In the evocative panorama of that miniature Tibet which is the Gran Sasso massif, the Giro has seen the collapse of hierarchies that have been consolidated for years. It was understood that a new wind was blowing strongly in this pink race since Etna with the triumph of the Chaves-Yates duo and the success in Montevergine of the Ecuadorian Carapaz in Montevergine.
But what happened at the 2135 meters of the mountain dedicated to the memory of Pantani – who won here in 1999 – is something never seen before, completely unimaginable on the eve of the Giro. What strikes and surprises is not so much the victorious exuberance of Simon Yates who with his pink jersey triumphed on top of the giant of the Apennines, sprinting Pinot and Chaves, openly applying to become the most convincing master of this Giro, but the disarming performance above all by Chris Froome even before Fabio Aru, as soon as the tussle broke out between the best in the last km of a grueling stage.
Lose this Yates' wheels, that's fine. The Englishman from Mitchelton is in amazing form, the ace taker who also conquered the blue jersey of leader of the climbers on the Gran Sasso. Not holding up those of another twenty or so runners who race ahead without a reaction and their legs to hook them up again, this is the solemn rejection decreed by Gran Sasso against the British and the Sardinian, who between delay and bonus to the winner of stage, they lost – respectively – 1'17” and 1'24” from Yates slipping out of the top ten.
The disadvantage in the standings rose to 2'27” for Froome and 2'36” for Aru. An already heavy gap that risks becoming unbridgeable, given the disastrous form of the master of the Tour and the Italian champion.
Therefore, the sequence of flops that characterizes the adventure of Team Sky at the Giro risks lengthening, a stage race that seems bewitched for the team that has always given the Tour of recent years the image of being a battleship, master of every moment of the race. The English team failed with Bradley Wiggins in 2013, he then changed horses aiming with no luck on Richie Porte, he presented himself last year with Landa and Thomas but a fall at the foot of the Block Haus compromised the fight for the final victory.
A real disaster: this year the decision to finally go to Italy with Froome had all the air of wanting to debunk this adverse tradition at all costs. Unfortunately for Team Sky Froome left Jerusalem already conditioned by the anti-doping procedure that hangs over his head with the risk of a heavy disqualification, then he also suffered bad luck with a series of crashes that also physically slowed down the Briton, who he saw his classification worsen from stage to stage.
Today on the rest day he will have time to reflect on what to do with this Giro which at the end of the week will face a much tougher and more difficult mountain than the Gran Sasso, the Zoncolan.
Complicating the continuation of the Giro for Froome and Aru is also the fact that ahead of them there are not only Yates and his teammate, Esteban Chaves, second in the standings at 32”. Tom Dumoulin remains in contention for the final victory, third at 38" after yesterday limiting the gap from the pink jersey to 12" by finishing together with Lopez.
The Dutchman is awaited by the terrible Zoncolan but he has the thirty time trial of about 34 km on his side where he will be able to make up for any lost ground. In fourth place is the Frenchman Thibaut Pinot, who doesn't let go and who goes fast uphill. Fifth at 57”, the only Italian in the top ten, is Domenico Pozzovivo who at the age of 35 is racing his best Giro d'Italia so much so that Yates considers him his most formidable rival: yesterday in the final tussle unleashed by Yates the Lucan climber from Policoro was was among the brightest to hold up the forcing of the British with Pinot and Chaves, finishing fourth at just 4" together with another protagonist of this part of the Giro, the Ecuadorian Ricard Carapaz, sixth in the standings at 1'20" and increasingly youth leader white jersey.
