Pope Leo XIV blesses Giro d'Italia riders on final stage as Simon Yates secures second grand tour title
After entering the Vatican, overall race leader Simon Yates and leaders of the other classifications got off their bikes and walked forward to shake hands with the pope, who was presented with a replica of the leader's pink jersey.
'You are role models for young people all over the world,' Leo told the peloton. 'May God bless all of you on this last part of the Giro d'Italia. Congratulations to all of you. May you know that you are always welcome here in the Vatican. You are always welcome by the church, which represents God's love for all people.'
In an off-script moment, Colombia's Nairo Quintana, the 2014 Giro champion, stopped to greet the pope after all of the other riders had already moved on.
While popes have blessed the Giro riders before and the race has previously passed through or next to St Peter's Square, this marked the first time that the route took the peloton on a three-kilometer (nearly two-mile) route inside the Vatican walls.
Bringing the race inside the Vatican was originally intended as an homage to Pope Francis during the 2025 Holy Year but after Francis died, Leo — the first American pope — decided to honour the event in Francis' memory.
The cyclists entered the Vatican through the Petriano gate to the left of St Peter's, rode around the basilica and then climbed up toward the gardens before exiting near the Santa Marta hotel at the Perugino gate.
Santa Marta was where Francis lived.
The passage through the Vatican occurred during the non-competitive neutralized period before the stage. The official start was given after the riders exited the narrow Perugino gate.
British rider Yates cruised to the title with an advantage of nearly four minutes after snatching the pink jersey from Isaac Del Toro Isaac of Mexico.
The 143-kilometer (89-mile) final stage concluded with a circuit of eight laps through downtown Rome and finished next to the Circus Maximus.
It's the third time since Leo was elected last month that he has met with the sports world.
Two weeks ago, Leo held a private audience with top-ranked tennis player Jannik Sinner. Then last week, he welcomed the players and staff of Italian soccer champion Napoli to the Vatican.
The final stage was won by Yates' team-mate Olav Kooij in a sprint finish.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
RTÉ News
2 hours ago
- RTÉ News
Munster set for changing of the guard after narrow loss
Munster were knocked out of the BKT URC play-offs after a nerve-wracking penalty shootout that included some questionable sportsmanship. However, what could get lost amidst the conversations involving the mild controversy is that some of Munster's most experienced players are now finishing up in the club. The standard of player retiring or leaving the province this year are almost irreplaceable. There is still a question mark over Conor Murray's future and where he will play rugby. He announced that he'll be leaving Munster without announcing his retirement, suggesting that there'll be rugby in his future, beyond his Barbarians involvement later this month. Regardless of whether his career goes on beyond that game, Murray has been one of Ireland's most consistent high-end performers in his time in green, without ever letting complacency creep into his club appearances. I've often spoken about what it means when someone suggests that mindset is what separates players at the top of the game with other professional or non-professional players. Murray epitomises the difference. I was always struck by his return to Munster, whether he was on tour with the British and Irish Lions or with the national side. The Limerick man always came back and gave 7 or 8 out of 10 performances as a minimum. The challenge is to keep the same hunger when you drop back a level, but Murray never acted like he was above any level and flicked the switch as soon as he came back to training. The 36-year-old has been at the very top of the global game. He lived in that sphere for several seasons. He's been one of Ireland's best players no matter which era you're speaking about. His involvement last weekend proves his worth. He came off the bench at 65 minutes, not expecting to play extra-time. Yet it was his late penalty from distance that sent the game to extra-time. The scrum-half stepped up in the penalty shootout, too. He's been a class act throughout his career, and he finished with Munster still showing that. Speaking of players that are near impossible to replace, Peter O' Mahony has received his share of fanfare across the last few games because of the uncertainty surrounding when Munster's season would come to an end. He said farewell to Thomond Park and Virgin Media Park in successive games. His mindset is the part of his game that's irreplaceable. His physical ability was under-appreciated by the very end of his career, but nobody ever dared to underestimate his physical ability in a lineout. His leadership isn't easy to find, his rugby IQ doesn't come along often, and Munster are going to miss him an awful lot in the coming seasons. Stephen Archer will bow out of the game following last weekend's defeat. He'll retire as Munster's most-capped player, which is a sign of his consistency and durability in a position that requires a robust animal. One of my earlier memories of Archer was over 10 years ago now. It was one of my first preseasons with Munster as a graduate of the underage system. Academy players would often get called