Visma | Lease a Bike stayed calm as Simon Yates showed signs of cracking, teammates right where they needed to be

Van Aert’s comments to Sporza made perfect sense. The Giro had barely touched any long climbs so far, and time trials have never been Simon Yates’ strongest suit. But the 2018 Vuelta winner has been spinning the pedals with ease, and the team looked ahead to a tricky stage with growing confidence. The key test came on the Alpe San Pellegrino climb, around 90 kilometers into the stage, where the GC contenders had a chance to stretch their legs.

Yates slipped to the back of the group when Egan Bernal upped the pace, but he was never truly dropped. “Simon said over the radio early on that he was riding his own tempo, because the pace at the front kept surging and easing up. He figured he’d be fine riding steady, and when the pace settled again in the final 1.5 kilometers, he slotted back in quite comfortably,” explained sports director Marc Reef in an interview with IDLProCycling.com.

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“It was a solid day for us,” said Marc Reef with a touch of understatement in a team press release. Visma | Lease a Bike’s climbing unit played a key role. “Bart, Steven and Wilco (Lemmen, Kruijswijk and Kelderman) were all in the breakaway. That gave us coverage for different scenarios. One of those was an attack on the San Pellegrino. In the end we had four riders among the best thirty.”

It was a tactical move that paid off. “The goal was to get Wilco, Steven and Bart over the first big climb with Simon so he would still have support later in the stage. They executed that plan perfectly. Bart and Wilco stayed with him until the final climb and dropped him off in a good position. From there it was up to Simon.” Yates delivered, finishing 15th on the stage and holding on to fourth overall. He now sits just 1:09 behind race leader Isaac Del Toro.

If all goes to plan, Yates should be able to defend his strong GC position in the coming days. The Giro now moves through central Italy with chances mainly for sprinters and strong finishers. The big mountain stages arrive in week three, where Yates will go head-to-head with a tightly packed top ten. Tenth-placed Thymen Arensman is still only 2:33 behind the pink jersey.

Bram van der Ploeg (Twitter: @BvdPloegg | email: [email protected])