Simon Yates is a Briton that cycling people like because he doesn't hide. And today's finish line, located on top of the Zoncolan, at the foot of which stands nothing less than the "gateway to hell", is coveted by the pink jersey: to enter history but more simply to detach the rivals who are hounding him at shoulders. “I don't know Zoncolan, but I know it's a legendary climb. I don't expect huge gaps. However I will try to attack and I would like to just get to the top. The opponents? They all scare me but I fear Dumoulin because of the favorable time trial. The last week will be very tough".
Yates doesn't like doing pre-tacticals and he didn't even do it yesterday at the end of the Nervesa stage, all flat and quiet -, which saw Elia Viviani, always in the cyclamen jersey, hit a splendid three of a kind - talking about today's stage, 4 thousand meters in altitude with the arrival on the mountain, considered the hardest of all, more than the Spanish Angliru, much more than the legendary climb to Alpe d'Huez. Ever since he's been in the pink jersey, since the day on Etna, the Briton has told everyone he's here to win the Giro, and he wants to win it in his own way, by attacking and winning. And he kept his word, becoming the great protagonist of the race. Winning two stages in the pink jersey is a feat that only the greats have done in the past. Yates has all the cards to make the Zoncolan three of a kind, a more than convincing test for his ambitions.
The leader of Mitchelton-Scott knows he has to pull away from a tough customer like Tom Dumoulin because he fears that in Tuesday's Trento time trial the Dutchman, a formidable time trialist, could not only close the gap of just 47" that separates him but also come back in pink knit. That's why today Yates wants to beat and distance Dumoulin without ever losing sight of Pinot, Pozzovivo and Carapaz, the other three rivals who make up the current top five of the Giro, enclosed in less than two minutes. Stage with four thousand meters in altitude to be climbed in 186 km, the Zoncolan, from the side of Ovaro, in the last 10 km has an average gradient of 11,9% with terrible peaks up to 22%, so vertical as to risk canceling often the differences. If Vince Yates would put a serious mortgage on the Giro as Gilberto Simoni (2003) and Ivan Basso (2010) did in the past. In the other three times that the pink race got up there, in 2007 Simoni won again but the Girò ended up in the hands of Danilo Di Luca, in 2011 – Giro to Michele Scarponi after Contador's disqualification – Zoncolan's eagle was Igor Anton. The last time the tadpoles climbed the Friulian giant was in 2014 (final victory for Nairo Quintana) with the victorious solo by Michael Rogers, author of a long-distance escape.
And Froome and Aru, where have they gone? Two weeks ago, when the Giro was preparing to depart from Jerusalem, few would have imagined not seeing them protagonists on the eve of a key stage like that of the Zoncolan, almost ignored by now in the forecasts, both the white Kenyan and the knight of the four Moors, two shadows running up to here, always out of every important action, often detached from Yates but also from Dumoulin, Pinot, Pozzovivo. For the master of the Tour and the champion of Italy, Zoncolan is the last call. If they don't even respond today, it's really game over for them.
