Froome bounces back on Monte Zoncolan as Yates extends Giro d’Italia lead

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Chris Froome wins on monte zoncolan giro 2018

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):

1Chris Froome (Team Sky)

5:25:31

2Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott)

+06”

3Domenico Pozzovivo (Bahrain-Merida)

+23”

4Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana)

+25”

5Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb)

+37”

6Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ)

+42”

7Wout Poels (Team Sky)

+01’07”

8Sébastien Reichenbach (Groupama-FDJ)

+01’19”

9Pello Bilbao (Astana)

+01’35”

10Michael Woods (EF Education First-Drapac)

+01’43”

11Patrick Konrad (Bora-hansgrohe)

+01’48”

12George Bennett (LottoNL-Jumbo)

+01’55”

13Richard Carapaz (Movistar)

+02’00”

14Carlos Betancur (Movistar)

+02’10”

15Sam Oomen (Team Sunweb)

+02’17”

16Ben O’Connor (Dimension Data)

,,

17Fabio Aru (UAE Team Emirates)

+02’23”

18Davide Formolo (Bora-hansgrohe)

,,

19Rohan Dennis (BMC)

+02’35”

20Giulio Ciccone (Bardiani-CSF)

+02’44”

 

General classification after stage 14:

1Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott)

61:19:51

2Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb)

+01’24”

3Domenico Pozzovivo (Bahrain-Merida)

+01’37”

4Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ)

+01’46”

5Chris Froome (Team Sky)

+03’10”

6Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana)

+03’42”

7Richard Carapaz (Movistar)

+03’56”

8George Bennett (LottoNL-Jumbo)

+04’04”

9Pello Bilbao (Astana)

+04’29”

10Patrick Konrad (Bora-hansgrohe)

+04’43”

11Rohan Dennis (BMC)

+05’11”

12Michael Woods (EF Education First-Drapac)

+05’26”

13Fabio Aru (UAE Team Emirates)

+05’33”

14Carlos Betancur (Movistar)

+05’39”

15Ben O’Connor (Dimension Data)

+05’42”

16Sam Oomen (Team Sunweb)

+05’57”

17Alexandre Geniez (AG2R La Mondiale)

+07’30”

18Wout Poels (Team Sky)

+07’56”

19Davide Formolo (Bora-hansgrohe)

+08’26”

20Sergio Henao (Team Sky)

+08’52”

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