Cycling-Yates wins stage 19 on Giro but Bernal hangs on to extend lead (updated)

Bikeexchange

28/05/2021 16:50

(Adds details, quotes)
    May 28 (Reuters) - Simon Yates of Team BikeExchange won
stage 19 of the Giro d'Italia on Friday, reducing the gap in the
general classification to leader Egan Bernal, who finished third
in the penultimate mountain stage to protect his overall
advantage.
    Yates finished 11 seconds ahead of Joao Almeida
(Deceuninck-QuickStep) in the 176-kilometre ride from
Abbiategrasso to Alpe di Mera while INEOS Grenadiers' Bernal was
28 seconds behind to retain the Maglia Rosa.
    Yates launched a solo attack with about 6.5 kilometres to go
and left Almeida and Bernal behind to take victory on the climb,
giving him an opportunity to finish second in the general
classification over the weekend.
    "I'm really happy, the team did a great job right from the
start of the stage, a fantastic team effort and I'm happy to
have finished it off. I really wanted to win a stage in this
Giro," Yates said.
    "I saw the boys from INEOS happy to ride a tempo from
behind, I had a feeling they would let me go today. I read
something from Egan on Twitter about how they would be more
conservative rather than control and try to go with me.
    "I had a feeling they would let me go and as soon as I
attacked, I saw that was correct and I tried to ride full gas,
and that was it."
    Damiano Caruso (Bahrain Victorious) finished four seconds
behind Bernal but retains second place on the general
classification ahead of Yates in third.
    Bernal is 2:29 ahead of Caruso and 2:49 ahead of Yates
heading into Saturday's stage 20, a 163-kilometre ride from
Valle Spluga to Alpe Motta.
    "I'm happy with my climb. Of course, Yates was the best
today," Bernal said.
    "Today felt good and tomorrow, with the altitude, I hope to
have the same feelings as today and try to manage the gap that I
have with the two guys on the podium. I hope I will be in pink
after tomorrow too."

 (Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru;
Editing by Toby Davis)
 ((Rohith.Nair@thomsonreuters.com;))