'Clear favourite' – Wiggins assesses Yates' Giro chances after stunning Stage 2 win

Sir Bradley Wiggins believes Simon Yates’ stunning Stage 2 Individual Time Trial victory makes him the ‘clear favourite’ to win this year’s Giro d’Italia.

The BikeExchange–Jayco rider posted a time of 11’50” – five seconds quicker than that of Tom Dumoulin (Jumbo-Visma) who was in the lead at the time.

Despite Mathieu van der Poel’s effort after going out last, the Alpecin-Fenix man was three seconds shy of Yates’ time, although remains maglia rosa after his Stage 1 win 24 hours earlier.

However, Wiggins believes Yates will ultimately seize the jersey from Van der Poel as the race goes on and claim his second Grand Tour win after winning the Vuelta a Espana in 2018.

“It wasn’t enough to take the pink jersey but what I think is most interesting is this is clearly an indicator now that Simon Yates is here to win this Giro d’Italia in three weeks’ time,” Wiggins said afterwards.

“It was so close at the foot of the climb, and he executed that ride, nine kilometres.

“Remember, Simon isn’t a time trial specialist but to execute a performance like that over a course like this shows he is now the clear favourite to win this Giro d’Italia.”

Yates came close to winning the Giro back in 2018 however, despite leading the General Classification for much of the race, the Brit fell short in the final stages, eventually surrendering the maglia rosa to Chris Froome.

Speaking on The Breakaway, Robbie McEwen suggested that Yates should have learned lessons form that disappointment and is better placed to claim victory this time around.

“It’s a bit too early to call him an overwhelming favourite. Let’s go back a couple of years,” he said.

“The talk will now start, especially from the rivals, the doubters, the supporters of other riders, like, ‘here we go again, he’s doing it again, he’s too good too soon’, only he knows.

“But whatever the case, he’s done a fantastic ride, he can enjoy the victory and the time trial today, and I think he will have learned a lot of lessons from how he tackled the Giro before, and then came up a bit too short at the end.

“He can afford to not be as aggressive as he was that other time at the Giro.”

Driving seat

Adam Blythe agreed with McEwen’s view and added that Yates, as well as his team BikeExchange will be far more strategic in their approach to the race to remain in contention.

Blythe said: “I think they’ll just be saying: ‘Look, we’re in a great position. Let’s be happy where we are and just not take risks. Don’t take any silly chances and just know they’ve got the time to gain on us. We don’t have to keep trying to gain time. We can be comfortable where we are. Let the race come to us a little bit. And when it does, that’s then we can react to it.’

“But for now for these first 10 days with Etna, and day seven into Potenza maybe, that’s when they really have to pay attention but apart from that, they’re in the driving seat.”

Daniel Lloyd also suggested the make-up of the team is also to Yates’ benefit:

Lloyd said: “They are one of the teams that has one clear leader, no sprinter, no sub leader to concentrate on. It is all about Simon Yates.

“Seven riders around him all with a clear goal of helping him each and every day. That can make a big difference over the course of this race.”

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