Giro d'Italia: Simon Yates rips maglia rosa off Isaac del Toro with devastating attack on Colle delle Finestre

The Giro d'Italia was turned on its head on Saturday as Simon Yates (Visma-Lease a Bike) dropped race leader Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) on the interminable slopes of the Colle delle Finestre to clinch the maglia rosa with just one flat stage left.

Having lost the Giro on the same climb to Chris Froome (Israel-Premier Tech) seven years ago, 2018 Vuelta winner Yates will head into Rome on Sunday with a second Grand Tour victory safely in his pocket, barring disaster.

Heading into the stage 1:31 down, Yates finished on the final Alpine stage of the Giro behind the day's winner, Chris Harper (Jayco-AlUla) and Alessandro Verre (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), to move ahead of both Del Toro and second-placed Richard Carapaz.

The Briton attacked 13 kilometres from the summit of the Finestre and had an advantage of nearly two minutes by the top, where Del Toro might have been able to regain contact had the team's tactics been better considered.

However, Yates was able to count on valuable support from teammate Wout van Aert after he linked up with the Belgian star, who was part of the early breakaway. While Del Toro was able to shadow Carapaz all the way up the climb, on the descent there was no reciprocal collaboration from the Mexican and the two ended up drifting away from the overall win.

"I think when the route of the parcours was released, I always had in the back of my mind to try and do something here and close the chapter, let's say," a visibly emotional Yates said afterwards. "I'm just still a bit speechless that I was able to do it.

"I felt good, the whole race I did, but I never had the right moment to show what I could do and I found the opportunity today. I was trying to get away from Richard and Isaac because I knew when I could race at my own pace, I'd be really strong, and that's what I managed to do.

"The whole team have been fantastic the entire race, and without Wout in the valley and the rest of the team the entire day, it wouldn't have been possible. Maybe I was looking relaxed this morning, but I had doubts I could do it. The guys encouraged me, though, and believed in me, so thanks to them.

"It's unbelievable, I'm trying to find the words now, but words are failing me - sorry."

Victory for Harper

Chris Harper handed Jayco-AlUla their second stage win of the race, attacking from the breakaway to leave Alessandro Verre (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) to finish second on the epic stage.

"Mentally and physically it's been a challenging Giro," Harper said afterwards after he secured Jayco-AlUla's second stage win of the race. "I came here looking for GC and I was feeling good in the first week, but then I got sick on the second rest day and slipped off of GC. After that, I was looking for a stage win."

"I don't know what I'm happier about, getting a stage win or seeing Yatesy win pink. 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."

How it unfolded

A flurry of early attacks created a first opening break with unusual speed for this year's Giro d'Italia, allowing seven riders to forge a gap after barely a couple of kilometres. Timo Kielich (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Sylvain Moniquet (Cofidis), Dries De Bondt (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Enzo Paleni (Groupama-FDJ), Kim Heiduk (Ineos Grenadiers), Jacopo Mosca (Lidl-Trek) and Gianmarco Garofoldi, perhaps celebrating the renewal of his contract on Friday with Soudal-QuickStep, all made the initial cut.

Realising they were running out of options as the Giro's finish looms, and despite Heiduk's protests at a lack of collaboration in the front group, a chasing group comprising Francesco Busatto (Intermarché-Wanty), Mads Pedersen and Carlos Verona (both Lidl-Trek), Jon Barrenetxea (Movistar), Ethan Hayter (Soudal-QuickStep) and Manuel Tarozzi (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè) then added their power to the early break. But even more reinforcements were yet to come.

At 163 kilometres to go, an even bigger group made it over to the front: Quinten Hermans and Jimmy Janssens (both Alpecin-Deceuninck); Arkéa-B&B Hotels' Alessandro Verre; Pello Bilbao and Fran Miholjević (both Bahrain Victorious); Andrea Vendramé (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale); Kevin Geniets, Quentin Pacher and Rémy Rochas (all Groupama-FDJ); Kevin Colleoni (Intermarché-Wanty); Simon Clarke (Israel-Premier Tech); Jefferson Cepeda (Movistar); Milan Vader (Tudor); Chris Harper (Jayco-AlUla); Chris Hamilton (Picnic-PostNL); Mirco Maestri (Polti-VisitMalta); Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Martin Marcellusi (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè). It was a huge, 31-rider group, but with the Finestre as the main challenge of the day, whether anybody in the break would stay away to the line was anyone's guess.