in for preseason. Archer ran an incredibly fast 1km time trial, mixing it with loose forwards and backs. You couldn't always say that about front row players. His approach and professionalism stuck with me since that day. It's not surprising that he fought his way to top appearances in Munster, in a dressing room that recognises him as the character within the walls of the high-performance centre. If there's craic to be had, you know Archer is behind the scenes orchestrating something. He's a players' player with his career spanning the length of the gap between Munster's two league victories. The Cork native was on the bench in 2011 when Munster beat Leinster in the Celtic League final. He became an 80-minute man when Munster won the league two seasons ago. He's had an incredible career and deserves to bow out with the honour of the club's most used player. The future of Rory Scannell is also uncertain, following his 200th appearance for Munster last weekend. He was one of Munster's most robust players for a long period after his breakthrough with the club. My last games in red were played alongside Rory, in a pressurised season where he was the shining light. Throughout team performances that were mixed and inconsistent, Scannell stepped up repeatedly as a younger member of the team. I watched a highlight reel last week in the build-up to his 200th appearance. He has won games with his powerful left boot, while crossing for tries and playmaking from midfield. He's an intelligent all-rounder and a guy that lives and breathes the game. Munster lost a knockout game last weekend, but the reality is that they're losing an incredible amount of rugby IQ, leadership and consistency. It will give younger members of the team the chance to step up. They have no choice. Replacing some of these players will be an enormous task. Many supporters are looking forward to the introduction of Clayton McMillan in the hopes that fortunes will turn once again. However, they'll have to manage this period without a huge wealth of experience and players with a strong Munster identity. Change is inevitable, but it feels like big changes are coming in Munster.
Irish Examiner
7 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
Colman Noctor: Using a sports psychology game plan to manage exam stress
In the heat of exam season, students will grapple with anxiety, self-doubt, and the pressure to perform. The stress can closely mirror the psychological battles faced by athletes competing at the highest levels. While sports psychology is used to enhance athletic performance, it also offers a rich toolkit of mental strategies that can boost academic performance and help students cope with intense pressure. From goal setting to visualisation, from self-talk to arousal regulation, the principles that help elite athletes perform under pressure can also be effective for students preparing for state exams. The connection between sports and academic exam performance might seem tenuous. One involves physical prowess, the other intellectual rigour. However, the psychological demands are strikingly similar. Athletes and students must prepare over extended periods, perform under pressure, manage expectations, recover from setbacks, and maintain focus over time. One of the core principles in sports psychology, a discipline founded by American Coleman Griffith in the 1920s, is effective goal setting. Athletes often break down long-term aspirations, such as qualifying for the Olympics, in to a series of smaller, manageable goals. Similarly, students can benefit from setting SMART goals: Specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Rather than vaguely aim to 'do well in my exams', a student might set specific targets, like completing a past exam paper in a day or mastering a topic within three days. This approach can create direction and help sustain motivation, especially when the exam date is looming and they are feeling overwhelmed. Also, ticking off these mini goals from your to-do list can boost their sense of accomplishment, a key predictor of performance under pressure. Elite athletes use visualisation, or imagery, to mentally rehearse their performance before stepping on to the field. According to Canadian performance psychologist Terry Orlick, if an athlete can visualise themselves successfully executing a particular skill, that activates similar neural pathways to the ones used during the actual performance. For example, when golfer Rory McIlroy is standing over a crucial putt, he would have been encouraged by his sports psychologist, Bob Rotella, to visualise the previous putts he had successfully executed, rather than flood his mind with the ones that he had missed. For students, visualisation can be adapted in multiple ways. One technique could involve imagining sitting calmly during the exam, confidently answering questions, and managing time effectively. Another involves mentally rehearsing the steps needed to solve a complex problem. Visualisation is believed to not only reduce anxiety, but also improve recall and problem-solving speed. One of the central concepts in sports psychology is the relationship between arousal (a physiological and psychological state of alertness) and performance. The inverted-U hypothesis, first proposed by psychologists Robert Yerkes and John Dodson in 1908, suggests that performance increases with arousal to an optimal point, after which further arousal can be detrimental. For athletes, this means finding the right level of intensity. If they are too