Yates wins Giro stage nine to extend overall lead

GRAN SASSO (Reuters) - Britain's Simon Yates timed his final sprint to perfection to claim Giro d'Italia ninth stage and extend his lead in the overall classification on Sunday. The 25-year-old rider stormed past his rivals near the summit of Gran Sasso d'Italia to finish ahead of Frenchman Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) and his Mitchelton-Scott team mate Esteban Chaves. Yates now has a 32-second lead over Chaves in the overall standings, with defending champion Tom Dumoulin 38 seconds back. It was another difficult day for Britain's four-time Tour de France champion Chris Froome, who fell away from the leading group in the 225-kilometre ride. Team Sky's Froome is now two minutes and 27 seconds behind Yates and down to 11th place overall. After recording his first stage win at this year's Giro, Yates thanked his team mates who kept him out of trouble during another long day in the saddle. "That one was for the boys who've been riding on the front all day - they've had a couple of tough days, always riding on the front on some really long stages," he said. "From the beginning of the stage today, we were always thinking that if we kept the break close enough then it might be possible for the stage." Monday is the second rest day in the race, which ends in Rome on May 27. (Reporting by Hardik Vyas in Bengaluru, editing by Pritha Sarkar)