Simon Yates claimed the Giro d’Italia crown that long eluded him Sunday to cap a wild and woolly corsa rosa.
The 32-year-old Brit from Visma-Lease a Bike turned the race upside down Saturday with a ruthless ambush on the Colle delle Finestre, the same mountain that shattered his Giro dreams in 2018.
In one of the Giro’s most dramatic days of racing, Yates flipped the script to secure his second career grand tour title.
“It’s still sinking in! What a huge moment in my career. I couldn’t be prouder of the whole team over three weeks,” Yates said. “It’s a defining moment of my career, there’s no doubt about that. It’s a sweet success”.
Yates rode into Rome on Sunday dressed head to toe in pink with nearly a four-minute cushion. Olav Kooij capped the final weekend raid with a sprint victory that sees Visma-Lease a Bike regain its grand tour momentum just in time for the Tour de France.
“We couldn’t wish for a better final weekend. Yesterday it was really amazing for the team. Today I just used everything that was left in the legs,” Kooij said. ” My teammates made it a lot easier. We had a plan for the sprint although it’s never easy to execute it but we really committed to make it a sprint finish. We were in a perfect position. I was already happy with this Giro. To make it to Rome is really special.”
Just 24 hours before, Yates dropped rivals Isaac del Toro and Richard Carapaz on the grinding, endless gravel climb, with Wout van Aert waiting up the road to turn the screws.
In what was a similar repeat to how Visma-Lease a Bike isolated and attacked Tadej Pogačar in the 2022 Tour de France, Yates snatched the race lead in stunning finality.
Full results: Yates, Kooij jubilant in Rome
A wild and unpredictable race
Sunday’s final parade through Rome started with a blessing from the new Pope and ended with a bang to cap what was a wild and unpredictable Giro.
The 2024 winner Pogačar did not defend his title, leaving the battle for pink wide open.
Bad luck and crashes inevitably marked the race, with former winners Jai Hindley and Primož Roglič both leaving after falls. Nico Denz saved Giro pride for pre-race favorites Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe with a win in stage 18, and emerging talent Giulio Pellizzari capped a solid final week to finish sixth overall.
Even without Pogačar, UAE Emirates-XRG lined up in Albania with a stacked team, but Juan Ayuso abandoned in week 3 along with Jay Vine. Brandon McNulty and Adam Yates both slotted into support roles behind Isaac del Toro, who was the big revelation of this Giro.
Heroes of the Finestre. #GirodItalia pic.twitter.com/ogbR2nxL6v
— Giro d’Italia (@giroditalia) June 1, 2025
The 21-year-old Mexican phenom avoided the mayhem on the gravel roads into Siena and snatched the pink jersey. He won stage 17 and looked poised to win overall, until Visma-Lease a Bike and Yates had other plans.
UAE leaves the Giro with Del Toro’s best young rider’s white jersey, second place overall, the team’s prize, and two stage wins, but questions about its tactics in Saturday’s Finestre decider will haunt this Giro.
Mads Pedersen steamrolled his way through the points classification. With four stage wins and relentless consistency, the Lidl-Trek sprinter was never seriously challenged in the maglia ciclamino.
Lidl-Trek also picked up other stage wins with Carlos Verona and Dan Hoole in the second TT, giving the U.S.-backed squad a very good Giro haul.
Gee, McNulty hit career-best grand tours
Other sprinters split out the spoils, with Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Casper Van Uden (Picnic-PostNL) and Olav Kooij (Visma-Lease a Bike) each picking up a win apiece going into Sunday’s final sprint.
Lorenzo Fortunato lit up the climbs and the Italian rider dominated the mountains competition with precise attacks to win the maglia azzurra, well ahead of any challenger. XDS-Astana got another win with Cristian Scaroni to improve its race to conserve its WorldTour license going into 2026.
EF Education-EasyPost left the Giro with two stage wins — one each by Carapaz and Kasper Asgreen — and third overall with the Ecuadorian.
Derek Gee emptied the tank to finish a career-best grand tour fourth to further cement his rising GC stock. Ineos Grenadiers won a stage with Josh Tarling, and saw Egan Bernal hit his best grand tour since his devastating crash in 2022 with seventh overall.
Jayco-AlUla won two stages, but might be scratching its head about how Yates — who raced with the Aussies for a decade — finally pulled off the big GC win in his first year after leaving the team. McNulty rode to ninth overall with UAE, the best GC result of his career.
Disappointments? There were a few.
Riders like Ayuso, Roglič, and Mikel Landa (Soudal Quick-Step) crashed out, while Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious) was also hit by bad luck to finish 17th in an unsuccessful bid for the final podium after his breakout fifth last year. Tom Pidcock (Q36.5 Pro Cycling) left Rome without a stage win and in 16th overall, well below his pre-race expectations.
Einer Rubio hit eighth overall for Team Movistar, but Spain’s lone WorldTour team leaves the Giro without a stage win.
Visma regains its grand tour mojo
Up next? Racing continues in Italy with the Giro d’Italia Women in July.
Most of the Giro stars will take a break, with a few heading to the Tour de France in July, and others reloading for the Vuelta a España in August.
The 2025 Giro will be one that will be remembered for Del Toro’s emergence, Pedersen’s dominance on the flats, and yet another tactical masterpiece from Visma-Lease a Bike.
Unlike UAE, which has only won grand tours with Pogačar, Visma adds Yates to the list of grand tour winners that also includes Roglič, Vingegaard, and Sepp Kuss. Only Sky/Ineos is equal in depth and quality in modern grand tour racing.