relaxed, they risk underperforming, and if they are too tense, they could freeze or make errors. The same applies to exams. Mild anxiety can sharpen focus, but excessive stress can cloud thinking and impair memory and concentration. Students can learn to regulate their arousal levels through techniques like controlled breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, and mindfulness meditation. These help to bring the body back to a state where performance is optimised. Positive affirmation Athletes often rely on self-talk to boost confidence and focus during competitions. Phrases like, 'I've trained for this' or 'I can handle this moment' can help them manage pressure and redirect negative thoughts. The same approach can apply to students who experience self-doubt. They, too, can use affirmations and constructive self-talk to build resilience. This technique can be used to counter negative inner dialogue, such as, 'I'm going to fail', which is common before exams. Replacing these thoughts with statements like, 'I'm prepared and capable' or 'I've done the work' can create a more self-supportive mental environment. This practice is not about naive optimism, but about reminding oneself of genuine preparation and real strengths. Elite athletes often use pre-performance routines to help focus and block out distractions. Like tennis players who bounce the ball before serving or a rugby kicker methodically stepping back to approach the ball, they're not just following superstition; they're engaging in a ritual that helps ground their attention and engage their muscle memory. Students can apply similar routines before study sessions and exams to enhance their performance. Perhaps a few minutes of deep breathing and organising of materials can help shift the brain in to 'performance mode'. Similarly, a pre-exam routine that incorporates controlled breathing can help maintain calmness and clarity. Another overlap between sports psychology and exam preparation is the ability to plan a response to inevitable adversity. There will be failures and setbacks in sports and exams. What distinguishes successful performers is not the absence of failure, but the response to it. Sports psychology interventions can make a crucial difference to performance, according to a recent review of the sports psychology literature by Italian scientist Dr Selenia di Fronso, from the Department of Medicine at the University of Chieti, Italy. One such intervention is promoting a growth mindset, where challenges and mistakes are viewed as opportunities for learning rather than threats to self-worth. Reflecting on mistakes without ruminating and then adjusting your strategy to maintain effort are core aspects of athletic training and exam preparation. Adopting the mindset of an athlete does not mean treating exams as a battlefield or pushing oneself to the point of exhaustion. Instead, it involves intentional preparation, mental discipline, and practices like breathing and visualisation to manage high levels of arousal and gain clarity in stressful situations. Encouraging students to incorporate sports psychology techniques in to their academic routines is not just about memorising facts; it is about training their minds to handle pressure, stay focused, and perform at their best when it counts most. A day of rest Another metaphor from the sporting world is the importance of taking breaks. In any fitness regimen, rest days are crucial for progress. The brain is like a muscle: It needs to relax to refill. And, much like a muscle in your body that is being trained, it needs time to repair and grow back stronger. Many stressed students fail to see the value in rest periods and so will try to power through, even though they are unable to retain new information. Reminding them of the risks of over-training a muscle can help them to see the necessity of rest periods and ease the guilt sometimes associated with taking breaks so close to the exam period. Marathoners do not run five marathons the week before the race — they conserve their energy by doing shorter runs in the lead-up to the big day. In an era of rising academic stress and competition, the need for effective coping and performance strategies has never been greater. The field of sports psychology, which was once confined to the locker room, can also serve a purpose in the exam hall. By harnessing these principles, students are not only preparing for exams, they are also developing life skills that will serve them far beyond the first three weeks in June. If your child comes to you in a panic about the state exams, there may not be time to cover the whole curriculum. Still, there is scope to help them manage these acute, panicky feelings and remind them of the skill set used by elite athletes to keep the mind calm when the central nervous system is spiralling in to overdrive. I've used sports psychology tips with exam students in recent years, and many have reported that they found them helpful. Hopefully, your child will report the same once they reach the finish line. Dr Colman Noctor is a child psychotherapist
Irish Daily Mirror
8 hours ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
Munster a victim of pure sh*thousery in Durban - writes One F in Foley
