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-fdj), Domenico Pozzovivo (Bahrain-merida) and Richard Carapaz (Movistar).

But they were powerless to respond to Yates’s second attack and he had managed to open up an 18-second lead by the top of the climb, with nine miles left.

As the rain started to fall, poor cooperation from the chasers allowed Yates to increase his lead with an exasperated Dumoulin gesticulating at his fellow riders to help him. Eventually, the group got their act together but not before Yates had extended his advantage to 41sec, finishing on all his own, with arms aloft.

“It was really hard from the bottom of the climb,” Yates said afterwards. “I still felt good so I chose my moment to go. They responded the first time but then I tried again and I gave it everything to get away. It’s fantastic.

“I don’t know why but I’m a bit emotional after today. I gave it everything.”

The question now will be how much time Yates loses in tomorrow’s time trial and whether he can then hang on to his form in the final few days of the race.

“It’s a good gap to Tom [Dumoulin] but he could take two minutes out of me in the TT,” Yates said. “I’ve been fighting since [the start in] Israel to have a good gap, and I have that now, but it could vanish in 35km. We’ll see.”