Simon Yates reflected on a “sweet success” he had been targeting for much of his life after a spectacular and decisive coup in Saturday’s final mountain stage ensured he would ride to victory in the Giro d’Italia on Sunday.
At 32, the Lancastrian had not been tipped to add to his sole Grand Tour victory, the 2018 Tour of Spain, but in the mammoth stage over the Colle Delle Finestre, he confounded those expectations to win the sport’s second most prestigious race, after the Tour de France.
“It’s a huge moment in my career, a defining moment maybe,” Yates said after the Giro’s closing stage in Rome. “I don’t think anything comes close. I’m just incredibly proud of the whole team over the three weeks. It’s a sweet success.
“I’ve spent a lot of my life targeting this race. There’s been a lot of setbacks, and it has been hard to deal with. I’m in disbelief that I have finally managed to pull it off.”
Yates, who had been on the verge of winning the 2018 Giro when he endured a dramatic collapse in the pivotal mountain stage, is the third British rider, after Chris Froome and Tao Geoghegan Hart, to win the Italian race.
The Lancastrian arrived in Rome wearing all-pink kit with matching pink bike, in honour of the Giro’smaglia rosa, and was shepherded safely through the final processional sprint stage to secure final victory.
Ahead of him his Visma-Lease a Bike teammate Olav Kooij took the final stage in a sprint, as a beaming Yates celebrated in his wake. “We couldn’t wish for a better final weekend,” Kooij said. “Yesterday was really amazing for the team and today I had to give everything that was left in the legs.”
Yates’s Giro-winning attack on the crucial climb of the Finestre, the mountain that had dramatically proved his undoing in 2018, stunned onlookers and exploded the overall standings.
On social media Geraint Thomas said: “What is going on?!”, as he watched Saturday’s drama between the three key protagonists – Yates, Isaac Del Toro and Richard Carapaz – unfold.
Reminded that Yates had far more experience of Grand Tour racing than the 21‑year‑old Del Toro, Thomas, winner of the 2018 Tour de France, was scathing. “Do you need experience to realise that third place is pulling away and that, if you stop pedalling, he’s going to take time out of you? My son Macs would know that, and he’s five years old.”
Even Yates seemed overwhelmed by the scale of his achievement on the mountain that had once proven his downfall. “I always had in the back of my mind that maybe I could come here and close the chapter. Maybe not to take the jersey in the race, but at least the stage, to try to show myself the way I know I can do.”
He admitted, though, that he “really did not believe” such a dream scenario was possible. “I am not really an emotional person, but coming to the finish I couldn’t hold back the tears.”
Del Toro, who had appeared like Yates in 2018 destined to win the race, hid his disappointment. “Yates was the most intelligent,” the Mexican said. “It was good for his team and how they played the tactics.”
But Carapaz, Giro champion in 2019, rounded on the Mexican. “In the end, Del Toro lost the Giro,” the Ecuadorian said. “He didn’t know how to race and in the end the smartest [rider] won.”
Juan Manuel Gárate, Carapaz’s EF Education EasyPost sports director, sought to justify the lack of any serious pursuit of Yates. “There came a moment where you had to decide: ‘If Yates goes, let him go. If Del Toro doesn’t follow, he loses the GC.’ To win, you have to play the game. And with that comes the risk of losing.”