Briton Simon Yates, one of the candidates for the final victory, won the time trial of the second stage of the Tour of Italy on Saturday on the streets of Budapest ahead of Mathieu van der Poel, who maintains a pink jersey.
The Dutchman, who was 14 seconds ahead after his win the previous day, hit just three to Yates and even beat specialist Tom Dumoulin, third, 5 seconds from the win,
Matjhieu van der Poel promisedtry to maintain pink dress at the end of the 9.2 km route between the emblematic monuments of the Hungarian capital.
He is about to win.
The missing three seconds were those lost on the flat side before the last ascent of Buda hill (1.3 km on 4.9% average gradient) where he disputed Yates ’reference time (9 min 50 s, on average 46.6 km/ h).
Simon Yates ’success on stage, his fifth on the Tour of Italy, was less expected in front of specialists like Tom Dumoulin or Joao Almeida (eleventh in 18 seconds from the winner).
But the Briton, who will be 30 on Aug. 7, already showed his advantage in the short time trial (13 km) of Paris Nice in March (fifth) when he dropped just eleven seconds to the vice-world champion in the specialty, Wout van Aert.
Among the favorites, Colombian Miguel Angel Lopez and Spaniard Mikel Landa were the big losers at this stage on the clock (respectively 59th in 42 seconds and 30th in 33 s).
The favorite for the final victory, Richard Carapaz (19th in 28 seconds), limited injury in this training where he wasn’t shining.
Canadian Alexander Cataford (Israel – Premier Tech) finished 152nd, 1:17 behind the winner, after driving an average of 42 km/h.
He appears in 72nd place in the overall classification (+2.06).
Source: Radio-Canada
