Briton Yates wins Tirreno Adriatico

(Reuters) - Britain's Simon Yates claimed overall victory in the Tirreno Adriatico after holding off his rivals in the final stage time trial in San Benedetto del Tronto on Monday.

The 28-year-old Mitchelton-Scott rider went into the 10km TT, the eighth stage, with a 16-second cushion over Rafal Majka and finished a handy 17th despite being a specialist climber.

Ineos Grenadiers rider Geraint Thomas used his strong time trial skills to finish fourth in the stage but was unable to claw back a 39-second deficit on Yates in the overall standings.

Thomas, who will ride the Giro d'Italia after being left off his team's Tour de France roster, finished second overall, 17 seconds behind Yates with Majka (Bora-Hansgrohe) dropping down to third place.

"It's my only stage race win outside the Vuelta and I'm just happy I could finish off the job of the team who did a fantastic job all week and today it was up to me," said Yates, whose brother Adam is vying for a podium spot at the Tour de France.

"I had time gap updates, but I was still going full gas. You never know until the last moment so I just tried to go to the maximum possible and I'm happy I could pull it off."

Thomas's team mate Italian Filippo Ganna, third in last year's world road championships, won the time trial in a rapid 10 minutes 42 seconds, 18 seconds better than Victor Campenaerts (NTT Pro Cycling).

(Reporting by Martyn Herman; Editing by Christian Radnedge)