Simon Yates wins uphill finish at Gran Sasso d'Italia

Chris Froome cracks and loses over a minute in the final kilometres

The second consecutive summit finish awaited the peloton in stage 9 of the Corsa Rosa today. More than 220km from Pesco Sannita up to the mount Gran Sasso d´Italia, (category one), was on today´s menu. The first 100km took the riders from Benevento to Rionero on flat roads before they had to tackle the first climb of the day, Roccaraso, followed by a long descent to the city of Popoli. After two intermediate sprints the riders had to face the 45km long ascent up to the finish. The final climb was divided into two parts, the first was Calascio, the second one up to the famous Gran Sasso d´Italia. The ramps were steep over the final 7km and reached 2.000m in altitude, with gradients topping out at 13%. 

The snow covered mountain top finish produced some real drama with a backdrop of snow up 15 feet deep at the side of the road.

The breakaway was all swallowed up with 3 kms to go and it came down to a group of less than 10 riders battling it out for the stage win.

Pinot, Lopez, Pozzovivo, Ciccone all attacked as Dumoulin, Chaves,Yates and Bennet all followed wheels.

Chris Froome cracked and started loosing time, Sergio Henao dropping back to bring him back but it was too late.

Ciccone attacked again but with less than 200m to go it was the Pink Jersey of Simon Yates who put in the final attack and no one could come round him.

Just behind it was Chaves, Dumoulin, Pinot, Pozzovivo and Bennett, Carapaz and Lopez who all crossed the line.

Simon Yates said afterwards "That one was actually for the guys who ran at the front all day, they've had a couple of tough days, always riding on the front on very long stages and this is for those guys."

Yates was prepared for taking the victory at the climb of the Gran Sasso d'Italia. "From the beginning of the stage today we thought that if we kept the breakaway close enough there might be a possibility for the stage," the Briton explained. "Once Astana also showed some interest on the stage, I thought it was possible. You never know deep in the final."

The last climb left Fabio Aru and Chris Froome behind, both losing more than a minute at the end of the day. "It was a very difficult day, it could have been a bad day (for them). I don't know. Maybe Chris is affected by the crashes," Yates said.

VIDEO: 2018 Giro d'Italia Stage 9 Highlights

2018 Giro d'Italia Stage 9 Top 10

1 Simon Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott 5:54:13 
2 Thibaut Pinot (Fra) Groupama-FDJ   
3 Esteban Chaves (Col) Mitchelton-Scott   
4 Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) Bahrain-Merida 0:00:04 
5 Richard Carapaz (Ecu) Movistar Team   
6 Davide Formolo (Ita) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:00:10 
7 George Bennett (NZl) LottoNL-Jumbo 0:00:12 
8 Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Sunweb   
9 Miguel Angel Lopez (Col) Astana Pro Team   
10 Giulio Ciccone (Ita) Bardiani CSF 0:00:24

2018 Giro d'Italia GC after Stage 9

1 Simon Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott 37:37:15 
2 Esteban Chaves (Col) Mitchelton-Scott 0:00:32 
3 Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Sunweb 0:00:38 
4 Thibaut Pinot (Fra) Groupama-FDJ 0:00:45 
5 Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) Bahrain-Merida 0:00:57 
6 Richard Carapaz (Ecu) Movistar Team 0:01:20 
7 George Bennett (NZl) LottoNL-Jumbo 0:01:33 
8 Rohan Dennis (Aus) BMC Racing Team 0:02:05 
9 Pello Bilbao (Spa) Astana Pro Team   
10 Michael Woods (Can) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale 0:02:25