Simon Yates finishes safely in peloton to seal victory at Giro d'Italia
Yates took a lead of almost four minutes into stage 21 and finished safely in the peloton as Visma-Lease a Bike team-mate Olav Kooij came out on top in a sprint finish.
Yates effectively sealed victory on Saturday's penultimate stage when he exorcised his personal demons on the Colle delle Finestre with a stunning solo attack to claim the race leader's pink jersey.
Simon Yates wins the Giro d'Italia 2025 🩷🏆
Simon Yates vince il Giro d'Italia 2025 🩷🏆
🎨 Alessio Giannone#GirodItalia pic.twitter.com/nAUJmVKXHH
— Giro d'Italia (@giroditalia) June 1, 2025
On the mountain where his dreams of victory were shattered by Chris Froome's famous solo breakaway in 2018, Yates turned the tables with a masterclass of his own as his rivals were left to question their own tactics.
The 32-year-old Lancastrian rode away from leader Isaac del Toro and Richard Carapaz on the brutal gradients and the gravel to turn an 81-second deficit and third place into a three minute, 56-second lead over Del Toro.
With the final stage a largely-ceremonial affair, which started with the leading riders meeting Pope Leo XIV, only a serious crash would have denied Yates a second Grand Tour victory following his success in the 2018 Vuelta a Espana.
He is the third British rider to win the Giro after Froome in 2018 and Tao Geohegan Hart in 2020.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
a day ago
- The Independent
The Simon Yates lesson that Isaac del Toro must learn from unforgettable Giro d'Italia
One year on from Tadej Pogacar 's demolition job of the competition at his maiden Giro d'Italia, another young climber was having his moment in the sun. The comparisons were inevitable as soon as Isaac Del Toro appeared on the scene: lean, explosive, with a natural gift for spotting his moment, an obvious thrill for racing. But as the Mexican progressed through this Giro d'Italia it felt like the Tadej Pogacar comparisons weighed lightly on his shoulders. The 21-year-old seemed a changed figure from the wide-eyed figure who pulled on the maglia rosa in disbelief on stage nine, at the end of an audacious attack on one of the race's toughest stages, the gravel-dotted run into Siena. The UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider grew into the race, seeming to grow in confidence and stature with each day in head-to-toe pink. It proved difficult for the likes of Richard Carapaz to dislodge him as he marked every one of his rivals' moves, never missing a beat. He outlasted both Juan Ayuso and Adam Yates, in theory the squad's official co-leaders going into the race. There were echoes of another prodigious talent's youthful enthusiasm in his attacking racing style, and like with Pogacar's Tour de France in 2022, it proved insufficient to win the Giro d'Italia. Jumbo-Visma isolated Pogacar in the French Alps, wearing the Slovenian down through an all-out assault, as his tremendous efforts over the course of the race told and he finally buckled. A similar situation happened the following year. In Italy, Del Toro appeared at ease closing gaps when other GC contenders attacked, but there were raised eyebrows at his decision to do it all himself, rather than letting his teammates do the dirty work. Question marks remain over UAE Team Emirates' tactics at this race, from their unwillingness to throw the full weight of the squad behind one or the other of del Toro and Ayuso when the Mexican was in the ascendancy, to the failure to work to bring back Yates on the Colle delle Finestre, instead letting the race win ride away into the clouds. Ironically, it was partially a reversion to conservative tactics that cost Del Toro the win – but his exhaustion on the penultimate stage will only have been compounded by the unnecessary energy he spent earlier in the race. Inevitably, Del Toro will be back; his class and ability were apparent as a youngster and have only been emphasised by his near two-week stint in the pink jersey. He is the youngest podium finisher at the Giro since Fausto Coppi 85 years ago, and second on his Giro debut. Grand Tour wins are in his future. But rather than youthful enthusiasm and star power, this Giro was won on patience and experience. Simon Yates raced his 2018 Giro in the aggressive way Del Toro began his stint in pink, before cracking spectacularly with the finish line in sight, losing 38 minutes on the Finestre as he watched Chris Froome ride away to glory. This time Yates, 21st on stage one, kept a low profile until the last possible moment. It was a win seven years in the making. While Del Toro stole the show for much of this race, and the complex politics among UAE's young cohort of starlets made for drama, this race was one for a generation of old-timers. Comparatively, at least. For Primoz Roglic, the overwhelming pre-race favourite, it was a disappointment. In his last twelve Grand Tours, going back to his maiden Vuelta victory in 2019, he has either finished on the podium (seven times) or abandoned the race (five). But this was the redemption tour for the 32-year-old Simon Yates; the exhilarating comeback of 28-year-old Egan Bernal, seventh on GC in Rome and back to attacking ways, three years on from the crash that nearly killed him; the unexpected renaissance of one of cycling's canniest racers, 32-year-old Richard Carapaz. Last year's Giro was a story of untempered dominance, of one of the most brilliant riders to ever grace the sport. This year's was a story of romance, of incredible perseverance, of a rider returning triumphant to the scene of one of his lowest moments. On the other side, it was a story of a young man with the hopes of an entire nation on his shoulders, making history for Mexico and breaking new ground. Lit up by the attacks of the 2019 and 2021 winners, won by a rider who may have thought his chances of another victory at the corsa rosa had passed him by, and the scene of Del Toro's coming of age, this Giro was the sport's past, present and future, all in one.
