Isaac del Toro and Richard Carapaz left the Giro d’Italia looking for upsides after the oblivion on the Colle delle Finestre in Saturday’s stunning reversal that saw Simon Yates and Visma-Lease a Bike turn the race for pink upside down.
In one of the most shocking reversals in Giro history, Yates attacked, and Del Toro and Carapaz were like deer frozen in the headlights.
By the time they realized what was happening, the maglia rosa was vanishing up the road, and with it, their shot at victory.
Also read: How Yates, Van Aert and Visma pulled off the Giro heist
Yates celebrated a crowning GC revival Sunday in Rome. Beside him on the winner’s podium Sunday, Del Toro and Carapaz sifted through the ashes of their unraveling, trying to make sense of a day that will be studied, second-guessed, and analyzed for the ages.
“Do you need experience to realize the third guy is riding away and that if you stop pedaling, he’ll take your time? My son Macs would know, and he is 5 years old,” Geraint Thomas said on his podcast.
That line cuts deep, and that question won’t fade anytime soon.
Del Toro: ‘I’m proud of my race’
Nerves and frustrations still ran high Sunday, and everyone tried to put a positive spin on what’s in many ways a debacle both for EF Education-EasyPost and UAE Emirates-XRG.
Del Toro, who did not chase Yates when his grip on the pink jersey was unraveling on the final mountain stage, refused to believe that this Giro was a complete disaster. He won a stage, wore pink for more than a week, and hit his first grand tour podium in a race when no one expected much.
“I’m 21 years old, which means one year for each stage of this Giro. I’m super happy to stand on the final podium, also a bit disappointed because it wasn’t nice to lose on the last mountain stage,” Del Toro said Sunday. “And I’m proud of all my race. I was always at the front. It’s been an incredible feeling to be in this position of leading the Giro. I’m sure I’ll come back hungry for more”.
✅ 2nd place GC
✅ Youth jersey
✅ 11 days in pink
✅ Winner stage 17
✅ 4 second place
✅ 1 third place
✅ 6 podium finishes
✅ RedBull Sprint leader
✅ Most bonus seconds taken
✅ First Mexican to ever lead a Grand Tour
✅ INFINITE RESPECTISAAC DEL… pic.twitter.com/jeHHgzIvkI
— Isaac del Toro Fan Club (@IsaacDelToroFC) May 31, 2025
Carapaz was more elusive. The Ecuadorian played poker Saturday, hoping to crack Del Toro, but it was Yates who came up aces.
He didn’t give too much away about what might have gone wrong in the cross-wired tactics, and seemed at peace with a spot on the final podium.
“We all played the same game, and that was to win, and only one could do it,” Carapaz said. “The plan was to win and the team gave everything, and it ended as it ended. For me, this third place is compensation for all the work we did to climb onto the podium, and we can be happy with that.”
EF’s gambit: ‘We wanted to pressure Del Toro’
Speaking to IDL, EF Education-EasyPost sport director Juanma Garate explained how EF wanted to blow up the race on the lower flanks of the Finestre, and create a mano-a-mano showdown with Del Toro.
That plan worked, but Yates did not receive the memo.
Also key to Saturday’s demolition was Wout van Aert, who infiltrated the day’s early break. More crucially, neither EF nor UAE had a rider up the road.
Also read: Yates crowned Giro winner, Kooij adds cherry on top
EF’s early fireworks momentarily gapped Yates, but the Brit countered with a race-breaking attack, and Carapaz and Del Toro were caught flat-footed in a GC standoff that cost them both dearly.
“Normally, Richard would have gone with Yates and also benefited from Wout. But he had tried three times and couldn’t drop Del Toro, so we told him to let Yates go,” Garate told IDL. “Yates was 1:20 behind Del Toro, who had no teammates at the front. So that was how we wanted to put pressure on Del Toro. But it didn’t work because he didn’t ride.”
Yes, we received the application for making Wout a saint. pic.twitter.com/VAj97P4yLW
— Bidon (@ciclismoliquido) June 1, 2025
“I only let Richard ride at the front for the last three kilometers on the Finestre, because I didn’t want to let Brandon McNulty and Rafal Majka get back,” Garate said. “I wanted to put even more pressure on Del Toro towards the valley so that he couldn’t hesitate on the way to Sestriere and had to ride. And then we could have dropped him on the final climb, even though it had always been for second place from the Finestre onwards.”
Neither of those scenarios played out, and Del Toro out-kicked Carapaz to the line as the lagging pair both slipped back one spot each.
No one on either team was left satisfied with that outcome.
The Wout Factor: ‘That’s why we lost the pink jersey’
Visma-Lease a Bike rode near-perfect tactics to slot Van Aert into the day’s main breakaway.
Van Aert — inspired in part by the sad news that the wife of former teammate Robert Gesink and close friend to the team Daisy had died — poured everything into the pedals.
Van Aert made it over the Finestre ahead of the GC fireworks, and then helped tow Yates to the base of the Cat. 3 climb to Sestrieres, giving Yates even more rope in the dramatic task to unravel pink from Del Toro.
