Britain's Simon Yates comes from behind to win Giro d'Italia

Times

7 days ago

Simon Yates produced one of the great performances by a British rider in a grand tour, coming from behind to win the Giro d'Italia by almost four minutes.
At the beginning of the day, Yates trailed the leader Isaac del Toro by 1min 21 seconds and second-place Richard Carapaz by 38 seconds. At the end of the day — having put more than five minutes into his nearest rivals — he was 3min 56sec clear of Del Toro and 4min 43sec clear of Carapaz. There is one final ceremonial stage to Rome remaining, which Yates will ride in pink.
Seven years ago, Yates led the Giro when Chris Froome attacked on the Colle delle Finestre. Yates collapsed and lost more than an hour on Froome, who went on to win the race. It is a result that has hung over Yates's career, though he won the Vuelta a Espana later that year.
'The first talk that we had with him at his first training camp, it was really only about this stage,' Marc Reef, his directeur sportif, said. 'He wanted to do well here. Now on the Finestre, he is turning this Giro upside down. It's incredible that he had the legs and the mental strength to do it this way.'
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Here, the story was almost reversed. After an early leadout from EF Education-EasyPost, Richard Carapaz attacked on the lower slopes of the Finestre and was followed only by the pink jersey Isaac del Toro. But soon after, Yates bridged the gap comfortably and almost immediately tried an attack. Carapaz and Del Toro responded to that first foray, but soon after they could not. The gap at first grew slowly, but by the time he passed through the gravel section at the summit of the Finestre, he was into the virtual pink jersey.
In a tactical masterstroke from his team, Visma-Lease a Bike, Wout van Aert — who had been in the day's breakaway — was waiting to guide his leader through the valley before the climb to Sestriere. As Van Aert motored through the valley, Del Toro and Carapaz effectively conceded. As Carapaz refused to do any work to close the gap to Yates, Del Toro was on the team radio before also refusing to work. Out front, Van Aert, had put another two and a half minutes into the Del Toro-Carapaz group.
On the slopes to Sestriere, Van Aert having spent himself in a race-clinching turn through the valley, Yates went out alone. The gap continued to grow. He could not close the gap to Chris Harper of Jayco-Alula, who won the stage — and in fact, he will win the overall without having won a stage — but in the end his margin over Del Toro was emphatic.
'It's incredible,' Van Aert said. 'Such a brave effort from Simon to go all in from so far. Chapeau to him.'