Munster didn't deserve to beat Sharks in normal time in Durban, nor did they show enough to win in extra-time. But they didn't deserve to be treated to extraordinary sh*thousery in the shoot-out, specifically as Jack Crowley lined up the fourth of his side's six kicks at Tullow Tank AKA Sean O'Brien delighted in telling anyone who would listen that the advent of 28 and more TV cameras at big matches had more or less done away with players attempting anything underhand. Sh*thousery (British slang, def: 'underhand conduct or gamesmanship, playing dirty, using questionable tactics to win, being a skilful opportunist') is a good word for the King's Park goings on and Jaden Hendrikse deserves ownership of it too. So while the Sharks' no9 didn't do anything illegal when, following kicking his penalty he collapsed to the turf and, claiming immobilising cramp, refused to budge, interfering with Crowley's preparation and taking of his basked in a variety of individuals arriving to stretch his calf, chatting to the referee presumably to point out how helpless he was, and taking time to apparently wink knowingly at Crowley - all which ever-so blatantly caught on camera - was not against Rugby it was Crowley kept his nerve, even if his wounded-duck kick somehow managed to reassert itself and get through posts but he was clearly raging at Hendrikse after the match had ended. You didn't have to be a lip-reader to recognise one phrase repeated over and over Saturday's referee Mike Adamson looked indecisive as the tension ramped up but, says a former World Cup, Six Nations, Rugby Championship, Heineken Cup and Celtic League referee and on who played the game at a very, very high standard too: "There is not a lot the referee can do but if you want to stay with the values of the game, that was something that should have been avoided - could the player have fallen a bit further away, even crawled a little bit out of the picture? "I think the authorities have to look at the attitude of the Sharks players and the management but that's an after-the-event occurrence and won't affect a result. "The player definitely had a cramp, you can see clearly that his leg is cramping in the TV footage so that is not a lie but the referee was never going to order the ambulance-buggy to come on. "The player hadn't broken his leg, he had cramp and if the buggy had been called on it would have added to the bullshit and drama. "Plus, and here is a thing we don't know, what was said between those two players earlier in the game, there was a lot going on."Munster, and long suffering Munster fans with memories of Neil Back and of Lille, have few options other than being pissed off."They can make a complaint in writing to the URC, and address it to the Referees Manager. "Can the Sharks player be cited? I don't know but I'd say 'no'. Have you ever heard of a player being cited for giving a bit of 'lip' to another guy. I've never seen it at the professional level, not for 'lip'."I'd have great sympathy with Jack Crowley and it is part of their being too much bullshit going on in the modern game, captains are getting involved too much, there are too many people calling for TMO reviews and making gestures demanding yellow cards for opposition players..."Meanwhile Leinster's South African coach Jacques Nienaber says it just an unfortunate by-product of the modern rugby world, noting generally of sh*thousery:"It's something that happens in the game from minute one to minute 80. There's banter and trying to get under a guy's skin and trying to physically impose yourself on him and try and rub his hair."I mean that happens for 80 minutes, so in this case it was for everyone to see because it's not as secluded as what will be in a game. But it happens in a game."Think of Pete (O'Mahony), what did he tell Sam Cane? I mean, that banter flys. If you listen to just the referee mic and you take the commentators away, it's crazy what you hear on that mic. They got stuck into each other. It's just normal."There were some other takeaways, Sharks looked better prepared for the shootout part of the game something, incidentally, Leinster have been giving consideration too in recent weeks.'It's something that's been living with a team since Europe when we went to the round 16, and it's the same format in the URC. "So it's not something that's not being discussed or planned or detailed. It's something that's been living with a team for over two months, definitely something you talk through."We practice both the kicks and the scenario. Everybody understands their role, who's going to kick, that obviously changed with the team against Zebre, didn't have the same players against Glasgow, didn't have the same players last week.'It is not a question of being a fan of the shoot-out or not, it exists."That's the format that's given to you. I don't know if it's a good or a bad thing. I think fans love it and I think from a spectator view it's brilliant. I enjoyed it. I loved it. But I don't want to be the team that does it.'The first one I saw was Munster against Toulouse three years ago in Europe. That was the first time I actually saw it and both times that I've witnessed it. I think it grabs your attention but I would probably say something different if I'm in that team.'And while not suggesting here that Munster were quite Mick McCarthy who having lost a shoot-out looked incredulously at a reporter who had asked had his side practiced penalties (they hadn't!).It was that the Sharks kickers seemed very assured, had better rhythm, looked like everyday kickers at agreed albeit with some 'inside' information: 'Yeah. So the guy, Bradley Davids, who kicked the last kick was my son's roommate at school. He was the kicker for the school. You might know it, because he's only a young guy, he's 22 coming through the ranks.'