The Independent
a day ago
- The Independent
Pope Leo blesses cyclists competing in the Giro d'Italia
Pope Leo imparted his blessing to more than 150 cyclists participating in the Giro d'Italia on Sunday, as the final stage of the three-week race commenced with an unprecedented route through the Vatican gardens, behind St. Peter's Basilica. Upon entering Vatican City, overall race leader Simon Yates and other classification leaders dismounted to greet the Pope, presenting him 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 unscripted moment, Nairo Quintana of Colombia, the 2014 Giro champion, paused to greet the Pope after the other riders had 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-kilometre (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 neutralised period before the stage. The official start was given after the riders exited the narrow Perugino gate. British rider Yates could cruise to the title with an advantage of nearly four minutes over Isaac Del Toro of Mexico. The 143-kilometre (89-mile) final stage concluded with a circuit of eight laps through downtown Rome and finished next to the Circus Maximus. It is the third time since Leo was elected that he has met with the sports world. Two weeks ago, . Then last week, he welcomed the players and staff of Italian soccer champions Napoli to the Vatican.
The Guardian
a day ago
- The Guardian
Simon Yates rides away with prize of Giro d'Italia while rivals lose the plot
The Mexican standoff is a much-loved cinematic device, but the stalemate beloved of western movie script writers has rarely, if ever, decided one of cycling's Grand Tours. The 2025 Giro d'Italia was the exception, appositely as the biggest loser was an actual Mexican, Isaac del Toro, with the unassuming Lancastrian Simon Yates the two-wheeled equivalent of the bandit who skips off with the loot, while two other bandits – in this case Richard Carapaz and Del Toro – stare each other down waiting for the other man to blink. Yates's second career Grand Tour win, forged on the Colle delle Finestre on Saturday afternoon in a peerless display of courage and cunning, and sealed 24 hours later in the streets of Rome, will go down in cycling's annals as one of the most improbable heists the sport has witnessed. The endless joy of the Grand Tours – Spain, France, Italy – is that they throw up all kinds of delightful scenarios, but there have been few, if any, where the decisive plot line was a frozen stalemate between the cyclists in first and second places, each waiting for the other to move while a third man skipped away to victory. This was probably the most bizarre act of self-immolation in a Grand Tour since 1989, when Pedro Delgado wrecked his race on day one by getting lost en route to the start of the prologue time trial. To understand how this happened, the first key element is Yates himself. Now 32, his career has been marked by two qualities: patience and sang-froid. His ability to wait for the right moment, and to seize that moment, has been the hallmark of his best wins, going back to his earliest triumphs: his 2011 stage win in the Tour de l'Avenir, his 2013 world title in the points race on the velodrome in Minsk, and his Tour of Britain stage win later that year. When he threw caution to the winds, at the Giro in 2018, it backfired spectacularly at the end of the three weeks, in no less a place than the Colle delle Finestre; when he won the Vuelta a few months later, he had learned the lesson and bided his time. That it has taken so long for him to take a second Grand Tour can be largely summed up in one word: Slovenia. Seven years ago, no one would have predicted the rise and rise of Tadej Pogacar and Primoz Roglic. Yates first looked like a potential winner on the day that Del Toro took the race lead, the gravel‑road stage into Siena, and he had ridden the perfect race since then, never losing enough time to rule him out, never putting his cards on the table. It took more than guts and patience; it needed the other pieces of the tactical jigsaw to slot into place. His team, Visma‑Lease-a-Bike, did what they had to do best: sending a satellite rider ahead in the day's main escape in case of need. Most days, the pawns had had limited impact; here, the strongest and most versatile, the Belgian Wout van Aert, was in the perfect position to help Yates to mess with Del Toro's and Carapaz's minds. Neither the Mexican nor the Ecuadorian had a teammate in place alongside Van Aert, an egregious blunder, because if either man had had an equipier to hand at the key moment – at the foot of the descent off the Finestre with 36km remaining when Yates was still just about within reach – it could well have tipped the balance. Sign up to The Recap The best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend's action after newsletter promotion Unwittingly, Carapaz's EF Education team slotted in another piece at the foot of the Finestre, where the EF domestiques ensured that the peloton would hit the climb at warp speed, paving the way for Carapaz to attack Del Toro. In the event, the Ecuadorian was unable to dislodge the Mexican, but their violent acceleration achieved something more insidious: it burned off Del Toro's teammates, who had defended his lead impeccably for 11 stages. By the time they rejoined Del Toro, Yates was long gone. Once Yates had flown the coop at the foot of the Finestre, it was Del Toro's job, as the race leader, to pursue the Lancastrian, whether or not he had any teammates with him. But he knew that to do so would expose him to a late attack from Carapaz, who had started the day only 43sec behind. And Carapaz was equally aware that if he chased, Del Toro might be the beneficiary. It needed either to seize the initiative, or for one team manager to issue an ultimatum to his rider. Without that, the upshot was the absorbing but unedifying spectacle of the pair freewheeling as Yates forged ahead with Van Aert – unedifying that is, unless you were a Visma team member, a British cycling fan or a connoisseur of the bizarre twists that bike racing unfailingly produces.
