Giro 2025 - The Moral Victor?

[Tim Cahill]

Juan Ayuso - Winner of the first mountain stage, crashed first on Stage 1 and then more consequently on Stage 9, fought on bravely after a bee sting but was forced to abandon on Stage 18. Je suis Juan.

Primoz Roglic - Came into the race promising a lot after winning Catalunya and running Tarling close on the opening TT, unfortunately hampered by his trademark 4 crashes and was unable to demonstrate if he really was saving it for Week 3. His pals seemed to remember they were professional cyclists directly after the moment of his DNF. Abandoned by the team?

Simon Yates - The actual winner, ultimately his idea was proven correct but otherwise rode a conservative race.

Richard Carapaz - The most attacking serious GC threat, a classic, memorable climbing campaign without a serious A+ team, right until the toys came out the pram on the final stage.

Isaac Del Toro - Young Mexican star and unlikely protagonist of the race who UAE seemed to have little faith in. Chased down by his own domestiques on Grappa and on the gravel. Did he give up without a fight, or was the other bald fraud to blame?

Egan Bernal - The most attacking rider period, animated the race from comical distances with little team support, had to get hippos like Tarling and Turner setting up high mountain attacks because Sky took mostly a rouler team.

 

[CyclistAbi]

I voted for Primož Roglič.

 

[Sciatic]

Moral Victor? The Pope!

 

[will-10]

We have reached the peak CN forum asterisk era

 

[Izzyeviel]

Gee

 

[Samu Cuenca]

I voted for Matteo Moser.

But actually in this case, I do see Vino as the moral victor. It would have been a different race without Astana in it.

 

[topcat]

Me

 

[Ilmaestro99]

Giulio pelizzari

 

[Red Rick]

Mauro Vegni.

Got away with murder on this one.

 

[Ilmaestro99]

Gee

Gee spent the whole race riding around trying to prevent GC action from happening. There is nothing moral about his performance

 

[topcat]

Firstly, this has got to be the most important thread on the forum.
Secondly, there is no secondly, but I'm surprised nobody has voted for del Toro for being the main actor in the most amusing stage 20 in years.

 

[Izzyeviel]

Gee spent the whole race riding around trying to prevent GC action from happening. There is nothing moral about his performance

maybe. But it was hilarious watching him whizz past Carapaz & Del boy

 

[hayneplane]

Let’s go for the lols and say the rest are lucky that Fortunato didn’t even try to go for GC and would have cooked them in the mountains had he tried to save more energy.

 

[Brullnux]

Del Toro, easy. Was stuck under the yoke of Ayuso for 15 stages, then kindly gave up the Maglia Rosa to Yates, given this was probably his last chance.

 

[zlev11]

in their own minds it'll be the people who think the route doesn't matter and will use this race for the rest of this forums existence to justify their wrong opinion even though the only good stages were the ones that everyone agreed had good routes.

 

[Brullnux]

Special mention to Louis Meintjes for winning the Zubeldia/Meintjes award for best GC performance without a top 10 in any stage. McNulty, Rubio, Yates and Majka came very close, but Meintjes is a worthy winner.

 

[Pippo_San]

There are quite a few people who are moral winners, in the way they have performed over their supposed limits.
First and foremost El Torito. I like his attitude and his brave style, even if he botched his Giro in the end. He still won everything cause he's made a huge mark as a genuine GT contender and will be given an amazing team at his service in his next shot. Congrats. Considering his age this is an epic win. Also he found the love of the tifosi and a lot of people started to like him during this Giro.
Then Giulio Pellizzari, similarly to El Torito, he showed he's a genuine GT contender and I'm quite sure he'll be given a shot very soon. Not bad starting as a simple domestique with zero pedigree.
How about Damiano Caruso? 38 years and a top 5. Super win.
Then Egan Bernal. He always wins everytime he can race his bike. He's not the Tour winner anymore.
He's winning in life.
He's just that great. Wonderful.

 

[movingtarget]

The moral winner is nobody but the winner of the Darwin Award was won jointly..........

 

[11-34]

Roglic is more like the moral loser. As the team mates tactic of the Tour de France worked again. Keep him isolated until he crashes out on his own, then you are free to pursue your own goals.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Pidcock. The way he animated the race is revolutionary. Only misfortune prevented him from winning the race.

 

[tobydawq]

in their own minds it'll be the people who think the route doesn't matter and will use this race for the rest of this forums existence to justify their wrong opinion even though the only good stages were the ones that everyone agreed had good routes.

okay

 

[stefank]

The moral winner is the actual winner. Simple.

 

[noob]

Bardet

 

[Peyroteo94]

Juan Ayuso. Acordding the bald fraud, he would win this race without his crash.

 

[Red Rick]

To me the term "moral victor" is kind of an ironic term for a loser who got good PR. And I think it's kind of moot this Giro because the moral victor is mostly the actual vicotr by a country mile. Arguably Carapaz and Del Toro, but Carapaz did lose the Giro from a presumed winning position and Del Toro soured a lot of people on him in the final mountain stage. Bernal fits the bill a little bit but he also didn't impact this race that much apart from a few token attacks that went nowhere before fading hard in the most critical phase of the race. 2 other options are Van Aert, but he's mostly just a winner, and Pellizzari, who I think is one of the few clear unironic moral winners. But 6th in GC is just okay and not funny enough for the moral winner thread.

Moral loser suffers from a similar thing, Roglic and Ayuso are just the clear losers, so it's whatever. Only real moral loser I'd say is team UAE as a whole.

So I have 2 other suggestions for moral winners. Tom Pidcock, who had a nice three week sightseeing holiday while getting paid the big bucks. And Adam Yates, who did *** all for 3 weeks, got to celebrate his brother winning the Giro while he was stuffing popcorn on the UAE team bus. Living the good life there Adam.