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Daily Mirror
2 days ago
- Sport
- Daily Mirror
Simon Yates atones for past heartbreak as he claims Giro d'Italia glory in Rome
Simon Yates previously endured a near miss in the Giro d'Italia but seven years on from that disappointment he claimed glory as he rode into Rome to claim another Grand Tour success His tears fell like melting Alpine snow on the forbidding slopes where imminent triumph had evaporated seven years ago. It was on the Colle delle Finestre, with the Giro d'Italia's fabled maglia rosa (pink jersey) at his mercy, that Simon Yates cracked in 2018 and fellow Brit Chris Froome disappeared over the horizon on a stunning 50-mile solo breakaway. But as Yates rode into Rome as Britain's 12th Grand Tour winner since 2012, this time he was pretty in pink. If the Finestre had broken his resolve when Va Va Froome's ambush left him 38 minutes down the road, this time it was a 7,146ft monument to Yates's spirit. When historians compile their dossiers on a golden age for British cycling, the pages will show that only all-time great Froome has won more Grand Tours than the Boy from Bury. And unsung or not, Yates will take his place in the pantheon of our blazing saddles on the road. Sir Bradley Wiggins has been a troubled soul lately after he set the bar on the Tour de France 13 years ago and he knocking out five gold medals across four Olympic Games. Froome's indefatigable stamina brought him four Yellow Jerseys between 2013-17, two Vuelta titles in Spain and that Giro heist when he overhauled Yates. Geraint Thomas, for so long Froome's loyal sidekick on Le Tour, finally scaled the top step of the podium on the Champs Elysees in 2018 - and Thomas the flank engine was runner-up the following year. And if Tao Geoghegan Hart's maglia rosa in the 2020 Giro is largely forgotten more than amnesia itself, he has since managed only one top 20 finish on a Grand Tour to back it up. But Yates, 32, now belongs in the top bracket with Froome. Four months after he cracked on the Finestre, winning a maiden Grand Tour at the Vuelta in Spain was a glittering consolation, but he never abandoned his mission to come back to the Giro and be tickled pink. Climbing the beast of Piedmont in 59min 22sec, the first man to reach the summit in less than an hour, he dissolved into tears when the enormity of his achievement sunk in. And even the stoniest, coldest heart would deny his right to turn on the taps after leaving Mexico's overnight leader Isaac del Toro and Richard Carapaz in his slipstream. "I'm still a bit speechless that I was able to do it. I'm not really an emotional person but I couldn't hold back the tears,' said Yates, whose sensational ride denied his twin brother Adam, Del Toro's UAE Team Emirates lieutenant, the laurels. Rising above the emotional whiplash, Adam Yates shrugged: "If it had to be anyone, it would be my brother. I'm happy for him, I can still congratulate him and celebrate a little. If one person rides so crazy, whether it's Pogacar or my brother, and someone has better legs than you on the day, you have to take the blow on the jaw and accept it. We can't be disappointed." The 11.5-mile climb up the Finestre, with a lung-bursting average gradient of 9.2 per cent, took Yates above the snow line. More importantly, he overturned Del Toro's 81-second advantage, converted it into a 1min 41sec lead and his brilliant Visma/Lease A Bike team-mate Wout van Aert's inspired escort did the rest. Del Toro's UAE Team Emirates were caught asleep at the handlebars, with baffled onlooker Thomas tweeting in disbelief: 'What is going on?' But as Yates wheeled into the Eternal City, simultaneously he landed in the rarefied atmosphere of Britain's greatest riders.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
British rider Simon Yates wins elusive Giro d'Italia title
Britain's Simon Yates, in the pink jersey, shares a light moment with his brother Adam Yates, during the last stage of the Giro d'Italia cycling race, in Rome, Sunday, June 1, 2025. (Fabio Ferrari/LaPresse via AP) ROME (AP) — British rider Simon Yates cruised to overall victory in the Giro d'Italia on Sunday — finally winning the race that had eluded him so often. After attacking on the gravel-road climb to take the pink jersey in the penultimate stage on Saturday, Yates finished nearly four minutes ahead of runner-up Isaac Del Toro, the 21-year-old Mexican who wore pink for 10 days before Yates took control. Advertisement It's the second Grand Tour title for Yates after he won the Spanish Vuelta in 2018. Yates 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. ___ AP cycling:
