Colombia's Esteban Chaves broke away five kilometres from the end of Thursday's sixth stage of the Giro d'Italia to beat teammate Simon Yates of Britain by a couple of metres, with Yates taking the leader's pink jersey from Austrialia's Rohan Dennis.
"As a team we couldn't have done any better," said the
26-year-old Briton, saying he left Chavez the victory because
"he deserved it".
Yates is one of the favourites along with fellow countryman
Chris Froome, bidding to be the third man to win all three grand
tours two years running, and reigning champion Tom Dumoulin of
the Netherlands.
The stage was a 169-km run from Caltanissetta to Etna in
Sicily.
It was a triumph for the Mitchelton-Scott team which placed
Chaves and Yates first and second followed by teammate Thibaut
Pinot third, 26" behind.
Australia's George Bennet was fourth and Italy's Domenico
Pozzovivo fifth, both with the same time.
Colombia's Miguel Angel Lopez was sixth, Ecuador's Richard
Carapaz seventh, Dumoulin eighth, Italy's Fabio Aru ninth and
Froome tenth.
How they finished:
1. Esteban Chaves (Col) in 4h16'11" (+10" bonus)
(av.speed 39.7 km/h)
2. Simon Yates (Gbr) s.t. (+06" bonus)
3. Thibaut Pinot (Fra) at 00'26" (+04" bonus)
4. George Bennet (Aus) s.t.
5. Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) s.t.
6. Miguel Angel Lopez (Col) s.t.
7. Richard Caparaz (Ecu) s.t.
8. Tom Dumoulin (Neth) s.t.
9. Fabio Aru (Ita) s.t.
10. Chris Froome (Ita) s.t.
11. Ben Hermans (Bel) at 00'40"
12. Ben O'Connor (Aus) at 00'43"
13. Pello Bilbao (Spa) at 00'49"
14. Sam Oomen (Neth) at 00'53"
21. Rohan Dennis (Aus) at 01'04".
General classification:
1. Simon Yates (Gbr) in 22h46'03"
(km 929.7, av.speed 40.832 km/h)
2. Tom Dumoulin (Neth) at 00'16"
3. Esteban Chaves (Col) at 00'26"
4. Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) at 00'43"
5. Thibaut Pinot (Fra) at 00'45"
6. Rohan Dennis (Aus) at 00'53"
7. Pello Bilbao (Spa) at 01'03"
8. Chris Froome (Gbr) at 01'10"
9. George Bennett (Aus) at 01'11"
10. Fabio Aru (Ita) at 01'12"
11. Carlos Betancur (Col) at 01'21"
12. Richard Caparaz (Ecu) at 01'23"
13. Ben O'Connor (Aus) at 01'39"
14. Michael Woods (Can) s.t.
22. Miguel Angel Lopez (Col) at 02'12".
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