Simon Yates did not want to put "a downer" on his stage 14 victory at the Giro d'Italia but is far from satisfied with his overall race.
Yates was seen as one of the contenders for the maglia rosa heading into the first Grand Tour of 2022 but the Briton is way down in 17th place in the general classification standings, 18 minutes and 44 seconds off new race leader Richard Carapaz.
Team BikeExchange-Jayco rider Yates, who won the individual time trial in Budapest on stage two, finished 15 seconds ahead of second-placed Jai Hindley on a day that threw the race wide open.
Yates latched onto a chasing pack that caught up with INEOS Grenadiers rider and 2019 Giro winner Carapaz, who had made a break with 28 kilometres remaining in Saturday's 147km route from Santena to Turin – the first of four consecutive mountain stages.
Hindley and Vincenzo Nibali, who is racing in his final Giro, were the initial chasers, but Yates – whose GC hopes were all but ended when he dropped 11 minutes on the Blockhaus climb on stage nine – had the momentum to cruise to victory.
While Yates was delighted with a sixth Giro stage win of his career, he could not help but be frustrated by being so far off the pace overall.
"I mean, not to put a downer on the day, but I came here to win the race," the 29-year-old said. "For me, it's another stage. I have five already and it's number six.
"I hope the legs stay as good as today. Today was a really big effort, not just for me but for everybody. The gaps are enormous, so if this heat sticks around it's going to be a very hard final week."
A bad day for Lopez
Juan Pedro Lopez wore pink for 10 straight days but Saturday's stage was always likely to prove crucial and he went from holding a 12-second lead to ninth place, four minutes and four seconds behind Carapraz.
The experienced Ecuadorian attacked at just the right time for the GC standings, even if he was unable to hold on for the stage win.
STAGE RESULT
1. Simon Yates (Team BikeExchange-Jayco) 3:43:44
2. Jai Hindley (BORA-hansgrohe) +0:15
3. Richard Carapaz (INEOS Grenadiers) +0:15
4. Vincenzo Nibali (Astana Qazaqstan Team) +0:15
5. Domenico Pozzovivo (Intermarche-Wanty-Gobert) +0:28
CLASSIFICATION STANDINGS
General Classification
1. Richard Carapaz (INEOS Grenadiers) 58:21:28
2. Jai Hindley (BORA-hansgrohe) +0:07
3. Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) +0:30
Points Classification
1. Arnaud Demare (Groupama-FDJ) 238
2. Mark Cavendish (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl) 121
3. Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates) 117
King of the Mountains
1. Diego Rosa (Eolo-Kometa) 92
2. Koen Bouwman (Jumbo-Visma) 69
3. Jai Hindley (BORA-hansgrohe) 62
Pogacar fends off Vingegaard for 'dream' triumph at Paris-Nice
Tadej Pogacar achieved a "dream" victory in the Paris-Nice as the two-time Tour de France champion powered to a final-stage win on Sunday.
The 24-year-old Slovenian produced a thrilling solo surge on the 117.2-kilometre eighth stage, chiefly contested in the hills surrounding Nice.
His race-winning move came on the final climb, the Col d'Eze, as the UAE Team Emirates man left his rivals to scrap it out for second place before tearing away to the finish line on the Promenade des Anglais.
Pogacar took the stage by 33 seconds. Jonas Vingegaard (Team Jumbo-Visma) was second to cross the line on the sea front, with Pogacar taking the overall tour victory by 53 seconds from France's David Gaudu (Groupama–FDJ).
Vingegaard, the reigning Tour de France champion, picked up third place on this occasion in the general classification standings.
Pogacar won the one-day Clasica Jaen Paraiso Interior in Spain early last month, and then went on to dominate the five-day Vuelta a Andalucia.
The latest success is a further step towards the grand tours that await later in the year, with Pogacar electing to race at this event, on the roads where he does much of his training, rather than head to the Tirreno-Adriatico in Italy. That race, running concurrently, was won on Sunday by Primoz Roglic after Pogacar's victories there in 2021 and 2022.
"It was always my goal, my dream, to win Paris-Nice as well and now that I did it, it's incredible," Pogacar said on Eurosport.
"They say attack is the best defence and I really know these roads. A lot of training is done here, so I knew exactly how my legs were and on the final climb how much I could spend to come to the top and I calculated great."
Pogacar will turn his attention to next Saturday's Milan-San Remo one-day classic, satisfied to have got the better of a strong field.
"The competition here was really, really huge and to be alongside David Gaudu and Jonas Vingegaard on the podium is special because they are really top-class riders," Pogacar said. "If I don't win anything until the end of the season it's still not bad, so I can be more relaxed."
Jamaican cyclist Llori Sharpe re-signs for another year with European Cycling Team Canyon/SRAM Generation
Having signed a one-year contract in January 2023, Jamaica’s female cyclist Llori Sharpe will depart the island next week for Europe where she will join her teammates from Paraguay, Germany, Namibia, Rwanda, Algeria, and Austria on the CANYON//SRAM Generation Team set to participate in 21 races across Europe through to mid-September.
Six of the 21 events are two-to-six-day stage races covering 250 km to 700km.
2023 is expected to be a busy year for the young Jamaican as she is also expected to join the Jamaican team for the Pan American Road Championships from April 17-23 in Panama City. The Pan American Championships will qualify the top 19 male and female places for spots at the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile.
Since returning from Europe at the end of the 2022 season, Sharpe has spent the latter part of last year studying at the UWI Cave Hill Campus in Barbados. She will complete her final semester while in Europe. She returned home to Jamaica in December where she had been training in preparation for her first competitive assignment on March 26.
Sharpe earned the first two podium finishes for the CANYON team in March 2022.
Legendary sprinter Cavendish makes Astana move
Mark Cavendish has joined Astana for a 2023 campaign in which he will be hoping to make history at the Tour de France.
Legendary sprinter Cavendish left Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl last year, but the Brit will continue his illustrious career with Kazakh team Astana.
The 37-year-old from the Isle of Man was not selected for the 2022 Tour de France, denying him the opportunity to surpass a record tally of 34 stage wins in the most prestigious Grand Tour race that he shares with the great Eddy Merckx.
Cavendish will have high hopes of taking the record outright this year with his new team.
He said: "I am really excited for this adventure. I raced with Alexandr Vinokurov for many years, and now I'm racing with his two boys!
"I remember when they were children the same age as my own, dreaming to be bike racers.
"Astana is going to be a great place to be successful, with a strong team led by Alexandr, a champion on the bike and a gentleman off the bike.
"I've enjoyed a long career already, but the joy of riding my bike and the hunger to continue winning are as bright as ever.
"So I'm looking forward to being part of a successful team, whether working with the team for wins, crossing the line first myself, or cheering on my team-mates. As always, the objective will be for us to stand on the top podium."
While Cavendish was overlooked for the Tour de France, he was able to win the Milano-Torino as well as Giro d'Italia, Tour of Oman and UAE Tour stages.
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