Not for the first time in the Giro d'Italia, Jack Haig was the boatman to lead Simon Yates to shore, and just as in Bardonecchia two years earlier, in the closing kilometers, at the top of Mount Etna, Haig coaxed the Englishman to slow his pace to match the fading leader.

That time, Yates was in crisis in the Colle delle Finestre after two weeks of running the Maria Rosa. Yates' struggles were evident from the previous day in Pratone Voso. Yates' struggles this time came as a surprise to the Mitchelton-Scott team, which had spent most of the afternoon pacing at the front of the peloton in an attempt to lead Yates to a stage win.

In hindsight, Mitchelton-Scott had already surrendered the lead on the final climb from Linguagrossa to Piano Provenzana when Geraint Thomas (Ineos), a victim of a crash at the stage start, dropped out of the peloton.

Yates was in a group of leading riders until midway up the climb, when he began to drift backwards in the pack. With a little over 8km to go, lead-like raindrops began to fall more and more heavily, and Yates was easily pulled away; losing nearly a minute to his direct rivals at about 1,500m, he could do little to stem the bleeding as he then climbed toward the dark clouds at the summit. [He was 4:22 behind winner Jonathan Caicedo (EF Pro Cycling) and more than 3.5 minutes behind Vincenzo Nibali (Trek-Segafredo), Steven Kruijswijk (Jumbo-Visma) and Rafal Mayka (Bora-Hansgrohe). In the overall standings, Yates dropped to 25th, 3:46 behind new maglia rosa Joao Almeida (Detunink-Quickstep) and about 3 minutes behind Nibali.

"We are one of the favorites to win this race and we wanted to win this stage, so we controlled it to win.

"The riders did a good job of controlling the breakaway group and there were no signs that Simon was out of shape. There was no indication that Simon was out of shape at all at that point. Trek gave Geraint Thomas more time and pushed the pace. Simon lost time today, so it was important to minimize our losses."

Yates initially targeted the 2020 Giro d'Italia with an eye toward competing in the Tokyo Olympics, but maintained his focus on the Corsa Rosa even after a coronavirus outbreak postponed the event and reorganized the cycling calendar.

Yates, who lost the pink jersey in brutal circumstances in 2018 and endured a tepid ride in the Giro last year, felt he probably had a race to settle and arrived in Palermo as one of the favorites after a solid overall win in Tirreno-Adriatico.

After a brilliant run in Saturday's opening time trial, Yates is already relegated to the status of outsider after his crushing defeat on Mount Etna, and his path to victory in the twilight of the October Giro is infinitely more fragile.

"We're going to come at it from a different angle," he said. I was thinking about attacking from the front in the early mountain stages and the time trial. Now I'm going to go from the back."

It is too early to say whether Yates simply suffered an off-day or whether his struggles on Mount Etna are evidence of a deeper malaise. His run here was very similar to his bland run in the time trial in San Marino a year ago, but White preferred to focus on how the Giro's recent history has been colored by late upsets.

"The Giro always wins in the last week," he said. It's always a brutal finish and there's a long time between now and the finish. This race is about one day at a time. This race is decided in the last week or nine days.

In 2018, when Yates lost 38 minutes and Maglia Rosa in Bardonecchia, his second-in-command Haig tried to sort out some of the day's events. Said Haig: "There's another Giro next year."

This time, for better or worse, there will be another Giro this year.