Yates and Dumoulin target Giro
Vuelta a España winner Simon Yates will return to the Giro d’italia in 2019, aiming to put memories of this year’s race behind him and “finish the job off”.
The 26-year-old spent a full 13 days in the pink jersey, putting in a succession of dominant performances. However, after entering stage 18 with a 28-second lead over Tom Dumoulin, when Chris Froome put in a momentous attack to win the following day, Yates dropped back and lost 38 minutes.
Since then, the Mitchelton-scott rider from Bury has gone on to claim victory of the Vuelta, and fully intends to carry the lessons learned into the Italian race in 2019.
“The Giro is a race I have great memories of from this year but it was one which also left a bitter taste in my mouth, so I want to go back to try to finish the job off,” Yates said.
“I’m already working hard to arrive in great shape and I can’t wait for the season to begin.”
The 2019 Giro route boasts seven summit finishes, plus three individual time trials. Yates acknowledged the three TTS “are not ideal” for him but said he wanted to try anyway.
Those TTS are, however, ideal for Dutchman Tom Dumoulin, who also said this week he’ll be targeting the Italian race.
“After weeks of talking about it, we finally decided the main focus will be the Giro d’italia in 2019,” Dumoulin said.
“For a long time we had the Tour de France in our head but the Giro d’italia is such a nice course the coming year.”