Leader Yates feels no pressure ahead of pivotal stage at Giro
Simon Yates exuded a Zen-like calm on the Giro d’italia’s final rest day yesterday as he looked ahead to the hugely anticipated individual time trial in Trento today.
The 25-year-old from Bury, who has defied the odds to lead the general classification by 2min 11sec from 2017 champion Tom Dumoulin [Sunweb], insisted he would not lose any sleep if he “exploded” either today or in the mountains later this week. Yates is seeking to become the first British winner in the 109-year history of the race.
“I’m relaxed,” Yates told reporters. “I feel good. If I blow up and explode in the final week, or lose five minutes tomorrow [in the time trial], that’s fine, really fine. I’m happy with what I’ve done. I came to the Giro d’italia to win but if I can’t, that’s OK, I won’t lose sleep. I want to be the best I can be, but if this is the max, then that’s OK, too.”
Yates is expected to lose anything from one to three minutes to world time trial champion Dumoulin in today’s largely flat, largely straight 34.2km stage from Trento to Rovereto.
No one is sure how the British rider will recover from his third stage win on Sunday, when he escaped solo with a bold attack on the road to Sappada. Rest days can be a curse as much as a blessing.
“Maybe it’s just 20 seconds only because Yates is in good shape, it depends on the wind,” Tristan Hoffman, Bahrain-merida sports director, told Cycling Weekly.
“If it’s headwind, it’s all about the power, so maybe Dumoulin could take more.”
Team Sky’s Chris Froome, who won on the Zoncolan on Saturday to rise to fifth overall, only to pay for it the next day, dropping to seventh on GC, said he “didn’t regret” going so deep on the Zoncolan.
“It is a moment I’ll treasure for the rest of my life,” he said.