Australian cyclist Chris Harper claims penultimate stage of the Giro d'Italia, as Simon Yates bursts to the lead
Australian Chris Harper has won the penultimate stage of the Giro d'Italia with the ride of his life — but he was still happy to play second fiddle to his one-time British teammate Simon Yates, who sensationally exploded the race to grab almost certain overall victory.
Harper, a 30-year-old stalwart for Australian team Jayco AlUla, enjoyed his first ever individual grand tour victory with an epic solo effort on the brutal 20th 'queen' stage from Verres to Sestriere, conquering one of cycling's most brutal climbs, the Colle delle Finestre, to battle home alone one minute 49 seconds clear of the field.
It was a wondrous moment for Harper, a fine 12-year pro, as he rode clear of a breakaway near the top of the climb on Saturday and then held on for his first race victory for nearly six years, as an incredible story was building behind him.
His ex-Jayco teammate Yates, now at Team Visma-Lease a Bike, dropped race leader Isaac del Toro on the Finestre with another monumental ride to clinch the leader's pink jersey with just one flat, largely ceremonial flat stage left.
Yates, who had started the day 1min 21sec adrift, ended it 3:56 ahead of del Toro and 4:43 ahead of Richard Carapaz, and he'll ride into Rome with a second grand tour title in the bag.
The great irony is that 32-year-old Yates, a former Vuelta winner, had lost the Giro to Chris Froome by cracking on the same climb seven years ago when he was with the Jayco team known then as Mitchelton-Scott.
Sunday's redemption ride left Yates sobbing with joy.
"I don't know what I'm happier about, though, getting a stage win or seeing Yatesy win pink," Harper said.
"He's an awesome guy, I had the pleasure of racing with him for a couple of seasons and I don't think anyone deserves the pink jersey more than him.
"It means a lot for me to win on this stage. It's such a famous climb and I'm pretty proud to win the stage here. It's a super challenging one, and I'm really happy I could pull it off."
Harper became Australia's third stage winner of the 2025 Giro after Kaden Groves took the sixth stage and Luke Plapp soloed away in the eighth.
"I came here looking for GC (the general classification) and I was feeling good in the first week, but then got sick on the second rest day," he said.
"I started to feel pretty bad and ended up on antibiotics, and then slipped off of the GC. After that, I was looking for a stage win."
It came in dramatic fashion as he made one key push with 16km left and then finally rode his last challenger, runner-up Alessandro Verre (Arkea-B&B Hotels), off his wheel.
Harper still couldn't be sure of the win, though, with Yates catching him fast in third place.
"I asked the (team) car one last time how big the gap was, I knew Simon was coming, I wasn't super confident. Only once I got to about 1.5km to go, I knew I could hold on. It was a bit of a relief," he said.
"When the route was released I always had in the back of my mind to try and do something here and close the chapter, let's say.
"I'm still a bit speechless really."
AAP
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