Simon Yates suffers Giro d’Italia blow on stage nine and hints he could pull out with a knee injury

Simon Yates suffered extra Giro d’Italia disappointment as his pink-jersey hopes have been extinguished on the climb of the mighty Blockhaus.

Jai Hindley took the stage-nine win in a digital picture end with Romain Bardet and Richard Carapaz, as Juan Pedro Lopez simply hung on to the pink jersey regardless of nearly crashing on the ultimate climb.

That all occurred some 11 minutes earlier than Yates — nursing a knee injury suffered on stage 4 — crossed the road, having been dropped with 11km to go of the punishing 191km stage from Isernia.

Simon Yates noticed his pink-jersey hopes have been extinguished on the climb of Blockhaus

Team Bora’s Jai Hindley (third from the left) took the stage-nine win in a digital picture end

The British rider hinted he could now pull out, saying: ‘I was hopeful of still being able to try to do something, but I’ve been in a lot of ache since Etna. I’ve been making an attempt to handle it as finest as attainable. It wasn’t my solely downside as we speak, I suffered with the warmth. I’ll see what occurs. I’ll see how I pull up.’

It means the BikeExchange-Jayco rider has as soon as once more come into the Giro as one of many favourites, just for it to unravel. 

The 29-year-old, who loved two weeks within the pink jersey in 2018 solely to lose it within the third week as Chris Froome broke clear, has seen his hopes of a repeat disappear in every of the final three years.

Yates, who underlined his credentials with victory within the stage-two time trial, had beforehand tried to minimize the impression of the knock suffered in a tumble in Sicily on Tuesday.

Yates sustained a knee injury through the fourth stage and had tried to minimize the impression