Briton Yates secures elusive Giro d'Italia title

West Australian

2 days ago

Simon Yates has claimed victory at the 2025 Giro d'Italia, securing his second Grand Tour triumph having effectively sealed the title a day earlier when he snatched the pink jersey from Isaac Del Toro.
Yates and other riders received blessings from Pope Leo at the Vatican on Sunday before the Briton cruised to the finish in Rome on the final stage, which was won by teammate Olav Kooij in a sprint finish ahead of battling Australian rider Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck).
Groves' compatriot Michael Storer was the highest ranked Australian rider overall, finishing 10th in the general classification.
Fellow Australian Chris Harper, who won Saturday's brutal penultimate stage from Verres to Sestriere, finished 23rd overall.
Yates, riding in all pink on a pink bike, also became the first rider since Alberto Contador in 2015 to win the Giro without claiming victory on any of the stages.
The Briton wore pink for 13 days during the 2018 Giro before cracking on one of the final climbs. He also had to withdraw from the Italian race in 2020 and 2022 — because of coronavirus and a knee injury, respectively.
"I'm still in shock of what I've done," Yates said.
"It's something that I've been working toward for a long time."
Yates, who rides for Team Visma Lease a Bike, finished 3 minutes, 56 seconds ahead of Del Toro and 4:43 ahead of Richard Carapaz, the 2019 champion from Ecuador.
After riding 3,300 km through Italy, Albania and Slovenia, the final stage was a 143km ride starting and finishing in Rome, including eight laps of a 9.5 km long circuit in the Eternal City.
As the riders cycled past Rome's landmarks like the Colosseum, a six-man breakaway went 24 seconds ahead of the pink jersey group with less than 50 km to go.
But by the time they had one lap left, four riders were dropped, with only Josef Cerny and Enzo Paleni left in the lead.
Cerny then dropped Paleni to attempt a solo ride to the finish but he was quickly reeled in with six kilometres left.
Visma-Lease a Bike wanted the perfect finish and they executed it to perfection when Wout Van Aert led the sprint out on the final kilometre before Kooij surged ahead to take the victory, his second after winning stage 12, just pipping Groves and Matteo Moschetti.