Ecuador’s Richard Carapaz won stage 14 of the Giro d’Italia to grab the overall race lead. Movistar’s Carapaz raced clear on the penultimate climb of the day before holding off Britain’s Simon Yates to lead by seven seconds from Primoz Roglic.
The overnight leader Jan Polanc finished the 131km stage from Saint-Vincent to Courmayeur more than seven minutes down to concede the pink jersey. The lead looked set to move from one Slovenian to another until Carapaz attacked the leading group with around 28km remaining.
Yates finished 1min 32sec behind while Italy’s Vincenzo Nibali led a chasing group ahead of Roglic, Mikel Landa and Miguel Ángel López. The 10 bonus seconds for winning the stage ensured Carapaz topped Roglic on the leaderboard. Yates’s second place allowed him to claw back some time and return to the top 10 in ninth spot.
“We used a strategy that was well planned by the team,” Carapaz said. “We knew that I and Mikel Landa were in good form so we had to catch the right moment to attack. I did everything as planned.
“It’s hard to believe that I’m in the maglia rosa. It was a dream and I’ve worked hard for this.”
Sunday’s 15th stage is mainly flat for the first 160km but has three categorised climbs in the final part of the 232km route from Ivrea to Como. The three-week race ends in Verona on 2 June.