Also read: Yates incredible journey to Giro redemption
That set up a similar dynamic to the famous 2022 coup at the Tour de France when Visma-Lease a Bike (then racing as Jumbo-Visma) isolated and attacked Tadej Pogačar on the Col du Galibier, paving the way for Jonas Vingegaard to win his first of two yellow jerseys.
A special Italian celebration dinner last night with our riders, their families, and our staff. pic.twitter.com/5NTbqSSuXs
— Team Visma | Lease a Bike (@vismaleaseabike) June 2, 2025
UAE boss Mauro Gianetti admitted that the Van Aert factor proved decisive.
“It’s easy to talk in hindsight because then you no longer feel the pain in your legs,” Gianetti told journalists Sunday. “We should have had someone in the breakaway, where Wout van Aert was. And there is only one Van Aert, who has done this before in a grand tour.”
Gianetti, who pointed out that UAE lost Jay Vine and Juan Ayuso to injuries in the closing week, simply hoped that Del Toro would have the legs in the Giro’s most decisive moment.
UAE also didn’t want to see Del Toro pull all the way up the Finestre only to have Carapaz attack later and perhaps bounce him to third place.
It was a quandary that set the pieces into place, leaving Yates and Visma to power to the spectacular victory.
“I think Isaac probably couldn’t follow Yates,” Gianetti said. “He had the legs to stay at that pace, not more. He did not falter, he was able to follow Carapaz every time. But after that, he could not take the risk of driving all the way and being countered by Carapaz.
“Someone like Van Aert doesn’t make the difference on the climbs, but in a valley like that and the first kilometers of the Sestriere. It was already decided there. Yates was able to recover on the wheel,” Gainetti summed up. “That’s why we lost the pink jersey.”
What next? Yates to the Tour de France
Yates celebrated the biggest win of his career and avenged his demoralizing collapse on the Finestre in Chris Froome’s famous raid on the same climb in 2018, Yates savored sweet revenge. Despite winning the 2018 Vuelta a España, the Giro 2018 always stung.
“You always have to believe in yourself, that you can achieve something great. But bit by bit, I was losing time on Richie and Isaac,” Yates said Sunday. “Winning the race seemed to be slipping further away, and catching them back wouldn’t be easy. But the guys kept encouraging me. And I kept believing, too.”
REDEMPTION
Seven years after cracking on the Colle delle Finestre and losing the Maglia Rosa to Chris Froome, Simon Yates returned to the same climb to drop his rivals, reclaim the pink jersey, and all but seal victory at the 2025 Giro d’Italia.
Sprint Cycling pic.twitter.com/vydwZaLxEz
— Velon CC (@VelonCC) May 31, 2025
Nevertheless, there were moments in the career of Adam’s twin brother when he thought his career was coming to an end.
“We all have doubts about whether we’re on the right path. I’ve had a lot of setbacks, not just in this Giro, where I thought it’s time to quit, maybe I should do something else,” he said. “But I kept going, and this year turned out to be my year. I haven’t had any bad luck, which I did in the past.”
Yates will slot into a helper’s role at the Tour de France, where a revived Visma-Lease a Bike hopes to take the fight to the yellow jersey straight to Pogačar and UAE Emirates-XRG.
Del Toro, Carapaz move on: ‘I gave everything I had’
Despite the late-race misfire, Del Toro leaves the Giro as the major revelation in grand tour racing.
With the “Big 4” dominating the grand tour conversation the past few seasons, few riders have been able to elbow into the conversation.
Backed by UAE, Del Toro seems to have the world at his feet.
“For sure, it is not nice to lose the pink jersey, but I need to be mature with this and I need to take this to be hungry in the future,” Del Toro said. “Sometimes the guy who makes fewer mistakes is who wins, and for sure, I will come back stronger.”
Del Toro joined elite company nonetheless. The last best young rider who made the final podium of the Giro before the age of 22 was Andy Schleck, second overall in 2007. The 21-year-old Mexican also is the youngest Giro podium finisher in 85 years.
“I will remember this Giro d’Italia as proof to myself that I can do big things, if I work enough to do it,” Del Toro said. “I just need to enjoy it and keep on working as hard as I can.”
Things are bit a different for Carapaz, who, at 32, is at the other end of his career path.
This might be one of the last best chances he had to win a grand tour.
“I don’t know if it could have been better for me. I gave everything I had. I’ve tried all I could to win, it was my mission since the first day I came to the Giro,” Caparaz said. “I’m happy with this third place. I’ll come back one year to win the Giro once more. It was my fourth participation and I made the podium three times. I think the Giro is my race.”
The 2025 Giro served up its best course for last.
A story fit for Hollywood
Simon Yates all-but wins the 2025 Giro d’Italia with a jaw-dropping long-range move on Colle delle Finestre, seven years after he lost the Maglia Rosa on the same mountain. A safe ride on Stage 21 will secure overall victory.
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#GirodItalia pic.twitter.com/HDTreojx1t— Velon CC (@VelonCC) May 31, 2025