Giro d'Italia: Simon Yates keeps lead after time trial
- From the section Cycling
Simon Yates will go into the final five days of the Giro d'Italia as clear favourite after surviving Tuesday's time trial with a 56-second lead.
On a day when Australia's Rohan Dennis took the stage win, Yates finished the 34.2km course in 22nd place.
That was 97 seconds down on Dennis, but more importantly only 75 off reigning champion Tom Dumoulin in third.
Yates had begun Tuesday 2mins 11secs ahead of Dumoulin and will be delighted to have held on to so much time.
Dumoulin was 21 seconds up on Yates at the first time-check, 12km in, and had extended that to 48 seconds at 24km.
The world time-trial champion had won the Giro a year ago in large part through his dominant form against the clock and would have hoped to take much more out of Yates, who has struggled in time trials in the past.
But Yates had come home seventh in the short opening time trial on the first day of this Giro in Jerusalem and his hard work over the winter on his aero position paid off when he needed it most.
There was a solid ride from Chris Froome, the Briton 35 seconds down on stage winner Dennis to move back up to fourth on the general classification, 3mins 50secs behind Yates.
Italy's Domenico Pozzovivo is in third, with France's Thibaut Pinot the big loser after a disastrous performance saw him cross the line over three minutes behind Dennis' time.
But it was Yates' day, the 25-year-old having only one worrying moment when he took the wrong line through a late corner, losing a few seconds but no more.
No Briton has ever won the Giro and with three mountain stages to come on Thursday, Friday and Saturday before the race finishes in Rome on Sunday, there is still scope for his rivals to attack - and terrain to test his nerve.
But the rider from Bury, near Manchester, has been in peerless form in the mountains across the first two and a half weeks and will know that he has history in his sights.
