Froome soars, Yates cracks and Dumoulin misses his chance in pink
Chris Froome (Team Sky) (Image credit: Bettini Photo)
The third week of a Grand Tour always holds the possibility of big changes to the GC, but rarely has a rider succeeded in turning around his chances like Chris Froome.
The Team Sky rider attacked during stage 19 with 80 kilometres and three climbs to go, being launched by teammate Kenny Elissonde on the Colle delle Finestre. The acceleration shot a struggling race leader Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) out the back, putting Froome quickly into a podium position as Yates tumbled down the virtual rankings. So too went Domenico Pozzovivo (Bahrain-Merida), whose aspirations to land a Grand Tour podium went out the window.
Froome then got to work clawing back his deficit to Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb), and midway up the final climb, with the Dutchman getting help only from Thibaut Pinot and his Groupama-FDJ teammate Sebastian Reichenbach, the time gap swung into Froome's favour.
In the end, Froome turned a three-minute deficit into a 40-second lead over Dumoulin, with Pinot a distant 4:17 back in third.
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