ROME, May 17, 2018 (News Wires) - Britain's Simon Yates held off Dutchman Tom Dumoulin to win for a second time on the Giro d'Italia and extend his lead in the overall standings after an explosive conclusion to Stage 11 in Osimo saw Chris Froome endure another day to forget. Doing the maglia rosa proud, the in-form Yates attacked early and clinically on the final climb of the short and sharp 155km stage from Assisi, blowing the peloton apart and reminding his GC rivals that he is the man to beat in the 101st edition of La Corsa Rosa. Yates, of Mitchelton-Scott, made his decisive move with a kilometre and a half remaining to catch Czech national champion Zdenek Stybar and the Belgian Tim Wellens on a steep 16-percent ramp before riding clear of Team Sunweb's Dumoulin and the rest of the field. Dumoulin, the defending champion and pre-race favourite, dug deep on the final cobbled rise into the old town centre but was unable to catch a rider seemingly in the peak of his powers. Yates finished two seconds clear of Dumoulin and, thanks to 10 bonus seconds, extended his lead to 47 seconds over his nearest challenger. Frenchman Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) retained his third place but now trails the race summit by 64 seconds. Italy's Davide Formolo (Bora-Hansgrohe) took third place in the stage, five seconds down and three seconds clear of a chasing group that included team-mate Patrick Konrad, French duo Pinot and Alexandre Geniez (Ag2R-La Mondiale) and the Italian Domenico Pozzovivo (Bahrain Merida). Team Sky's Froome finished 40 seconds in arrears to drop out of the top 10 along with the Canadian Michael Woods (EF Education First-Drapac) as Austria's Konrad and tenth-place Fabio Aru (UAE Team Emirates) rose up in the standings. Froome now trails his compatriot by 3'20" in an increasingly difficult race that he vowed nevertheless to complete in an exclusive interview with Eurosport's Jonathan Edwards. Starting in the Umbrian city of Assisi, the birthplace of St Francis, Stage 11 was ridden at a relentless pace and had a poignant backdrop as the route took the riders through the home town of the late Michele Scarponi. A bombardment of attacks came from the outset but it took the best part of 30 kilometres before a break finally managed to establish a telling gap over a peloton wary of the pitfalls of an off-day, with Esteban Chaves' Stage 10 implosion still fresh in the mind. It was no surprise to see Scarponi's old Astana team-mate Luis Leon Sanchez at the heart of the action, with the Spaniard eventually forming the day's five-man break alongside Italians Alessandro De Marchi (BMC), Fausto Masnada (Androni-CSF), Mirco Maestri (Bardiani-CSF) and Alex Turrin (Willier Triestina). The gap stretched out to four minutes as youngster Masnada took maximum points over the first two categorised climbs to move into fourth place in the KOM maglia azzurra standings. But with so many teams harbouring aspirations for the stage win – including Lotto-Fix All for Stage 4 winner Wellens, LottoNL-Jumbo for Stage 5 winner Enrico Battaglin and Trek-Segafredo for Gianluca Brambilla – the break was never given much leeway and the gap soon came tumbling down. As the race hit the old training roads of the sorely missed local hero Scarponi, Sanchez upped the tempo on the steep ramp into Filottrano to win the intermediate sprint and ensure that the final two riders to join the break – Turrin and Maestri – were the first to bade it farewell. The peloton passed through Scarponi's home town trailing the trio by 1'45" with 30km remaining as the locals released hundreds of balloons in the blue and yellow of the late Italian's Astana team.
