Grande Yates! I knew he was in very good form right after stage 16. He flew under the radar, which I think helped him very much. He lost a little bit of explosivity over the years, but that was blessing in disguise. He lost a little bit of time in stages 17 and 19, and coming into stage 20 Del Toro and UAE saw only Carapaz as a real threat. Baldato forget how deadly Simon Yates can be on a proper mountain, Del Toro didn't know, he was a kid back then. And everything went according to some kind of a script written before the stage:
1) They let Van Aert into the break
2)They allowed 10 minutes to the break before Finestre
3)Carapaz went full gas from the bottom, dragging only Del Toro. Yates catched later, which falsely indicated that he is a bit weaker than those two.
4)He tried to attack those two multiple times, Carapaz went after him every time, and the first time he didn't, Del Toro didn't react thinking Carapaz will eventually protect his 2nd place, and also that Yates isn't that strong to pose a threat to him.
5)Carapaz was frustrated with the way Del Toro rode, so he went hard after Yates only in last couple of km's. That was too little and too late.
6)Van Aert had enough strength to reach the top of Finestre before Yates, and enough in the tank to pull like a madman on descent and false flat to Sestriere.
7)Carapaz was so pissed of Del Toro that he refused to take one single pull anymore, Del Toro was still afraid that Carapaz will overtake him so he didn;t want to pull either, or he was still being badly advised from the car.
8)Yates, knowing what was happening behind him, when Van Aert finally stopped, was literally flying up the slopes to Sestriere, taking 1.30 min to Chris Harper in only 5-6 km's on 6% gradient.
To me, it was a full redemption for 2018, a full circle closed . It was some kind of a fairytale, a cosmic justice.