For the next two hours, as bunch and breakaway trundled over the category 4 Corio and raced onwards towards the Colle del Lys, things evolved into an uneventful holding pattern. The 31 riders ahead pushed the lead up to nearly nine minutes before EF Education-EasyPost began chasing behind, presumably toughening things up for Carapaz. On the long, grinding ascent of the category 2 Colle del Lys, the gap began to shrink a little, sparking some exits from the back of the peloton amongst the sprinters. 

EF collectively had their hearts in their mouths when one of their riders misjudged a corner and the rest almost came off as a result, the incident looked far worse than it actually was, and there was no further drama.

The incident allowed the breakaway to gain a potentially invaluable extra couple of minutes for the fast-approaching Finestre. Not even the addition of Israel-Premier Tech to the chase in the bunch and a major acceleration towards the climb seemed able to dent their advantage.

Come the foot of the make-or-break Finestre ascent and its relentless gradient of 9% or higher, the break still had a cushion of over 10 minutes, with Lidl-Trek working as hard as possible for a second win for Verona. Pedersen pushed the pace early on the 18.5-kilometre ascent, rapidly shredding the group to a third of its original 31-man size. Finally, as Verona radioed to his team from the back of the group that he was struggling, a group formed under Rochas' impetus. Then, 16 kilometres from the top, the Harper went clear with Verre.

EF, meanwhile, were using Rafferty, Steinhauser and Cepeda to kick as hard as possible right from the bottom, slicing through the peloton with a vengeance. Then suddenly and almost from the foot of the climb, after days when his attacks came too late, Carapaz kicked on hard from the gun, forcing Del Toro to react hard to get up to his back wheel.

The Giro GC battle looked briefly as if it had come down to two, but Carapaz's steady pace allowed Yates to bridge across, even while it was notable how Del Toro was unable to react. 

Yates, meanwhile repeatedly attacked, with Carapaz once again reacting and finally 13 kilometres from the top, Yates delivered the key punch, and managed to go clear.

For a long time, the gap between Yates and his chasers hovered at around 10 seconds, particularly as Gee bridged across and initially began to work behind. At first, Del Toro had a chance to protect his lead, but Gee fell behind, and Carapaz's repeated moves did little to shake Del Toro. 

There were points when Carapaz waited for Del Toro to take over, even allowing Gee to regain contact and shoot past briefly. But the three continued to hesitate, locked together and effectively giving Del Toro a free ride. Their stop-start tactics were only giving Yates an inexorable advantage.

As soon as Del Toro's provisional lead of 1:21 had evaporated completely, he was all but forced to work. Yates, meanwhile, was on a roll, gobbling up one rider after another from the break, and pushing the gap up to nearly two minutes with four kilometres to go as he neared the summit. Ultimately, Gee's diesel efforts saw his engine overheat, allowing Carapaz and Del Toro to go clear.

At the summit, Harper went over the top with Verre at 1:38, Yates at 4:43, and Del Toro and Carapaz passing over at 6:23. Gee was a further minute back and the Giro still hanging in the balance. Del Toro is a demon descender, but Yates, crucially had found teammate Wout van Aert ahead. At the same time, after Del Toro asked - finally - for Carapaz to work, there was a visible moment of disagreement between the two, giving Yates even more of an advantage.

Yates, meanwhile, soldiered on, even after Van Aert had to throw in the towel on the grinding final ascent to Sestrière. It had seemed like an impossible task, given both Carapaz and Del Toro had proved superior on both of the previous stages, but his attack on the Finestre proved to be more than enough. 

While del Toro had to face Gee and Damiano Caruso (Bahrain Victorious) pulling away on the final slopes, Yates was able to push his advantage to a jaw-dropping 5:13.

Barely a smile crossed his face as he closed in on victory, but he crossed the line in third with his head in his hands and then burst into tears after the finish, speaking volumes at the scale of his success. To do so on the same climb on which he had lost the Giro six years ago was poetic justice of the kind few sports can offer, but cycling is definitely amongst them.

As for Del Toro, he and Carapaz continued to shadow each other all the way to the line, the Mexican only managing to sprint ahead a little after what remains a remarkable achievement for the UAE racer, given his youth. Both of them will remain on the podium, with Del Toro at 3.56 and Carapaz in third at 4:43. The day, though - and the 2025 Giro - both belonged firmly and all but definitively to Simon Yates.

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