Giro d’Italia 2018: Simon Yates storms to stage nine victory to open 32-second lead and tighten grip on Maglia Rosa

Yates won a sprint finish over Frenchman Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) and his Michelton-Scott team-mate Esteban Chaves to take the ninth stage at Gran Sasso d'Italia

(AFP/Getty Images)

Simon Yates claimed his first stage win in this year’s Giro d’Italia to extend his lead in the overall classification to 32 seconds.

Yates won a sprint finish over Frenchman Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) and his Michelton-Scott team-mate Esteban Chaves to take the ninth stage at Gran Sasso d’Italia.

Yates has held the race leader’s pink jersey since stage six, when he finished second behind Chaves on the slopes of Mount Etna.

But it was a bad day for fellow Briton Chris Froome, who lost touch with the leading group to finish more than a minute down on Yates, and slid out of the overall top 10 as a result.

Yates said: “A very long stage, a hard race in the end, Astana push the racer for many kilometres, I’m really tired but I’m happy that I managed to win the stage. I can’t hide from the beginning to try to win.”