Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) said he was 'baffled' by the tactics employed by Giro d'Italia race leader Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) on the final mountain stage on Saturday.
Stage 20 of the Giro saw Simon Yates (Visma-Lease a Bike) soar to the top place overall after he broke away from podium contender Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) and Del Toro on the Colle delle Finestre ascent.
Yates' attack initially saw Del Toro partly rely on chasing by Carapaz and Derek Gee (Israel-Premier Tech) to try and maintain the Briton within a safe distance. But finally after the Mexican's previous 1:21 GC lead evaporated, and amidst disagreements amongst the chasers, Yates finally clinched his place in pink by more than three minutes.
Barring major disaster, Yates will now ride into Rome Sunday evening as the outright winner of the 2025 Giro d'Italia, with Del Toro in second and Carapaz in third.
Speaking on his Watts Occurring podcast about stage 20 with teammate Laurens de Plus, Thomas - a former Giro d'Italia podium finisher both in 2024 and in 2023 - described himself as feeling "angry, happy, confused - everything watching that stage".
After providing a resume of how things changed so fast on the Finestre, from Carapaz and EF blazing into the foot of the climb, but with Yates in pink by the finish, Thomas began his analysis of the dramatic final turnaround to the Giro.
"Don't get me wrong, second for Del Toro in his first-ever Grand Tour at 21 is a great result," Thomas said. "But the way he rode all race, it was like something happened overnight.
"He followed Carapaz really well, and then when Yatesy went" - 13 kilometres from the top of the Finestre - "he didn't pull.
"Then Carapaz was riding and we were all like, why is Carapaz riding? Make Del Toro ride, he's the pink. It's his race to lose and he's got to chase."
Finally Carapaz swung over, and as Thomas put it, Del Toro failed to chase, despite being the maglia rosa. Rather, for half a minute the pursuit all but ground to a halt, then followed by a brief cameo by Gee, working hard at the front of the trio. After that, Del Toro began to take up the pursuit, and Carapaz opted to mix in the chase with some attacks.
"I felt like Carapaz was doing the right thing - sit on, and then bam, try and get rid of him, attack," Thomas argued, "but Del Toro had the legs to follow. Then they get to five seconds of Yates, Carapaz sits up and Del Toro doesn't close it."
As Thomas' fellow podcaster De Plus put it, there were multiple changes of dynamic on the climb, with Del Toro and Carapaz looking like the strongest, prior to Yates moving away. Thomas argued that the Ecuadorian and Mexican were the two strongest throughout the race, as their top two positions ratified before stage 20, when Yates was lying third overall.
But somehow, Yates came through for the victory, and as Thomas put it, "don't get me wrong, he deserves the win".
Contrasts on the Finestre
However, Del Toro's ability to follow Carapaz showed he was still strong, "and there was one point on the Finestre when he [Del Toro] started riding and I thought - OK, he'll go now. But then he kind of stopped and he looked nailed, but then as soon as Carapaz started doing his 600 watts attack for a minute, he could follow. The contrast for me was so baffling."
Del Toro defended his strategy after stage 20 claiming, "Everyone was playing games. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose".
"Simon came up and I know he has experience and that he'd ride steady and smart. I think I could have stayed with him but I knew I had to mark Carapaz because he was the closest to me in GC," Del Toro said. "Yates was third and Richie was second, so Richie needed to follow him. I had 1:20 on Simon and so I could let him go a bit.
"I told Richard that I wouldn't work so that he could attack and drop me on the last climb. He told me he wouldn't ride and I said 'OK'. Everyone then saw what happened."
Thomas, though, also had fulsome praise for Yates, pointing out that his race-winning move took place on the climb where Yates had lost the Giro to Chris Froome in 2018.
"What a story," he concluded, "couldn't have written it."
Subscribe to Cyclingnews for unlimited access to our 2025 Giro d'Italia coverage. Our team on the ground will bring you all the breaking news, reports, analysis and more from every stage of the Italian Grand Tour. Find out more
