It is indeed Simon Yates' Giro d'Italia. Yet another uphill finish, this time among the toughest in all of Europe, with the Zoncolan with its slopes even over 20%, yet another great performance by the British cyclist, who does not win but consolidates his leadership in the general classification. Yates is brilliant on the pedals, controls the stage in the best possible way but in the end, despite an attempt to comeback in the last kilometres, on the steep slopes of the Veneto mountain he has to bow to Chris Froome, who, however, recovers only a handful of seconds in the standings general.
In any case, a largely satisfactory balance for Yates, given that the other opponents remained detached: the Dutchman Tom Dumoulin collected another 37 seconds, while Fabio Aru went even worse, definitely in crisis also in this stage and by now resigned to a Giro d 'Italy disappointing. The Sardinian cyclist finished about 2 and a half minutes from Froome and therefore lost more than two minutes from the pink jersey Yates. Third in the stage classification is his teammate Domenico Pozzovivo, who holds the Italian flag high. Pozzovivo is now third in the general standings, where he overtook the French Pinot, who is only sixth today. Froome climbs back to fifth place, but is still more than 3 minutes behind the pink jersey, while Aru is thirteenth, almost 6 minutes behind. Dumoulin closest to Yates: 1'24” to recover, with the possibility of doing so in the time trial (if he doesn't lose more ground in the mountains)