Associated Press
2 days ago
- General
- Associated Press
British rider Simon Yates wins elusive Giro d'Italia title
ROME (AP) — British rider Simon Yates cruised to overall victory in the Giro d'Italia on Sunday — finally winning the race that had eluded him so often. After attacking on the gravel-road climb to take the pink jersey in the penultimate stage on Saturday, Yates finished nearly four minutes ahead of runner-up Isaac Del Toro, the 21-year-old Mexican who wore pink for 10 days before Yates took control. It's the second Grand Tour title for Yates after he won the Spanish Vuelta in 2018. Yates 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. ___ AP cycling:
NBC Sports
4 days ago
- Sport
- NBC Sports
Simon Yates on brink of Giro d'Italia title after epic comeback
Simon Yates is poised to win the Giro d'Italia after an epic climb from third place to race leader by a comfortable margin on Saturday's penultimate stage. Yates, the 2018 Vuelta a Espana champion from Great Britain, overcame an 81-second deficit in the overall standings at the start of Saturday's 20th stage. He did it on the 11-mile Colle delle Finestre climb en route to a third-place finish on the day behind Australian stage winner Chris Harper. Yates overtook both Richard Carapaz of Ecuador and Isaac del Toro, the leader for 11 stages whose hopes of becoming the first cyclist from Mexico to win a Grand Tour are all but extinguished. By the end of the day in the Cottian Alps, Yates turned that deficit into a lead of multiple minutes. Sunday's 21st and final stage — a flat, 89-mile ride around Vatican City and Rome — is not expected to shake up the top of the overall standings. Del Toro, 21, was bidding to become the youngest man to win the Giro since 1940 — when Italian Fausto Coppi earned the first of his record-tying five titles — according to Del Toro was already the first cyclist from Mexico to wear the leader jersey in any of the three Grand Tours — Giro, Tour de France and Vuelta. Instead, Yates is on the brink of becoming the second British rider to win multiple Grand Tours after Chris Froome, who won all three, including four Tours de France. Since that 2018 Vuelta title, Yates placed third in the 2021 Giro and fourth in the 2023 Tour. Yates' seven-year gap between two Grand Tour titles would be the longest since Italian Felice Gimondi won the 1969 and 1976 Giros. And the longest between a rider's first and second Grand Tour titles specifically since Coppi won the 1940 and 1947 Giros (with World War II in between). Yates, 32, would also give Team Visma–Lease a Bike its first Grand Tour title since the outfit swept the Giro, Tour and Vuelta with three different riders in 2023, an unprecedented feat. Slovenian Tadej Pogacar, who last year won his first Giro and his third Tour de France. didn't ride this year's Giro as he focuses on prep for July's Tour. Slovenian Primož Roglic, the 2023 Giro winner and four-time Vuelta champ, led after the second and seventh stages of this Giro, but abandoned on the 16th after the last of several crashes during the Giro. Spain's Juan Ayuso, who entered the Giro as the UAE team leader, won the first mountain stage (the seventh stage). He then lost 12 minutes to del Toro on the 16th stage and withdrew on the 18th after a bee stung him inside his helmet, which led to eye swelling. Associated Press,
France 24
20-05-2025
- Sport
- France 24
Del Toro holds Giro lead as Hoole wins rainy time trial
The 6ft 6in (1m98) winner Hoole timed 23min 27sec to bag a fourth stage from 10 for Lidl Trek, who's leader Giulio Ciccone is eighth overall, while Mads Pedersen won three stages for them in the first week. "I'm so happy and there are son many people I need to thank. I just can't believe it," Hoole said after his second major win. But rain fell heavily on the Tuscan course as the main favourites started coming down the starter's ramp making the individual speed effort even more of a minefield than usual. The 21-year-old Mexican Team UAE rider Del Toro who took the overall lead on the white gravel test on stage 9, lost 48sec to his team leader Spain's Juan Ayuso, who is now second overall at 25sec. Italian home hope Antonio Tiberi of the Bahrain team is third at 1min 01, while Simon Yates of Visma looked delighted when his chrono lifted him to fourth overall at 1min 03sec with Primoz Roglic in fifth at 1min 18sec. Red Bull rider Roglic lost 1min 15sec on Sunday and fell on his recon ride of the time trial Tuesday, so his performance at Pisa drags the former Giro and Vuelta champion back into contention.
