Team Sky’s Chris Froome upended the general classification at the 2018 Giro d’Italia with an attack from 80km out to win Stage 19 at Bardonecchia. Froome now leads defending champion Tom Dumoulin, while Simon Yates has seemingly dropped out of contention for even a podium placing.
Froome attacked on the Colle delle Finestre with 80 kilometres left to ride and with race leader Yates of Mitchelton-Scott already seriously on the ropes.
Dutchman Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) joined Frenchman Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) in a select chasing group which trailed the lone leader by one minute going over the summit of the highest point of the race, with Yates completing the snow-capped gravel climb some 15 minutes in arrears.
Froome then extended his lead on the descent and over the climb to Sestriere before starting the final ascent of the Jafferau with a large enough gap to put him in the virtual pink jersey.
Despite a spirited chase from the tenacious Dumoulin, Froome, the four-time Tour de France champion, held on to win the stage by three minutes on second-place Richard Carapaz (Movistar).
Dumoulin was dropped by third-place Pinot in the final kilometre and finished behind Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) in fifth place, 3’23” down on the man of the moment.
A winner already on Monte Zoncolan, Froome now leads the Giro by 40 seconds on Dumoulin having moved from fourth place to first on a historic day for cycling.
To rub salt in Yates’s wounds, Froome also took over the lead in the maglia azzurra king of the mountains competition as Yates came home in the gruppetto more than half an hour in arrears.
Speaking seconds after the stage finish, the stage winner and race leader Chris Froome said: “I don’t think I’ve ever attacked 80km from the finish in my career so far, riding on my own and going all the way to the finish. The team did a fantastic job to set that up for me. First we had to get rid of Simon Yates and then to ride away from Tom Dumoulin. To go from fourth to first, I wasn’t going to do it on the last climb. Colle delle Finestre was the perfect place to do it. Gravelled roads remind me of Africa. There’s another hard day tomorrow but the legs are feeling better and better as the race goes on.”
Stage 19 Brief Results:
- Chris Froome (Team Sky) at 5h 12′ 26”
- Richard Carapaz (Movistar) at 3’00”
- Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) at 3’07”
- Miguel Ángel López (Astana) at 3’12”
- Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb) at 3’23”
General Classification After Stage 19:
- Chris Froome (Team Sky) at 80h 21′ 59”
- Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb) at 40″
- Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) at 4’57”