Picture the scene in the Visma-Lease a Bike team bus on the morning of the 20th stage of this fairytale edition of the Giro d'Italia. The previous day has been disappointing for Simon Yates, accusations were being bandied around about whether the team had followed the plan or not. Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates) and Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) had taken 21 seconds on the last climb thanks to their more explosive capabilities and Yates had found himself captured in the group of GC hopefuls.
They were bickering amongst themselves and too tired or scared to chase the top two so it seemed that the man from Bury was going to have to accept the game being played was one for which he didn’t quite have all the requirements. UAE Team Emirates and EF Education-EasyPost were engaged in a tussle that consisted of uphill sprint leadouts and attacks to distance each other. Yates, by his own admission, wasn’t that type of rider. Time to reassess.
In a typical pre-race briefing, someone suggests the ideal scenario, everyone scoffs and the discussion moves on to reality. For the guy racing the overall, it’s just - stay with the GC leaders and hope one of them cracks. Get in the break if there is one for the teammates. Even in the era of big data, it’s not rocket science.
