In the short but hard Stage 14 of the 2022 Giro d’Italia, Simon Yates excelled on the three repeat climbs of Supergà and Maddalena to eventually ride away to a solo win in the capital of Piedmont. Yates bounced back from disappointment at Blockhaus, where a knee injury put an end to his dream of winning the Giro d’Italia. Jai Hindley and Richard Carapaz sprinted for second and third place.
Speaking in the press conference, Yates said: “There was really a fight for the overall and I was a passenger, looking for a stage win. I had to play to it my advantage. There were three guys stronger than me on the climb, I had to choose my moment to attack and I did that well. I’ve had a knee problem and it’s still not 100% resolved. 90% of my riding uphill is out of the saddle and I wasn’t able to push that way on the pedals. In the past few days, I’ve been thinking of pulling out of the Giro. Today I feel like I’m back to where I wanted to be. It’s a pity I can’t fight for the overall victory anymore. This win gives me morale back, maybe I can fight for some other stages.”
Carapaz is back in the lead of the Corsa Rosa, three years after having won it, as he dethroned Juan Pedro Lopez, who fought hard to limit the damage after ten days in the lead of the overall ranking. Hindley is only seven seconds down on GC, with best young rider João Almeida sitting third with a deficit of thirty seconds. Tom Dumoulin, the winner of the Giro100 in 2017, has called it a race.
Carapaz said: “It’s been a pretty hard day. Bora-Hansgrohe rode aggressively in a downhill and some of my team-mates got stuck behind. Tomorrow it’ll be a very different race with much more mountains. We’ll have to defend. Compare to when I first took the Maglia Rosa three years ago, I have more experience and a team that supports me. The last week will be very competitive and pretty complicated.”
2022 Giro d’Italia – Stage 14 Brief Results
- Simon Yates (Team BikeExchange-Jayco) – 147km in 3h’43’44″, average speed 39.422 km/h
- Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) at 15”
- Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) s.t.
General Classification After Stage 14
- Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers)
- Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) at 7″
- João Pedro Almeida Gonçalves (UAE Team Emirates) at 30″
Jerseys:
- Maglia Rosa, leader of the General Classification, sponsored by Enel – Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers)
- Maglia Ciclamino, leader of the Points Classification, dedicated to ‘Made in Italy’ – Arnaud Démare (Groupama-FDJ)
- Maglia Azzurra, leader of the Gran Premio della Montagna (KOM), sponsored by Banca Mediolanum – Diego Rosa (Eolo-Kometa Cycling Team)
- Maglia Bianca, Best Young Rider, sponsored by Intimissimi Uomo – João Pedro Almeida Gonçalves (UAE Team Emirates)
Tomorrow’s Stage – Rivarolo Canavese – Cogne, 178km
A colossal Alpine stage across the Aosta Valley. Initially, the route runs through the Canavese and the Dora Baltea valley, all the way to Aosta. The stage course then takes in three long consecutive ascents to Pila, Verrogne and Cogne. At over 10km each, these climbs are on wide and well-paved roads, with a number of hairpins in-between. Each is followed by a fast-running descent, with the same features. At over 22km, the sharp closing climb eventually becomes a long false-flat, all the way to the finish.
Over the last 4km, from the centre of Cogne (with a short stretch of flagstone) all the way to the finish, the gradient hovers around 2.5% (kicking up a little just outside Cogne). The home straight is 300m long.
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