Giro d'Italia 2025: Simon Yates rips pink jersey from Isaac del Toro's back with blistering attack on Colle delle Finestre in Stage 20

Simon Yates buried his demons on the Colle delle Finestre to all but win the 2025 Giro d’Italia in one of cycling’s most memorable turnarounds in Stage 20 at Sestriere. The Briton dropped rivals Isaac del Toro and Richard Carapaz on the climb where he lost the 2018 race before linking up with Visma-Lease a Bike team-mate Wout van Aert to secure the maglia rosa behind stage winner Chris Harper.

Seven years after he lost the pink jersey in dramatic fashion after cracking on the Colle delle Finestre, Britain’s Simon Yates (Visma-Lease a Bike) rode to Giro d’Italia glory after capping a sensational turnaround on that very same climb.

A series of stinging attacks at the start of the legendary gravel-capped peak in the Alps saw Yates distance the pink jersey Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) before soaring to a two-minute lead going over the summit.

Yates then latched onto the back wheel of team-mate Wout van Aert – dropping back from the day’s breakaway – for the valley road towards the final slog up to the ski resort of Sestriere. The Visma-Lease a Bike duo combined to devastating effect to stretch out the lead and force a disconsolate Del Toro and Carapaz to throw in the towel behind.

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Trailing Mexico’s Del Toro by 1'21'' going into Saturday’s decisive stage, Yates ended up putting over five minutes into his GC rivals to all but win the 108th edition of the Giro on the eve of the race’s finale in Rome.

Yates’s barnstorming heroics ensured that the stage victory of Chris Harper (Jayco-AlUla) was somewhat overlooked, the Australian going solo from the breakaway to a maiden Grand Tour stage win in spectacular style. With Yates closing in, Italy’s Alessandro Verre (Arkea-B&B Hotels) held on for a gutsy second place in Sestriere before the new race leader came home, clasping his head in disbelief.

Never before has a third place made such ripples as Yates buried his demons from 2018 – when he imploded on the Finestre to concede the pink jersey to Chris Froome after the Team Sky rider’s epic comeback.

Seven years on, an older, wiser Yates danced up the Colle delle Finestre to cap an extraordinary turnaround of his own, making light work of the gravel sections near the summit and completing the ascent in a time that was a whopping five minutes quicker than Froome’s now legendary exploit from 2018.

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"Once the route was released, I always had in the back of my mind that maybe I could come here and close a chapter – maybe not to take the pink jersey and win the race, but to take a stage and show myself in the way I know I can do," an emotional Yates said after receiving the pink jersey on the podium.

"But to pull it off, I really didn’t believe. I have to thank the guys from the team because they really believed in me. Even during the stage, they told me to believe in myself and give it a try – and that’s what I did in the end."

Twenty-four hours after voicing his frustration at his team’s tactics after falling further behind Del Toro and Carapaz at Champoluc, Yates had nothing to complain about after Visma-Lease a Bike pulled off the day’s tactical coup by getting Van Aert in the day’s break – a factor that Yates later admitted proved "crucial".

After three different groups came together during a busy opening hour of racing, Van Aert was part of the 31-man force whose lead had grown to a massive 10 minutes before the pivotal climb of the Colle delle Finestre.

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Until that point, Carapaz’s EF Education-EasyPost team had set the lion’s share of tempo on the front of the peloton – with five of their riders almost coming a cropper when overcooking a tight right-hand bend on the descent of the Colle del Lys with around 80km remaining.

It was EF Education-EasyPost who took the race by the scruff of the neck on the Finestre when a collective surge on the front isolated the pink jersey and saw Carapaz ride clear. Del Toro made light work of losing his UAE team-mates and bridged over to the Ecuadorian’s wheel, with Yates biding his time while finding his rhythm behind.

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Once Yates rejoined his two GC rivals he instantly put in a series of accelerations to wear down both Del Toro and Carapaz, before going clear with 13km to go to the summit. With no UAE team-mates around him and no satellite riders up the road, Del Toro rode defensively as he closed the gap every time Carapaz attacked.

Yates, meanwhile, took advantage of the stalemate behind to open a decent gap in pursuit of what still seemed at that moment a fanciful turnaround. But as he started the gravel section 8km from the summit, Yates had passed the majority of the breakaway while putting in enough time on his rivals to propel himself into the virtual pink jersey.

As the reality of Del Toro and Carapaz’s isolation became a sorry situation more apparent as the climb went deeper, Yates’s commanding position came to the fore. By the time he reached the misty, snow-capped summit, Yates had successfully laid to rest the ghosts of 2018 – and now had a chance to make the story come full circle.

A near miss on one of the choppy corners of the twisting, technical descent emphasised the fine line between risk and reward before Yates was able to join forces with Van Aert ahead of the last 20km. Having a team-mate on the valley road – and not just any team-mate, but arguably the best rouleur in the business – put the cherry on the cake, as the gap grew to three and then four minutes on his two chasers, who had dispatched the yo-yoing Derek Gee (Israel-Premier Tech) but who were unable to find any common ground.

Separated by just 43 seconds going into the stage, both Del Toro and Carapaz kept on looking at each other and willing the other to do the work – but neither was prepared to do so. And when reinforcements finally arrived for the pink jersey in Brandon McNulty and Rafal Majka, the maglia rosa had already been prised from his shoulders.

Van Aert dragged Yates up the false flat with a blend of smile and grimace etched across his face before slingshotting his team-mate towards Giro glory with around six kilometres remaining.

Harper, who had dropped Verre shortly after starting the gravel section on the Finestre with 40km still to go, held on for a well-deserved win – drawing a line under a frustrating race soured by illness in the opening week.

'Biggest moment of his career' - Harper takes thrilling Stage 20 win

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"It means such a lot – it’s such a famous climb and I’m pretty proud to be able to win the stage here," the Jayco-AlUla rider said. "It was super challenging so I’m really happy to have pulled it off. I knew Simon was coming from behind so I wasn’t super confident so it was a relief to win in the end."

Italy’s Verre crossed the line for second place at 1’49" before Yates – with one hand already on the Trofeo Senza Fine – came home for a third place far greater than any of the many stage wins picked up during his illustrious career.

Yates, who won the Vuelta in 2018 four months after his heartbreaking collapse in the Giro that year, broke down in floods of tears over the line.

"To be honest, [it wasn’t until] 200 metres to go [that I realised what I had done]. I was on the radio, blabbing for the time gap, because I never truly believed until the very last moment," he said.

"I’m a bit speechless really. I think it’s still sinking in," he added, welling up. "I’d say I’m not really an emotional person but even coming over the finish there I was really – I couldn’t hold back the tears. I’ve realised something that I’ve worked towards throughout my career, for year after year – a lot of setbacks. Yeah, I finally managed to pull it off."

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Del Toro won the symbolic sprint for ninth place on the nose of the chase group but the Mexican will start Sunday’s final stage to Rome in second place, the best part of four minutes down on 32-year-old Yates, who not only closed a sorry chapter but rewrote history after one of the Giro’s most memorable stages in recent years.

After Yates and his fellow riders receive a blessing from the new Pope Leo XIV, Stage 21 of the 108th edition of the Giro d’Italia will serve up a flat 143km ride in and around the capital city of Rome where a likely bunch sprint will precede Yates’s pink coronation.

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