Tomorrow looks like the kind of stage that late-career contador would have set fire to

or a  young Yates !!!

Toms having to work now though !

froome is gone here blimey!

He’s absolutely smashed the pro peloton here! (he kicks out a lot of power for a lightweigh! )

Tom gone

Toms gone from the chasers come on Yates you can win it here

no one can live with him, mind blown

wow!!!!!

Good ride by Tom to get back in

yep he’s a gutsy rider

he’s got the  2 minutes he said he needed!

Whats italian for chapeau?

Capello ?

Well that was a nice days racing. Good fight from Tom but Simon Yates is a man possessed.

And he’s British to boot!

Great ride form him there, is he lined up to do the Tour Double?

Looks like Froome over committed yesterday, tough day for the Sky domestiques as they normally give it all for victory

Blimey, what a ride, long range solo attack in the leaders jersey with no team mates in sight, proper old school racing.

Pleeeeeease be clean, please please please!

looks like an ultegra & 32 out back on  the Yates bike (though he never leaves the big ring crafty!)

Yates does seem to be smashing it every day.

he does seem to be gauging his efforts well though, more opportunistic taking of the time bonus on offer than “smashing it” 3 well timed efforts have paid big dividends !

besides there are 2 pan flat sprinters stages up next before the Zoncolan saturday will give him (and his team) a chance to sit in let qsf do all the work.

I think we can safely say he smashed it today !!! One of the finest Stage race performances from a Brit

Cracking stage today – really hoping Yates can hold it to Rome. We’re flying out there on Friday for the weekend – can’t wait!

Wow well done.  Froomes done.

Holy Mahloli ☝️👀

Just how Awesome is this guy? Only the second guy to take 3 stages in Pink.

Folklore being written, featuring an English Bloke.

And for the first time ever we know that they don’t just switch brothers mid-race

featuring an English Bloke

Surely he is virtually an honorary Italian by now? To win your third stage in pink on a stage like that, in that manner kind of makes you a bit of a legend in your own lifetime no matter what the result in Rome. If he wins in Rome they will have the passport, a garage of prancing horses, a beautiful woman and the pope ready to pursued him to change allegiance.

I still think he is will have his work cut out to still have pink after the ITT on Tuesday but whatever it’s going to make it a brilliant last week. Dumoulin vs Yates really is a dream toe to toe to watch for the spectator.

So for the TT Dumolin put 20s into him over 9km, this one is 34km with 2:11 in the bag. So 3.8s/KM vs 2.2 in Stage 1?

18, 19 & 20 still look like they will suit the climbers too with uphill finishes on some decent hills

So for the TT Dumolin put 20s into him over 9km, this one is 34km with 2:11 in the bag. So 3.8s/KM vs 2.2 in Stage 1?

Yes, on paper Yates looks very safe but fortunately sport is not always that easy. I guess it depends how much Yates has had to burn himself to get the results and how much he can recover tomorrow. Dumoulin too for that matter. But TTing is a funny old thing – people who are proper good at it can hold their form much longer that the rest and gaps open up more at the end of the course. Stage 1 was a testing little lumpy prologue that looked more like an individual crit. Tuesday is a proper testers course.

I ‘think’ barring accident it’s Yates’ to loose from here but it would be great for sport if it’s a proper fight all the way.

I think we can safely say he smashed it today !!! One of the finest Stage race performances from a Brit

Agreed, as was yesterday.

I hope he makes it but I just wonder about energy conservation, esp if he’s now having lots of media duty instead of sleeping it off whenever he can

fingers crossed for the TT

Rooting for Yates not because he’s British, but because his ride so far has been aggressive, entertaining and full of heart.

That said, I kind of want him to get pumped in the TT so he has to go on the rampage again next weekend.

What an exciting race, Yates is so impressive, I really thought he’d gone too early at around 17km to go, just shows how good he is both tactically and also his power output in last 5 kms. Doesn’t matter if he wins race or not now, he’s established himself as one of the best GC riders. Is he riding tdf or the vuelta?

It’s been a titanic contest between such contrasting riders, some wonderful elan from Yates but some real gutsy grinding from Dumoulin he’s not letting the Jersey go without a fight to be only 2.10 back in this kind of terrain is quite an achievement!

The giro and veulta are so much more exciting than the tour.

I also like that eurosport show the wattages the guy ls are putting out.  Is this now a standard thing that will be on every grand tour?

The giro and veulta are so much more exciting than the tour.

The Giro has been for most of the twenty odd years I’ve watched it. The Vuelta became interesting when they moved from those huge flat stages across deserts – when was that, ten years ago?

Bloomin’ ‘eck. That was fabulous. I thought Simon looked like Robert Millar in his heyday.

Great ride form him there, is he lined up to do the Tour Double?

I would have thought a Giro Vuelta double would be a good idea.

His brother is pencilled in as the TdF leader isn’t he?

When he went, it was so fast, extraordinary really

That’s a great video – the team come over very well.

This is a great example of why having the right TT on the right day of a grand tour is so important. It’s a “general” classification, the best all round rider, and too often the courses have been made to make it the best climber or the best TTer win. This race seems to have it just about perfect, and it is making for some of the best racing I’ve seen in a long time,

Agreed, a lot better than having a TT right at the end as well

Yes great Racing.  Yates will be 30 seconds down maximum Tuesday evening overall. He will easily take the jersey back in the mountains.

Superb riding from Yates. Absolutely delighted for him. Couldn’t believe it when he went from so far out but made for a great spectacle. And, to be fair, great to see the effort Dumoulin made to get himself back into it when he was briefly dropped.

Oh and always love the team videos they make. The one where they re-created that day’s Giro stage with plastic toys was hilarious.