Briton Simon Yates delivered Team BikeExchange an overall podium placing at the 104th edition of the Giro d’Italia today, after the 21-day race concluded with an individual time trial in Milan.
Yates’ third-place finish, makes it GreenEDGE Cycling’s fourth Grand Tour podium placing, following on from Yates’ 2018 Vuelta a España victory and Esteban Chaves’ second and third place finishes in the 2016 Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España respectively.
After racing with maturity through the three-week event, Yates launched himself into second place on the standings after an impressive performance on the mighty Monte Zoncolan on stage 14, before showing his real strength in the final week of racing as the race entered the high mountains.
The British climber attacked and gained time on the Maglia Rosa on stage 17 before claiming a spectacular solo victory on stage 19. After relentless work day in, day out from his Team BikeExchange companions, it was up to Yates to secure his final podium placing on today’s final 30.3km individual time trial stage.
The 28-year-old successfully charged around the course without problems, to cement his position on the GC, as Egan Bernal was crowned the 2021 champion ahead of second placed Damiano Caruso after a thrilling three-week battle.
Simon Yates – Third place overall
“I am proud of what I accomplished here. I have no regrets. Those guys showed day in, day out that they were better, so I can only be proud of what I did.
I had some small problems at the start but then I could really show myself in the third week, but I also paid for my efforts yesterday. Yesterday I was not as good as my stage win, but as I have said before you have to be good for the full three weeks.
I did my best every day, the days in the cold, the body didn’t respond as well as I wanted it to but that is one of those things, you have to deal with bad days and bad moments and that is how you go on to win the race. Egan did that successfully on numerous days.”
Matt White – Head Sport Director
“We came to win the Giro d’Italia, we gave 100% from start to finish, the whole organisation and there is a whole lot of work and effort behind this result.
There is only one winner, but we gave it all we could. We had a great stage win, we arrived on the podium and the boys and everyone behind Simon gave 100% commitment to this effort, so we can leave the Giro d’Italia very proud of the effort the whole team has made.”
2021 Giro d’Italia stage 21 results:
- Filippo Ganna 33:48
- Rémi Cavagna +0:12
- Edoardo Affini +0:13
- Michael Hepburn (Team BikeExchange) +1:52
Final 2021 Giro d’Italia General Classification:
- Egan Bernal 86:17:28
- Damiano Caruso +1:29
- Simon Yates (Team BikeExchange) +4:15
