Chris Froome (Team Sky) powered back following his early struggles in the Giro d’Italia by winning the prestigious 14th stage to the summit of Monte Zoncolan on Saturday.
The four-time Tour de France winner won the stage following a battle with fellow Briton Simon Yates who finished second and holds the overall leader’s pink jersey.
Yates finished six seconds behind Froome after a thrilling battle on the final 10km climb with a 11.9 percent gradient, reputedly one of the toughest in Europe.
Defending champion Tom Dumoulin now trails Yates by 1 min 24 sec in the overall standings.
It was the first stage win on the Giro for 32-year-old Froome, but he remains 3min 10sec behind Yates in the overall standings.
”We’ll take it day by day, it’s not over yet,” said Froome, who is trying to become the third person to win three Grand Tours in a row.
Froome crashed in training before the opening time trial, lost time in a split on stage four and injured himself again in a second crash last Saturday.
”It was a very important attack, also for the morale,” Froome said in Italian. ”It was a very important moment for this Giro. A very famous climb, with a great story. For that reason it was a very strong motive for me to try to win here.
”When I fell in Jerusalem, it’s always difficult to recover after a fall like that. I didn’t feel normal so I’m very happy to win today.”
Sunday’s 15th stage is another grueling leg through the Dolomite Range, with the riders almost continuously climbing and descending on the 176-kilometer route from Tolmezzo to Sappada.
Giro d’Italia 2018 – stage 14 results (San Vito al Tagliamento – Monte Zoncolan):
| 1 | Chris Froome (Team Sky) | 5:25:31 |
| 2 | Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) | +06” |
| 3 | Domenico Pozzovivo (Bahrain-Merida) | +23” |
| 4 | Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) | +25” |
| 5 | Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) | +37” |
| 6 | Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) | +42” |
| 7 | Wout Poels (Team Sky) | +01’07” |
| 8 | Sébastien Reichenbach (Groupama-FDJ) | +01’19” |
| 9 | Pello Bilbao (Astana) | +01’35” |
| 10 | Michael Woods (EF Education First-Drapac) | +01’43” |
| 11 | Patrick Konrad (Bora-hansgrohe) | +01’48” |
| 12 | George Bennett (LottoNL-Jumbo) | +01’55” |
| 13 | Richard Carapaz (Movistar) | +02’00” |
| 14 | Carlos Betancur (Movistar) | +02’10” |
| 15 | Sam Oomen (Team Sunweb) | +02’17” |
| 16 | Ben O’Connor (Dimension Data) | ,, |
| 17 | Fabio Aru (UAE Team Emirates) | +02’23” |
| 18 | Davide Formolo (Bora-hansgrohe) | ,, |
| 19 | Rohan Dennis (BMC) | +02’35” |
| 20 | Giulio Ciccone (Bardiani-CSF) | +02’44” |
General classification after stage 14:
| 1 | Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) | 61:19:51 |
| 2 | Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) | +01’24” |
| 3 | Domenico Pozzovivo (Bahrain-Merida) | +01’37” |
| 4 | Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) | +01’46” |
| 5 | Chris Froome (Team Sky) | +03’10” |
| 6 | Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) | +03’42” |
| 7 | Richard Carapaz (Movistar) | +03’56” |
| 8 | George Bennett (LottoNL-Jumbo) | +04’04” |
| 9 | Pello Bilbao (Astana) | +04’29” |
| 10 | Patrick Konrad (Bora-hansgrohe) | +04’43” |
| 11 | Rohan Dennis (BMC) | +05’11” |
| 12 | Michael Woods (EF Education First-Drapac) | +05’26” |
| 13 | Fabio Aru (UAE Team Emirates) | +05’33” |
| 14 | Carlos Betancur (Movistar) | +05’39” |
| 15 | Ben O’Connor (Dimension Data) | +05’42” |
| 16 | Sam Oomen (Team Sunweb) | +05’57” |
| 17 | Alexandre Geniez (AG2R La Mondiale) | +07’30” |
| 18 | Wout Poels (Team Sky) | +07’56” |
| 19 | Davide Formolo (Bora-hansgrohe) | +08’26” |
| 20 | Sergio Henao (Team Sky) | +08’52” |
