Moscon Takes Second Win On Tour Of The Alps, Yates Holds Race Lead

Italian Gianni Moscon grabbed his second stage win in three days on the Tour of the Alps on Wednesday as Britain's Simon Yates held the overall race lead with two days remaining

Milan, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 21st Apr, 2021 ) :Italian Gianni Moscon grabbed his second stage win in three days on the Tour of the Alps on Wednesday as Britain's Simon Yates held the overall race lead with two days remaining.

Moscon, who is hoping to make the cut with his Ineos team for the Giro d'Italia next month, crossed the line just ahead of Felix Grossschartner after the 162km third stage between Imst in Austria and Naturno in Italy.

The 27-year-old held on after an impressive breakaway to follow on from his solo triumph in stage one at Innsbruck.

Four riders broke away from the main pack with 22km to go and Moscon ended the stage ahead of Austrian Grossschartner, with Michael Storer of Australia third.

Tuesday's stage winner Simon Yates of Bike Exchange held onto the overall lead of the five-day race, finishing in the main pack.

"On Monday I broke the ice in Innsbruck, now I have regained my confidence and feeling with victory," said Moscon who hails from Trento.

"Dreaming of a hat-trick in my Trentino might seem too much right now.

"Tomorrow we have a hard and important stage, and we are ready to stand by Pavel Sivakov, hoping that hoping that his fall will leave no significant aftermath." Defending champion Sivakov fell mid-stage but the Russian climber managed to rejoin the peloton and is second overall, 45 seconds behind Yates.

"Today we were able to control the race, the team did a great job, and I was able to save some energy for tomorrow," said Yates.

Four-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome finished over eight minutes behind his fellow Briton and is 98th overall, more than 20 minutes off top spot.

The key stage will be Thursday's fourth, which is also the longest, over 168.6km from Naturno, with a 10km ascent seven kilometres before the finish line at Pieve di Bono.

The five-day race finishes on Friday on the banks of Lake Garda in Italy.