Matej Mohoric (Bahrain-Merida) beat Nico Denz (AG2R La Mondiale) in a two-man sprint finish to win the 10th stage of the Giro d’Italia on Tuesday as Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) maintained his grip on the overall race lead.
Yates’s team-mate Esteban Chaves had a disastrous day as he was distanced on the opening climb of the 244km stage from Penne to Gualdo Tadino and lost more than 25 minutes to drop out of overall contention having started the day second at 32sec.
Going into Tuesday’s stage they were in the enviable position of occupying the top two positions in the overall standings, meaning tactically they would be able to play two cards in the pink jersey race and increase the pressure on their rivals.
But once Chaves was distanced, the teams of overall hopefuls including Chris Froome, reigning champion Tom Dumoulin, Fabio Aru and Thibaut Pinot, pushed the pace in the peloton to ensure the Colombian never regained contact.
Yates now leads by 41 seconds from Dumoulin with Pinot third at 46sec. Froome, who crashed twice during the first week, is up to 10th at 2:30.
The fast pace set by the peloton meant that an initial 17-man breakaway was swallowed up with still 150km to ride.
Solo attempts by Tony Martin and Marco Frapporti proved futile until finally a late escape by Mohoric and Denz stuck. Their sprint to the line was fiercly contested but Mohoric had the strength to prevail. Sam Bennett won the sprint for third 36sec later.
Giro d’Italia 2018 – stage 10 results (Penne – Gualdo Tadino):
| 1 | Matej Mohoric (Slo) Bahrain-Merida | 6:04:52 |
| 2 | Nico Denz (AG2R La Mondiale) | ,, |
| 3 | Sam Bennett (Bora-hansgrohe) | +34” |
| 4 | Enrico Battaglin (LottoNL-Jumbo) | ,, |
| 5 | Davide Ballerini (Androni-Sidermec-Bottecchia) | ,, |
| 6 | Mads Würtz Schmidt (Katusha-Alpecin) | ,, |
| 7 | Francesco Gavazzi (Androni-Sidermec-Bottecchia) | ,, |
| 8 | Jarlinson Pantano (Trek-Segafredo) | ,, |
| 9 | Gianluca Brambilla (Trek-Segafredo) | ,, |
| 10 | José Gonçalves (Katusha-Alpecin) | ,, |
| 11 | Benjamin King (Dimension Data) | ,, |
| 12 | Matteo Montaguti (AG2R La Mondiale) | ,, |
| 13 | Giovanni Visconti (Bahrain-Merida) | ,, |
| 14 | Alessandro Tonelli (Bardiani-CSF) | ,, |
| 15 | Chris Froome (Team Sky) | ,, |
| 16 | Richard Carapaz (Movistar) | ,, |
| 17 | Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) | ,, |
| 18 | Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) | ,, |
| 19 | Domenico Pozzovivo (Bahrain-Merida) | ,, |
| 20 | George Bennett (LottoNL-Jumbo) | ,, |
General classification after stage 10:
| 1 | Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) | 43:42:38 |
| 2 | Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) | +41” |
| 3 | Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) | +46” |
| 4 | Domenico Pozzovivo (Bahrain-Merida) | +01’00” |
| 5 | Richard Carapaz (Movistar) | +01’23” |
| 6 | George Bennett (LottoNL-Jumbo) | +01’36” |
| 7 | Rohan Dennis (BMC) | +02’08” |
| 8 | Pello Bilbao (Astana) | ,, |
| 9 | Michael Woods (EF Education First-Drapac) | +02’28” |
| 10 | Chris Froome (Team Sky) | +02’30” |
| 11 | Patrick Konrad (Bora-hansgrohe) | +02’37” |
| 12 | Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) | ,, |
| 13 | Ben O’Connor (Dimension Data) | +02’39” |
| 14 | Fabio Aru (UAE Team Emirates) | ,, |
| 15 | Carlos Betancur (Movistar) | +02’49” |
| 16 | Sam Oomen (Team Sunweb) | +02’57” |
| 17 | Sergio Henao (Team Sky) | +03’17” |
| 18 | Maximilian Schachmann (Quick-Step Floors) | +03’40” |
| 19 | Alexandre Geniez (AG2R La Mondiale) | +04’15” |
| 20 | Jose Goncalves (Katusha-Alpecin) | +04’35” |
