Yates: Mountains can make me Giro contender
British rider believes he is part of best-equipped team Viviani wins stage two as Dennis takes pink jersey
Simon Yates believes he has “the strongest team in the mountains” at this Giro d’Italia and is adamant he can challenge for the race win in Rome on May 27.
The Bury-born rider is clearly in good spirits after the opening two days of this Giro – and no wonder. If Friday’s time trial was a disaster for Chris Froome, who crashed in practice and ended up giving away 37 seconds to pink jersey rival Tom Dumoulin, it was, quietly, a great day for his fellow Briton.
Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) has flown under the radar in the build-up to this Giro. With all the speculation over Froome’s salbutamol case, and the Sky rider’s anticipated rivalry with Dumoulin, he was hardly mentioned in dispatches. But the 25-year-old’s performance on Friday – seventh on the day and just 20 seconds down on Dumoulin – made everyone sit up and take notice.
“It’s been OK [the first 48 hours],” Yates said modestly after rolling home in the bunch at the end of yesterday’s second stage from Haifa to Tel Aviv. “I was really happy with the prologue.”
Yates is not noted for his ability against the clock. Both he and twin brother Adam have long since proven they have the pedigree to hang with the very best in the mountains at grand tours (Simon has a best finish of sixth in the Vuelta a Espana while Adam has finished fourth at the Tour de France). But they have always given away too much in the time trials to challenge for the overall.
If he can limit his losses in the second, much longer, time trial from Trento to Rovereto on stage 16, he could do some serious damage in this race. A podium at least, potentially more if Dumoulin and Froome slip up.
“I’ll just do the best I can,” he said. “I expect to lose a lot more time in that [second ITT which is 34.2km long] because it’s nowhere near as difficult as the first one in Jerusalem. It suits the big, powerful guys. The reality is [riders such as Dumoulin and Froome] are going four or five seconds faster per kilometre. There’s not much I can do about that. I work on my TT-ing a lot. I spend a lot of hours on the TT bike. I spend a lot of time in the wind tunnel. I do as much as I think I can do. But they are putting out a lot more [wattage].”
Yates is more confident about his chances of gaining time in the mountains. With team-mate Esteban Chaves also a GC threat, and plenty of climbing support on the team, he reckons they can cause the other GC riders problems. “Who has a stronger team [than us] in the mountains?” he asked. “There may be one or two who are pretty close but my feeling is that we have the strongest team out there.”
The rest have been put on notice. Yates – who served a four-month ban for “non intentional doping” last year after his team doctor forgot to submit the necessary paperwork for his asthma inhaler – is far from cocky.
Asked about riding in Froome’s shadow he joked that was only natural since Froome had “won the TdF four times and I’ve won f--- all”. But he is increasingly self-confident. Asked directly whether he now felt he was a serious contender for pink he did not blink. “I always think I’m a contender so nothing has changed.”
Italian sprinter Elia Viviani won yesterday’s final sprint on the Mediterranean coast as the pink jersey switched from Dumoulin to Rohan Dennis (BMC), who took three bonus seconds in the intermediate sprint.
Today’s third and final stage in Israel sees the peloton ride from Be’er Sheva to Eilat on the Red Sea.