Poetic justice
Simon Yates wins the Giro d’Italia with a masterclass as Carapaz fights and Del Toro fails to take on the responsibility for defending the maglia rosa himself.
I genuinely believe that travelling is overrated. It’s often a superficial, trivial and expensive experience. But it all depends on how and with whom.
For the past few years, one of my favourite traditions has been driving up to the Pyrenees with my friends Manu and Ventura to watch the Tour de France stages that pass through.
The best rider in the world in July 2022 was Wout van Aert: I’m not going to argue about that. The Belgian, on one of those days, in Hautacam, gave us what was possibly the greatest individual performance in modern cycling. He was in the breakaway, as he did for most of that Tour, until the Vingegaard–Pogačar duo came to him. Amazing happens: He set the pace and the two-time winner of the previous editions, exploded. The man who’d won the sprint on the Champs-Élysées the year before had just dropped the best Grand Tour rider in the world on a hors catégorie climb. Pfffff.
I mean no disrespect to Simon Yates, a well deserving winner of the 2025 Giro d’Italia, but today Wout transported me back to that sweltering summer of 2022, to the infernal slopes of Hautacam, the sticky tarmac, those cans of beer, Manu’s radio buzzing in the absence of a TV signal and the distant whir of the helicopter.
Nostalgia is one of the world’s most powerful industries, and even if travelling is overrated, Wout reminded me today why I keep coming back each summer to the mountains where I have been that happy.
The order of things matters
I know it, you who are reading this know it and RCS knows it too. They have designed a final week full of mountains, legendary climbs and linked ascents to decide a Giro that had been lacking real toughness for two weeks. I’ve already discussed this Giro’s weaknesses at length, so no need to dwell on them.
Concentrating all the difficulty in the final stages so that the race arrives close and exciting is a trick I dislike in cycling… and yet, it worked. Finestre blocked the race yesterday on the way to Champoluc, but today’s stage gave us drama, excitement and a complete twist in the Giro.
Del Toro, Carapaz and Yates arrived at the decisive day with just over a minute separating them, and Derek Gee looming as a threat in the fight for the podium. Despite the absence of Roglič, Ayuso and the Italians, it was an ideal race situation for the organisers.
We knew Carapaz would attack, as it’s in his nature and he has done so on almost every mountain day of this Giro. Del Toro struggled in the high mountains, and Finestre is one of the toughest mountain passes in Europe, especially because of those 9 kilometres of sterrato averaging 9% gradient.
This time, despite still having teammates in the group, he attacked from the base, putting Del Toro’s pure climbing abilities to the test on a one-hour ascent with very steep gradients. Neither EF nor UAE had managed to get a rider into the day’s breakaway, which was brilliantly finished off by Harper… and that ultimately proved decisive.
Wout van Aert was there for Visma, though. Wout van Aert is always there for Visma. We promise not to mention too often what happened at Dwars door Vlaanderen after today’s events.
Each of the four GC favourites took a different approach at the start of the climb up Finestre. Carapaz launched his usual sharp attacks, Del Toro set a steadier pace to close the gaps this time, Yates seemed detached from the early battle and Derek Gee... was just surviving.
Yates reached the leading duo and launched an attack. Carapaz closed down the move a couple of times, until about 15 kilometres from the finish when Simon Yates made his winning move on Finestre. The very same climb where he lost his chances of winning the 2018 Giro d’Italia with Chris Froome. So much symbolism, so much beauty and so much poetic justice.
Carapaz kept setting the pace, with Del Toro on his wheel and Gee struggling to keep up behind. Del Toro showed a composure unusual for someone his age who had never been in this situation before, while Carapaz faced double frustration: no one had done more than him to win this Giro, yet he couldn’t leave the leader behind in his assault on the maglia rosa and Yates was threatening his spot on the podium.
Cold blood turned into recklessness. Isaac del Toro, clearly on the limit, didn’t take a single pull on the Finestre climb, forcing several slowdowns in the pace and allowing Simon Yates to crest with a 1'40" lead, giving him the virtual maglia rosa.
At the decisive moment, the Latin American duo broke down. Del Toro asked Carapaz for a turn on the way to Sestriere, sensing the Giro was slipping away. Carapaz refused, frustrated by the lack of collaboration on Finestre. While doubts mounted behind, at the front Simon Yates latched onto the Van Aert express and saw his gap grow exponentially on the early slopes of Sestriere.
A perfect move by Visma, an ideal terrain for Van Aert and a masterful ride by Simon Yates, who quickly realised the 2025 Giro was his.
Simon Yates finished over five minutes ahead of Del Toro and Carapaz, who crossed the line escorted by Majka. At the finish, the two exchanged blame over their tactics. Carapaz claimed Del Toro “didn’t know how to race”, while Del Toro explained that with no cooperation, he focused on securing second place. He didn’t seem to be on the verge of cracking on Sestriere, but both he and his team should remember a few old cycling lessons that never go out of style: leaders must respond personally in extreme or decisive moments, and hierarchies matter. They matter a lot.
It might sound like hindsight today, but I’ve been writing about UAE’s lack of hierarchy ever since March, nearly every time Pogačar isn’t in the race. The lack of clarity has been constant.
First, leadership was handed to Juan Ayuso and Adam Yates, then Del Toro was added into the equation after Siena’s atage, without ruling out McNulty, who rarely worked for their teammates during the first two weeks.
There were internal battles over intermediate bonuses, and the culmination came in a situation that, in hindsight, feels almost absurd. On the Monte Grappa ascent, UAE rode at the front of the GC group, where Yates and Roglic were isolated, to close down a breakaway that included Carapaz, Bernal… and Del Toro. It’s cycling-fiction to guess what could have happened that day, but with that move they handed de facto leadership to Juan Ayuso and saved the rest of the contenders some work, especially Yates. We will never know. We will never forget it.
It was a reflection of UAE’s entire Giro: plenty of cards to play and the race in their hands… but they walk away with a painful defeat. An undisputed failure for the strongest team in the world.
Simon Yates claims glory and returns to a Grand Tour podium four years later in the best possible way.
He seemed out of contention for this kind of fights, but he reasserts himself, justifies his signing with Visma and injects optimism into a team that has long needed it, especially with the Tour in mind. But that doesn’t matter much today. Today is about honoring the champion, who, in a symbolic display, redeems himself from that day on Finestre and reminds us that sometimes, we can find happiness even in places that once cast such long shadows over us.
Now it's your turn! 👉
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