News: Simon Yates wins Tirreno-Adriatico

Former Vuelta a Espana winner Simon Yates has been crowned the 2020 Tirreno-Adriatico champion following the final stage time trial in San Benedetto del Tronto.

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News: Simon Yates wins Tirreno-Adriatico

Former Vuelta a Espana winner Simon Yates has been crowned the 2020 Tirreno-Adriatico champion following the final stage time trial in San Benedetto del Tronto. Yates entered the final 10km time trial with a 16-second advantage, before putting in a strong ride to secure the overall title, the second stage race victory of his career.

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The 10km flat course was perfectly built for the strong time trial specialists, with Filippo Ganna (INEOS Grenadiers) a class above the rest, finishing in a time of 10 minutes 42seconds.
The Italian was 18 seconds faster than his closest rival, Victor Campenaerts (NTT Pro Cycling), with world champion Rohan Dennis (INEOS Grenadiers) 26 seconds adrift.  Having led the race since his stage five victory, Yates began the final stage time trial dressed in blue, with a 16-second advantage from Rafal Majka (BORA-hansgrohe) and 39 seconds from Geraint Thomas (INEOS Grenadiers).

The 28-year-old maintained touch through the first intermediate checkpoint before stopping the clock in a time of 11 minutes 32seconds, 22 seconds slower than Thomas who moved up into second overall. Losing 13 seconds to Yates, Majka dropped down a position to settle for third overall.

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Simon Yates: “I am really happy, it’s my only stage race win outside the Vuelta and I’m just happy I could finish off the job of the team who did a fantastic job all week and today it was up to me. I had time gap updates, but I was still going full gas. You never know until the last moment so I just tried to go to the maximum possible and I’m happy I could pull it off.”

“I was really happy with the stage win, but to take the overall is really fantastic. I lost Tour de Romandie in a final time trial, so I really didn’t want to do the same again today so it was just full gas.”

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Geraint Thomas: “It was good, it felt like I did a good effort and judged it quite well. You always pick it apart a bit, and obviously I didn’t have another 17 seconds in me, but I definitely feel like I had a bit more in the tank. It’s really encouraging after eight days of racing, especially after the start of the 2020 season version 2.0. I feel a lot better now and it’s encouraging that I feel I could improve.”

“Obviously I never thought it was possible to get 40 seconds in 10km, but I’m happy with how that went. It’s just what I needed, eight really hard days of racing, time to rest up now and soak up that work. I feel like I’ve got a bit more to come as well so I’m really looking forward to a good October.”

Rafal Majka: “Honestly, I’m a little bit disappointed that I slipped down a place in the GC. After today’s stage I had hoped that I could do a little better. But I can still be satisfied with a podium place in the end. This race showed me that my form is really good again, as I was able to mix it up and be right up there on the most important mountain stages, taking a couple of podium places. That’s of course quite a good sign of things to come. The entire team performed well here and we are now fully motivated and are looking forward to taking on our next races.”

James Knox, who is in his third pro season, this was the best result in a World Tour stage race, after previously cracking the top 10 overall at the UAE Tour and Tour de Pologne, last year: “It’s been a very good week for me and the team, we showed that we are on a good level and we can be satisfied with that. This is my best result of the season and I am really happy with it. Seventh overall in a very hard and demanding World Tour stage race is a great step forward for me, I showed consistency, I showed that I am improving in the time trial and had some good days on the climbs. It’s been a solid block of racing in Italy for me in these past couple of weeks and I hope for the best for what’s to come.”

Overall
1. Simon Yates Mitchelton-Scott 32:07:34
2. Geraint Thomas INEOS Grenadiers @ 19
3. Rafal Majka Bora-Hansgrohe @ 29
4. Wilco Kelderman Team Sunweb @ 56
5. Aleksander Vlasov Astana Pro Team @ 58
6. Fausto Masnada Deceuninck-Quick Step @ 01:18
7. James Knox Deceuninck-Quick Step @ 01:41
8. Michael Woods EF Pro Cycling @ 02:12
9. Gianluca Brambilla Trek-Segafredo @ 03:02
10. Jack Haig Mitchelton-Scott @ 03:10

19. Vincenzo Nibali Trek-Segafredo @ 08:02
30. Tao Geoghegan Hart INEOS Grenadiers @ 14:31
63. Matthew Holmes Lotto Soudal @ 42:20
91. Chris Froome INEOS Grenadiers @ 01:02:52
144. Alex Dowsett Israel Start-Up Nation @ 01:35:33

Stage (final) 10km TT
1. Filippo Ganna INEOS Grenadiers 10:42
2. Victor Campenaerts NTT Pro Cycling Team @ 18
3. Rohan Dennis INEOS Grenadiers @ 26
4. Geraint Thomas INEOS Grenadiers @ 30
5. Tobias Ludvigsson Groupama-FDJ @ 33
6. Benjamin Thomas Groupama-FDJ @ 34
7. Jos Van Emden Team Jumbo – Visma @ 39
8. Nathan Van Hooydonck CCC Team @ 40
9. Jan Tratnik Bahrain-McLaren @ 40
10. Michael Matthews Team Sunweb @ 42

18. Simon Yates Leader jersey Mitchelton-Scott @ 50
31. Tao Geoghegan Hart INEOS Grenadiers @ 01:00
40. James Knox Deceuninck-Quick Step @ 01:05
51. Matthew Holmes Lotto Soudal @ 01:13
79. Chris Froome INEOS Grenadiers @ 01:33
152. Alex Dowsett Israel Start-Up Nation @ 02:47 (mechanical)

Full Results Here 

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