Chris Froome (Team Sky) started stage 19 of the Giro d’Italia 3m22s behind. He finished it 40s ahead following an audacious and successful solo attack with 80km and near enough three climbs to go.
The 185km stage from Venaria Reale to Bardonecchia brought the Cima Coppi, the Giro’s highest climb, in the form of the Colle delle Finestre. Its gravel roads were followed by a climb to Sestriere and then a summit finish on the Jafferau.
Race leader Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott), who had shown signs of weakness the day before, was dropped from the front group early on the first of those three and saw his hopes of winning this race evaporate in no time.
Pretty soon he had lost minutes and the story switched to Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb) and Froome, who attacked his rivals a little further up the climb.
FROOME ATTACKS!!
There’s still 80km remaining but the @TeamSky man is gunning it #Giro101 pic.twitter.com/VsnxU7Ukr4
— Eurosport UK (@Eurosport_UK) May 25, 2018
The Team Sky rider reached the summit alone, 42s ahead of the chasing Dumoulin group.
He then increased his advantage on the subsequent descent, despite at one point having to manoeuvre round a fallen race motorbike in a tunnel.
Wow! @chrisfroome descended from the Colle delle Finestre at an astonishing speed on @giroditalia Stage 19
Chris Froome
– Time: 12’15”
– Speed: 53.4km/h
– Top speed: 80.1km/hTom Dumoulin
– Time: 13’05”
– Speed: 49.6km/h
– Top speed: 75.1km/h#FeelTheBurn #Giro101 pic.twitter.com/8VTlZ59DyK— Velon CC (@VelonCC) May 25, 2018
On the climb to Sestriere, the gap continued to grow – but come the Jafferau, it was largely about holding on.
Dumoulin chased hard, but the effort showed in the final few hundred metres as Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) and the two riders vying for the young rider’s jersey, Richard Carapaz (Movistar) and Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana), sprinted away from him, denying him much-needed bonus seconds.
Froome took the stage, finishing three minutes ahead of second-placed Carapaz and 3m23s ahead of Dumoulin. Simon Yates finished 38m51s down in 79th place.
“I don’t think I’ve ever attacked with 80km to go before like that – on my own, and gone all the way to the finish,” said Froome afterwards.
“To go from fourth to first – I wasn’t going to do that on the last climb alone, so I had to try from far out and Colle delle Finestre was the perfect place to do it. Gravel roads, I guess, reminds me a bit of riding on the roads back in Africa. I just felt good and thought: ‘It’s now or never – I have to try.’”
“Chris Froome … knockout performance!”
Incredibly, the @TeamSky moves into pink after a sensational ride #Giro101 pic.twitter.com/AP5fdQsyiD
— Eurosport UK (@Eurosport_UK) May 25, 2018
30 thoughts on “Giro d’Italia Stage 19: Chris Froome vaults into overall lead as Simon Yates implodes (+ videos)”
Here we go…..
Here we go…..
its already gone
its already gone
Watched on Equipe Channel
Watched on Equipe Channel here in France – French already moaning …
Champion performance,
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.
Loved that. Most impressive
Loved that. Most impressive ride I’ve ever seen in pro racing. Chapeau.
700c wrote:
You’ve not been watching cycling for very long then.
Ken Alog wrote:
You’ve not been watching cycling for very long then.— 700c
Since about 2008.
700c wrote:
You’ve not been watching cycling for very long then.
— Ken Alog Since about 2008.— 700c
Not very long then.
Ken Alog wrote:
Welcome to the forum. What would you class as more impressive?
I watched plenty of tdf’s prior to the noughties but don’t count watching one GT per year as serious viewing. Until I got satellite tv there wasn’t much coverage to watch.. you?
700c wrote:
You’ve not been watching cycling for very long then.
— Ken Alog Since about 2008.— 700c
Not very long then.
— Ken Alog Welcome to the forum. What would you class as more impressive? I watched plenty of tdf’s prior to the noughties but don’t count watching one GT per year as serious viewing. Until I got satellite tv there wasn’t much coverage to watch.. you?— 700c
I’m 47. I’ve been following cycling since I was 10. First visit to the TDF was in ’81 (stage 8 on the way to Nantes – Hinault won that year). My old man got me into cycling and I ended up competing from my mid teens onwards. You’ve chosen the wrong poster to take on 😉
If you read up on your cycling history you’ll know that there have been many, many more impressive rides than that of the Kenyan today and of those NONE come close to Hinault’s Liege-Batogne-Liege of 1980. Froome would have died.
Ken Alog wrote:
Welcome to the forum. What would you class as more impressive? I watched plenty of tdf’s prior to the noughties but don’t count watching one GT per year as serious viewing. Until I got satellite tv there wasn’t much coverage to watch.. you?— Ken Alog
I’m 47. I’ve been following cycling since I was 10. First visit to the TDF was in ’81 (stage 8 on the way to Nantes – Hinault won that year). My old man got me into cycling and I ended up competing from my mid teens onwards. You’ve chosen the wrong poster to take on 😉
If you read up on your cycling history you’ll know that there have been many, many more impressive rides than that of the Kenyan today and of those NONE come close to Hinault’s Liege-Batogne-Liege of 1980. Froome would have died.— 700c
What a sad, pompous, racist, troll prick you are!
With any luck you wont see 48.
“You’ve chosen the wrong poster to take on”
Ken Alog wrote:
You’re ‘ard
Ken Alog wrote:
you’ve chosen an example from 38 years ago, (and yes, I was alive then!) so perhaps the most impressive ride of the modern era then?
700c wrote:
You missed the Classics over the last few years then ?
dreamlx10 wrote:
You missed the Classics over the last few years then ?— 700c
errrr….what classics race beats that effort? Thats like comparing the 400m to the marathon.
dreamlx10 wrote:
You missed the Classics over the last few years then ?— 700c
Nope. Seen them, and love them, but they’re one day events. This surpasses Gilbert’s recent 50km breakaway effort to win for example. Remember how high they’re climbing in the Giro and how many miles they’ve already got in the legs.
700c wrote:
You missed the Classics over the last few years then ?
— dreamlx10 Nope. Seen them, and love them, but they’re one day events. This surpasses Gilbert’s recent 50km breakaway effort to win for example. Remember how high they’re climbing in the Giro and how many miles they’ve already got in the legs.— 700c
I don’t think that Gilbert has asthma though
That was incredible…
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.
That was mesmerising, such a
That was mesmerising, such a brilliant and ballsy effort! I think I’ve actually become a Froome fan during the course of this race!
Fantastic, brilliant racing.
Fantastic, brilliant racing. This Giro has been the best race for ages, so unpredictable. More of the same please.
It’s a pity this will all be
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.
“Look Chris, I’ve found your
“Look Chris, I’ve found your inhaler !”
Guess after all this Yates
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.
Yorkshire wallet wrote:
Yes, last time was Nibali 😉 and before that Landis 😉 which explains why we don’t see it very often
Think Yates must be ill. The
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).
Some surprising comments on
Some surprising comments on here this evening. The comparison with the US Postal riders is disappointing.
Hinault was probably doping
Hinault was probably doping so it’s all much of a muchness.
All things considered, that
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.
I recenty saw an article
I recenty saw an article about people who ‘troll’ themselves.
Doped To The Gills.
Doped To The Gills.