Simon Yates wins Tour of the Alps

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Simon Yates (Team BikeExchange) calmly weathered a potentially hazardous final day to seal the overall title at the Tour of the Alps, as Felix Grossschartner (Bora-Hansgrohe) clinched the stage win.

Among a 16-rider breakaway on the short and hilly 120.9km finale was Dan Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation), who had slipped to 14th overall but was still dangerous at four minutes on GC, and Yates’ teammates worked hard to keep the race under control on the two laps of the Riva del Garda finishing circuit.

Grossschartner survived the selection in the break on the first ascent of the circuit’s climb, the Lago di Tenno, before attacking and going solo on the second. He safely negotiated the 10km descent back into Riva del Garda and crossed the line 40 seconds clear.

His former breakaway companions Nicolas Roche (Team DSM) and Alessandro De Marchi (Israel Start-Up Nation) just managed to hang on to take second and third places, respectively, as Gianni Moscon (Ineos Grenadiers) led home the reduced bunch a few seconds later.

Yates, who didn’t face any serious attacks on the final climb, was safely in there to claim the third stage race victory of his career, boosting his status ahead of the Giro d’Italia.

“It feels really fantastic,” he said. “The team did a great job today, controlled it at the start, rode all day, then in final they were fantastic.

“It was a short day and there wasn’t so much action from the GC but it was still a hard day, with a lot of stress, and with a descent to the finish it’s always nervous.”

With Yates already around a minute clear, Pello Bilbao (Bahrain McLaren) and Alexandr Vlasov (Astana-Premier Tech) were content to seal their overall podium positions. There were only minor changes in the top 10, as Jefferson Cepeda (Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec) and Pavel Sivakov (Ineos Grenadiers) finished seven seconds behind the GC group. Cepeda held on to fourth overall but Sivakov dropped out of the top five to the favour of Hugh Carthy (EF Education-Nippo).

How it unfolded

The short final stage took in the first-category Passo Duron in the first 40km before heading to Riva del Garda and two laps of the 22km finishing circuit, that was essentially an ascent then descent of the Lago di Tenno climb.

The 16-rider breakaway started to form after 25 kilometres on the early, draggy roads, with eight going clear and eight joining several kilometres later.

Grossscharter, Martin, De Marchi, and Roche were in the initial move, along with Tony Gallopin (AG2R Citroën), Michael Storer (Team DSM), Tejay van Garderen (EF Education-Nippo) and Vadim Pronskiy (Astana-Premier Tech).

Ahead of the Duron, they were joined by Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ), Ivan Sosa (Ineos Grenadiers), Matteo Fabbro (Bora-Hansgrohe), Hermann Pernsteiner (Bahrain Victorious), François Bidard (AG2R Citroën), Nick Schultz (BikeExchange) Julen Amezqueta (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), and Georg Steinhauser (Tirol-KTM).

By the top of the climb, where De Marchi took the points to take and seal the King of the Mountains jersey, the gap back to the peloton was just 2:25. Yates’ teammates were keeping a lid on things, and they continued the charge on the subsequent uphill section ahead of the descent into Riva del Garda.

By the time the breakaway crossed the finish line for the first time with 22km to go, the gap was down to 90 seconds. In town, that front group split up, with Martin dropped as Grossschartner, Pinot, Roche, De Marchi, Gallopin, Amezqueta, and Steinhauser pressed ahead.

They took their advantage out to two minutes as BikeExchange sat back, but Trek-Segafredo took up the chase on the first climb of Lago di Tenno and by the top it was back down to 1:10. Trek were looking to launch Gianluca Brambilla, who attacked on the descent and almost crashed as he took every risk going. However, after finding Martin, the pair were brought back by the bottom.

The seven leaders crossed the line for the bell lap with a lead of one minute, but they didn’t stay together long. As Storer, who had mounted a brave chase, fought to get back on and Grossschartner quickly upped the pace as the climb began. After fragmenting the group he put in another acceleration and was quickly and cleanly away.

Roche and De Marchi emerged as a chasing duo but the Austrian calmly opened a 45-second lead on the climb. Back in the bunch, a crash in the middle of the reduced group disrupted their early progress, but Yates’ men set about dictating a steady tempo all the way up.

The only attacks came a couple of kilometres from the top, but they were short lived, with Alejandro Osorio (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) and Nairo Quintana (Arkéa-Samsic) quickly brought to heel.

Grossschartner crested the climb with a lead of 45 seconds over Roche and De Marchi, and 1:15 over the bunch. He held his own on the descent and the flatter final couple of kilometres were merely a procession. The bunch made up ground on the run-in but Roche and De Marchi gamely clung on to walk away with podium placings.

“It was planned since we messed up a bit on the second stage,” said Grossschartner. “I said ‘I don’t care, I try every day’. I was second on the third stage so I’m super happy today I can take the victory for the team.

“It’s always great to win, every pro cyclist knows it’s really hard to win a race when there are 160 guys fighting for the victory. It’s always special.”