Giro d’Italia Stage 19: Chris Froome vaults into overall lead as Simon Yates implodes (+ videos)

Doped To The Gills.

I recenty saw an article about people who 'troll' themselves.  

All things considered,  that being 19 stages into a 21 stage tour, crash at the beginning, all the aggro over the TUE and venom chucked his way and that performance on the Zoncolan, to have your team set up as punishing a pace as possible and you then break the elastic with 80km to go is about as good as it gets.

Even if it had failed it wouldn't be egg on the face as someone said, it'd be well you tried and gave it a go instead of sitting in the pack settling for a podium as many top riders seem to do over the last few years. Everyone hails dirty bertie everytime he went off the front in his latters years despite being caught only a mile or so up the road (yeah there was that one time that didn't matter last year IIRC) but still he was cheered for giving it 'a real good go' as Kelly would say.

As I said earlier this week, Yates has literally come from nowhere, he hadn't done anything in almost 11 months to March this year and then has rattled off a few wins to then be a GT leader for how long, 12 days? That's impressive but I think overperformed to be honest.

He's still only 25 and has time to improve further. It is a bit crazy how much he dropped off though, I thought the Chaves time loss after his win was a bit mental but Yates lost THIRTY NINE minutes and finished 79th on the stage to drop to 18th overall, that's dropping off a cliff big time, wonder if he simply got his feeding wrong as well as maybe heavy legs/tiredness and even a small whiff of illness can have a huge effect at this level, he looked rough as furk at the interviews.

oh and on the HYS on the BBC website almost 600 comments, mostly supporting Froome, even on the Grauniad most are saying it's one of the best rides they've ever seen, usual detractors/haters.

Hinault was probably doping so it's all much of a muchness.

Some surprising comments on here this evening.  The comparison with the US Postal riders is disappointing. 

Think Yates must be ill. The same sort of implosion Chavez had so maybe there's a bug in MS. Gutted for him, also would rather anyone but Froome (just can't warm to him).

Guess after all this Yates brought 2 week legs to a 3 week race. Pity as I'd have liked a change of established winners.

Amazing work by Sky if this really was a strategic ploy all the time. I wonder if they estimate other riders work loads etc.?

Really annoyed I misses this live as you only see this sort of breakaway and change of fortune every so often in modern racing.

"Look Chris, I've found your inhaler !"

It's a pity this will all be taken off him with retrospective ban/DQ.

I reckon he's clean and, apart from some clumsy management of ventolin, has been clean his entire career (if shown evidence otherwise I'd change my mind).

But the elephant in the corner is the drugs case. He's bound to be sanctioned which means any victories will be expunged. Two stage wins are bad enough but a Giro overall? Total disaster for the sport.

Fantastic, brilliant racing. This Giro has been the best race for ages, so unpredictable. More of the same please.

That was mesmerising, such a brilliant and ballsy effort! I think I've actually become a Froome fan during the course of this race! 

That was incredible... however it really isn't as incredible as it may seem. He went from a huge distance out, but only because the race was in total bits. 

if there were still worker bees available then he either wouldn't have gone, or would have looked stupid as he was reeled ina nd dropped on Sestriere.

The race was on its knees, adn it was the champions left. That created the opportunity... Froome simply grabbed his balls and went 'all in' at a point which would either generate huge time gaps, or massive egg in his face.

Once it was man against man the gaps were always going to be huge and the result spectacular. 

I think Yates collapse is another huge example of what it takes to win 3 week races. He admitted to racing balls to the wall in the opening two weeks and coming in in hot form. His form ran dry, along with his matches two days from the finish.

I am sure that a little tweak in approach will make him a true grand tour contender. 

Loved that. Most impressive ride I've ever seen in pro racing. Chapeau.

Champion performance, understanding that measuring your effort whether it be over 10 miles, 100 miles or 21/22 stages is massively, massively important and he's judged it to perfection as you would expect no less from a team like SKY. 

Just like in the Vuelta where it seemed he was struggling he kidded about his form and the other protagnists failed to recognise he was still recovering from the TdF and Oympic games and didn't attack him when he was at his weakest at the start of the race. This effectively gave him time to recover. it's not all about the physical, it's about the mental, tactics, teamwork and guts and determination, this has never changed in sport in any era and it will always remain so.

Chapeau Froome-dog and team SKY.

Still, you never know what might happen, Dumoulin is only 40s down, could be a nailbiter all or nothing stage tomorrow.

Watched on Equipe Channel here in France - French already moaning ...

its already gone

Here we go.....