Giro d’Italia 2018: Matej Mohoric wins dramatic Stage 10 as Esteban Chaves implodes

On a bittersweet – but predominantly bitter – day for Mitchelton-Scott in Le Marche, race leader Simon Yates picked up a few intermediate sprint bonus seconds to strengthen his grip on the pink jersey as team-mate Chaves cracked on the first of three categorised climbs to finish a massive 25 minutes down on stage winner Mohoric.

Bahrain Merida’s Mohoric – a former junior and U23 world champion – showed his ability over all terrains, and through numerous showers, to deny Ag2R-La Mondiale’s Denz in a thrilling finale to a captivating 244km stage from Penne to Gualdo Tadino.

It was a maiden win on the Giro for 23-year-old Mohoric, who opened up his Grand Tour account with a stage scalp in last year’s Vuelta.

Part of an initial 17-man break that fizzled out following the Chaves fiasco, Mohoric attacked again inside the final 40km to reel in lone leader Marco Frapporti (Androni-Giocattoli) before holding the pack at bay once Denz joined the party following the final descent.

Ireland’s Sam Bennett (Bora-Hansgrohe) won a reduced bunch sprint for third place to keep the pressure up on Elia Viviani (Quick-Step Floors) in the battle for the maglia ciclamino after the Italian was dropped early in the stage alongside Chaves.

Apparently suffering with a sore throat and allergies following the second rest day, Chaves, who was wearing the maglia azzurra as best climber and trailed team-mate Yates by 32 seconds in the overnight standings, had a day to forget.

Supported by three Mitchelton-Scott team-mates, Chaves at one point managed to reduce the arrears to just one minute back to the main pack before his rivals combined to stretch out the lead to five minutes with still more than 80km left to ride.

By the time the 28-year-old Colombian crossed the line in the gruppetto, the counter was north of 25 minutes, ending any hope of Mitchelton-Scott completing an historic one-two in Rome – but ensuring that all eggs will now be put in the basket marked Yates.

The nearest opponent for Britain’s Yates is now the Dutch defending champion Tom Dumoulin, who recovered from a late puncture and spill to finish in the main peloton. Team Sunweb’s Dumoulin trails Yates by 41 seconds with Frenchman Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) up to third place five seconds back.

Chaves’ implosion means a return to the top 10 for the four-time Tour de France champion Chris Froome of Team Sky, who trails compatriot Yates by two and a half minutes at the half-way point of the 101st edition of the race.

It may have been the longest day of the race – with an unforgiving parcours featuring very little flat roads – but no one expected such drama as the Giro resumed following the second of three rest days.

Entering the stage with both team leaders occupying the first and second spot on the provisional podium, Mitchelton-Scott ended the day with Yates’ lead slightly extended – but with Chaves’ hopes of a podium finish blown to smithereens.

A flurry of early attacks ahead of the fateful Fonte della Creta climb saw a break of 17 riders – including Mohoric – eventually come together on the 16km Cat.2 climb. Local rider Giulio Ciccone (Bardiani-CSF) took maximum points over the top to commemorate the victims of the tragic avalanche which killed 29 people and destroyed the nearby Hotel Rigopiano in January 2017.

Mohoric gave a glimpse of what was in store by breaking clear of his fellow escapees on the descent before being reeled in ahead of the next climb. By now, however, the gap back to the peloton had already come down after the early distancing of Chaves had spurred Team Sky – sniffing blood – onto the front.

Driven by three of Chaves' Mitchelton-Scott team-mates and the Quick-Step Floors army of Viviani, who had also been dropped, the large gruppetto managed to reduce the gap to almost a minute following the second climb of the day, the Cat.3 ascent to Bruzzolana.

Ciccone picked up maximum points here, too, before sitting up with the majority of the break as the peloton closed in. Krists Nielands (Israel Cycling Academy) and Tony Martin (Katusha-Alpecin) dug deep to keep the break alive in the pouring rain before Martin, the last man standing, called it a day with 137km remaining.

Despite coming down to 70 seconds, the gap started to grow again as Bora-Hansgrohe, Groupama-FDJ, LottoNL-Jumbo and Sunweb all had reason to help pulling alongside Sky.

And once Quick-Step threw in the towel and gave up on the hope of a hat-trick of stage wins for Viviani, the floodgates opened. Chaves led the chase in vain for a few kilometres before Mitchelton-Scott reassessed the situation and cut their losses.

With the team’s focus now firmly on Yates, the 25-year-old former track star symbolically came right to the front of the race in an intermediate sprint showdown with Pinot.

After the Frenchman attacked for bonus seconds, Yates showed his form by surging past Pinot and taking three seconds from his rivals, with his Groupama-FDJ rival settling for two seconds.

In the lull that followed, Italian veteran Frapporti attacked with 85km remaining and soon established a lead of almost three minutes on the pack.

As another shower came down half way through the third and final categorised climb, Davide Villella (Astana) attacked from the pack and provoked a reply by Mohoric. Denz was one of three riders who tried to bridge over to the chasing duo.

Mohoric and Villella caught and passed Frapporti before the summit and were caught by Denz on the descent with 20km remaining. Villella was unable to keep up, while behind both Dumoulin and the white jersey Richard Carapaz (Movistar) were held up by punctures.

Alessandro De Marchi (BMC) and Sergio Henao (Team Sky) countered but were caught with 5km remaining, Villella soon after. Despite a late dig by Australian veteran Adam Hansen (Lotto-Fix All), the leading duo were unworried by the exhausted chasing pack.

Classics specialist Denz forced Mohoric into leading out the sprint – but despite drawing level on the home straight, the German was unable to match his opponent’s kick and Mohoric took the spoils after a star role in a pulsating stage, winning after more than six hours in the saddle.

“It’s amazing. I’m super happy for myself but foremost for my team who gave me this opportunity even though [Domenico] Pozzovivo is feeling super-good for the GC,” Mohoric said.

For Yates, there was joy at extending his lead but a show of support for his ill team-mate Chaves after his rotten day.

“He just had a bad moment on the first climb of the day and like that, it’s over,” said Yates after the podium ceremony and before Chaves had yet crossed the line.

“Straight after the rest day you don’t always know how the body is going to respond. I’m very disappointed for him because he’s worked really hard for this. But maybe he can bounce back and get a few stage wins.”

Asked about taking on Pinot in the intermediate sprint, an honest Yates said:

Mitchelton-Scott sporting director Matt White told Eurosport that, while disappointing, Chaves’ set-back had changed very little for the Australian team.

“That’s bike racing,” he said, “but we came here to win the Giro and our goals haven’t changed.”

Yates leads Dumoulin by 41 seconds and Pinot by 46 seconds with the top-five completed by Domenico Pozzovivo (Bahrain Merida) and Carapaz at 1’00” and 1’23” respectively.

Bennett’s third place in the stage saw the Irishman move onto 112 points in the maglia ciclamino standings – still 66 points shy of Viviani’s leading total. Carapaz retained his 1’14” lead over Colombian Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) in the white jersey standings while Chaves, despite his day from hell, will still wear the blue jersey for Wednesday’s Stage 11.

The 156km stage from Assisi to Osimo features two Cat.3 climbs and passes through the late Michele Scarponi’s home town of Filottrano before a ramped Cat.4 finish that will have Yates and his GC rivals on red alert.