Simon Yates won the 108th Giro d’Italia. He also deletes his dramatic defeat from 2018 and once again enters Great Britain in the list of winners of the Grand Tours.
It was like painted for the 32-year-old British. In the Vatican City he stood next to Pope Leo XIV on Sunday. The new shepherd of the Catholic Church received the Giro participants. One, Yates, stood in the pink jersey, the other, Pope Leo, in a white robe. He even gave the pedal athletes his blessing. Not so many athletes experience that.
“The mountain that shaped my career”
That fits at Yates. The day before he had the greatest victory of his athlete’s life on the mountain, where he had to suffer his greatest defeat as a cycling professional. He described the Colle Delle Finestre as “mountain that shaped my career”. In 2018 he tackled the then 18th stage of the Giro d’Italia in the pink jersey. It was his 13th day in the leadership of the tour of Italy.
He had also won three stage wins. He was the man of the Giro par excellence. But then the debacle. At that time, Chris Froome used the Colle Delle Finestre as a ramp to finally go out to his compatriot for more than 38 minutes. It was a historical victory of one British, such a painful and historical defeat for the other. And Yates came back with the idea of coping with this drastic event.
“He always spoke of this stage in the training camp,” said Marc Reef, sporting director of Visma – Lease A Bike, to the sports show. After eleven years, Yates changed to this team at the Australian racing team Jayco Alula. He needed new stimuli, he justified the change. And he finally wanted to go to a team that can support him in a Grand Tour adventure in such a way that he emerges there as the winner.
Change from the comfort zone
Sure, he had already won the Vuelta in 2017 with the Australians. That was the right answer to the giro, which was so dramatically lost. But after that he only got on the podium of a Grand tour – too little for one of his caliber. Yates knew that. Hence the change from the comfort zone, also accompanied by advice from his twin brother Adam. He had done the matter more often and knew the advantages of it. He is now the most important helper for superstar Tadej Pogacar and, as such, even came up with the podium of a Tour de France.
In the colors of Visma-Lease A Bike, Bruder Simon was finally able to go to the successful editing of his Giro trauma. “When the course came out of the Giro, I looked closely at this stage and told myself that I would like to do something special there and, above all, enjoy the race,” he said on Saturday after his hussar piece.
Tactical errors of the rivals
That was exactly what he succeeded. Yates initially benefited from an attack by Richard Carapaz. The Ecuadorian isolated the overall leading Isaac del Toro early on the Colle Delle Delle Finestre. The young Mexican reacted impetuously, was completely fixed on Carapaz and left the protective escort of his teammates. Apparently he thought that the race was able to decide against the man against the runner -up Carapaz. It was a heroic thought.
But there is little space for heroism in modern cycling. Because del Toro and Carapaz were not decisively removed, Yates was able to catch up. Alternating with Carapaz, he repeatedly attacked to tire del Toro in particular. When this did not show up any visible success, Yates finally decided. “The other two turned out to be more explosive in this Giro. When I drove away, I noticed that I could keep a high pace and expand the lead,” he later said.
Simon Yates on the penultimate stage on an average of 9.2 percent steep finestre, which gave him the victory
Help through the van-aert locomotive
This was formidable. After the summit, he was also able to build his team -mate Woout van Aert. The Belgian turned out to be the locomotive in the pink happiness of his tour captain. In the end he couldn’t hold back the tears. Tears of happiness, tears of relief, also tears in which the suffering of 2018 is still swimming.
“I still have to grasp. I am not a particularly emotional person. But when the finish line was approaching, I couldn’t hold the tears back. I worked on it for years, had so many setbacks, and now, finally, all of this has paid off,” he said, and the tears that he could not control in the white stroke overturned him again.
Iconic cycling moment
Simon Yates’ Sieg now fits into the series of outstanding cycling events. Not only because he only jumped out on the last mountain day, but also because of the long history, setbacks and defeats. The blessing by the new Pope still put on the crown.
Pope Leo blesses Yates at the last stage by Rome
With Yates’ victory, his racing team Visma-Lease A Bike also returned to Grand Tour-Siegerstraße. With a Yates brother in the squad, the team can now play a second card in the three-week tours in addition to the two-time tour winner Jonas Vingegaard. The challenge for UAE Emirates with world star Tadej Pogacar is growing again. The distance to the rest of the cycling circus also grows.