2:38 according to Guardian live feed. Amazing if he pulls it off.

As amazing as this ride is I feel myself identifying more with the suffering that Yates is having to go through, in public dragging himself up these slopes with no quick end in sight all the time knowing that its all for nothing.

Christ it’s a cruel sport at times.

Bear in mind he took around a minute of that lead on the descent from the Finestre.

Froome now has 2:43. Is that virtual lead?

Needs 2.49 if Dumoulin comes in second according to Eurosport

It’s very close – about ten seconds off I think – but you need to factor in the time bonuses for first, second and third, so yes and no and maybe…

“Chris Froome is forced to swerve around a crashed race motorcycle while cycling through a dark tunnel. Luckily, the driver of the motorbike appears to be OK. That’s the second close, motorcycle-related shave Froome has had today – on the descent of the Finestre, a motorcycle bearing a cameraman had to brake suddenly to avoid knocking him off his bike.”

This is making a great Giro even better.

Just an observation for the AAF ‘ban him’ crowd:

1. Its an AAF and the public only know about it as it was a leaked hack.

2. We therefore have no idea who else in the peloton has a current or recent AAF.

3. There is no reliable evidence that Salbutamol is actually anabolic or beneficial in recovery from extreme physical effort.

4. There is a huge amount of evidence to show that too much Salbutamol has significant adverse cardiac effects which would reduce exercise ability (heres just one study  – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4910012/)

5. In all honesty I am pretty sure that drugs cheating is rife in professional sports – where there is financial incentive there there is incentive to cheat. Djokovic suddenly becoming an immense athlete because a family friend decided he had coeliac disease? Nadals bulk and acne issues? Why exactly was Fuentes’ freezer destroyed after Armstrong? Perhaps because Real Madrid / Barca etc had bags and bags of blood in it? After all the financial rewards in cycling are pathetic compared to football and s(he) who gets around the pitch more and faster can earn more……

just my 2p

2.56 virtual leader.

I’m watching an Isreali stream in Hebrew, is there any English audio streams?

cyclingfans on twitter is good.

ahem

https://www.streamagratis.com/se/watch/eurosport

I’m on this one:
http://cricfree.sc/euro-sports-1-live-stream

I read Aru climbed off this morning 😩

Christ on a bike – I missed the early part of the day and missed the main action! I need to watch the highlights tonight :-O

Cyclingstream.com is what I’m watching it on. In Engish, but it has crashed a couple of times.

Holy cow!

Froome needs mone than 3.04 to be in pink .

It really is an impressive feat and shows panache and a willingness to gamble everything. However, i still cant warm to the guy or team Sky. I think its the cold and highly professional sense of detachment I get from them that’s so hard to identify with, and I think that Brailsford is an arrogant tossser of the highest order. But that’s Sky really, love them or hate them they are a very successful team.

3.13 to TDM group

8.15 to Yates

Wow.

sorry 2.43 , not 3.04 .

Amazing. Sat here it work and watched the whole thing. Blown away by what his done today. I’m not his biggest fan but credit where credits due. Phenomenal ride.

That was simply an amazing ride. 80km, on his own out front, and into pink.

🤯

utterly magnificent.  so glad I got to watch that

I need a rest after that.

Amazing ride from Chris, the stuff of legend

just incredible

Wow, that was brilliant!

40 sec advantage

Amazing!

TD towed them pretty much to the line – and no bonus points!

When Carlton says “He has his detractors, but surely all will join in admiration for Chris Froome”, he clearly doesn’t read the same forums I do!

That was bonkers. I do think you need to bear in mind that there’s no-one else in the field who climbs at Froome’s level when he’s on a good day. No Quintana, Landa, Barguil or Nibali. And Yates seems to have basically peaked too soon. First real, big, sustained climbing day in week three of the tour.

Be interesting to see how it goes tomorrow though. That was one hell of an effort.

Be a long ride in for Yates, tough day. Chapeau to Froome, super human effort.

When Carlton says “He has his detractors, but surely all will join in admiration for Chris Froome”, he clearly doesn’t read the same forums I do!

Haterz will hate, but you’ll never see a bigger performance than that.

That was one hell of an effort.

He’s just been interviewed looking remarkably composed, and saying that he tried to ride within his limits despite pushing hard.

Amazing to watch.

As big an effort as Froome gave today – Dumoulin probably gave just as much effort chasing; he got very little help off the group he was with.

Yates has done superbly in this Giro – to have even got into the pink jersey is amazing … to have been looking like he could keep hold of it is something else!

Yates has done superbly in this Giro – to have even got into the pink jersey is amazing … to have been looking like he could keep hold of it is something else!

It looked like he couldn’t lose it 2 days ago. And there was a point it seemed unlikely Froome would get on the podium!

Can’t wait for tomorrow now.

I’m so disappointed.

After 30 odd years of watching stage racing I give up. His doctor is magnificent.

I’m so disappointed.

After 30 odd years of watching stage racing I give up. His doctor is magnificent.

Because no-one else ever produced a crushing performance?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_career_achievements_by_Eddy_Merckx

Merckx was a drug user also, but in his era there wasn’t a concerted effort to eliminate it.