Simon Yates leaked more time to his GC rivals after a disappointing stage 13 at the Giro d’Italia, but Mitchelton-Scott chief Matt White insists his challenge is not yet over.
The Vuelta champion rolled home five minutes down on the victor after struggling to go with attacks on the earlier slopes of the final climb to the finish.
“It’s obviously not the result we wanted today, but Lucas had an incredible ride supporting Simon. Simon had a bad moment and he couldn’t hold the wheel of a couple of different riders. He was with Lopez at one stage, so he just really struggled in the last few kilometres to the line,” Mitchelton-Scott directeur sportif Matt White said.
“It looked like he went from a really good place to struggling quite a lot on that final climb. It’s not the situation we planned on being in, but it is what it is and we’ll alter our tactics accordingly.”
“We’re not here to make excuses that’s for sure, at the end of the day Simon wasn’t good enough to follow those guys on the final climb.
“I’ll get his perception of what happened, but it certainly went from being very good to not so good in a short period of time.”
