Adam Yates cracks top 10 on Giro d’Italia's queen stage

Persistence is paying off for Orica-Scott’s Adam Yates. The 24-year-old Briton has not wavered since bouncing back from a freak accident on stage 9 that all but crushed his general classification hopes at the 100th Giro d’Italia.

But after a week of racing since — and with less than a week remaining in the centenary edition of the Italian Grand Tour, the 2016 Tour de France’s best young rider has finally ridden himself back into the top 10 on GC.

Yates was third overall and just 10 seconds back prior to hitting the pavement along with second on GC Geraint Thomas (Team Sky), who has since retired from the race. After falling to 16th, Yates has been the model of consistency and back-to-back top 6 finishes on stages 14 and 15, along with a top 10 (ninth) on stage 16, helped the British climber ascend to 10th overall with five stages to go.

Yates finished in a small group, 1 minute and 35 seconds down on Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Mérida), who won the stage ahead of Mikel Landa (Team Sky).

“Today was another solid day from Adam,” said Orica-Scott port director Matt White. “We are back inside the top ten and the signs are good for Adam. He is really showing his consistency.”

“Today’s climbs were perhaps not the perfect type of climbs for him to be too aggressive but there is still a lot of climbing to go,” he continued. “The next three stages finish uphill.”

Yates now sits seven minutes behind the pink jersey of Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb), who lost time Tuesday, and 2:25 off the white best young rider’s jersey held by Bob Jungels (Quickstep).

“Today wasn’t an overly aggressive day,” explained White. “The climbs were long but the pace wasn’t explosive enough to drop the bigger, stronger time trial guys. We will keep trying.”

http://www.eurosport.com/cycling/yates-still-in-the-hunt-for-2017-giro-result_sto6174515/story.shtml

1. Vincenzo Nibali, ITA, Bahrain-Merida, 6:24:22

2. Mikel Landa, ESP, Team Sky, s.t.

3. Nairo Quintana, COL, Movistar, +0:12

9. Adam Yates, GBR, Orica-Scott, +1:35

1 (1). Tom Dumoulin, NED, Sunweb, 70:14:48

2 (2). Nairo Quintana, COL, Movistar, +0:31

3 (4). Vincenzo Nibali, ITA, Bahrain-Merida, +1:12

10 (11). Adam Yates, GBR, Orica-Scott, +7:00

90 (94). Adam Hansen, AUS, Lotto Soudal, +1:43:17

129 (122). Michael Hepburn, AUS, Orica-Scott, +2:11:08

149 (159). Rory Sutherland, AUS, Movistar, +2:22:25

161 (161). Alex Edmondson, AUS, Orica-Scott, +2:32:20

DNF — Rohan Dennis, AUS, BMC Racing (Stage 4)

DNF — Nathan Haas, AUS, Dimension Data (Stage 11)

DNF — Caleb Ewan, AUS, Orica-Scott (Stage 15)

For full results click here.