Giro d'Italia Giro d'Italia 2025 stage 20: Verrès – Sestrière, 205 km

[Red Rick]

Sadly, for him no. He lost his stake.

The poker equivalent is Carapaz checks to him on the river (Sestriere) and Del Toro just open folds

 

[Sciatic]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jg6FPzrJsNg

Fun to watch that interview: cracks in the normally placid demeanor and joy of teammates coming to greet him.

 

[Sciatic]

I shall not stoop so low.

Whenever I think I don't have self respect, I remind myself I have not yet started a podcast

Perfect

 

[JosefK]

Hate to be Gianetti tonight having to take the call from his despotic overlords and explain to them how they didn’t win this race the same as they’ve won every other race going this season. Might be a bit awkward. Still, LOL.

"Send Gianetti in for motivational debrief!"

 

[KoopaCycling]

Yates won the giro. He had the legs and rode well. Yates is the main reason he won the giro. I want to say that twice to be sure there can be no doubt.

BUT
this is why despite MVDP being the bigger champion, Visma would probably rather have Van Aert on their roster.
Without Van Aert, Visma would have 0 stage wins. Now they have 2. With himself and Kooij. Without Van Aert their is a good chance Yates podiums this race, and not win it. Just like Van Aert helped Roglic and Vingegaard in the past, he was once again by himself the majority of the team around both their sprinter and their main man for GC. Not just on today stage either. throughout the giro. in crucial moments it was Van Aert that was there.

 

[Poursuivant]

The start to the Finestre was incredible, EF absolutely shattered a full peloton in about 1km to leaving just Carapaz and Del Toro. This killed UAE off completely and opened the rest of the stage up.

How Yates rode that climb is indicative of how he has rode the whole Giro, not got carried away, not chased every single attack, rode at his own pace, and not gone into the red. As Carapaz said, the smartest rider won.

 

[Sciatic]

Yates did clearly an amazing performance, still I wonder why Ef were trying to launch Finestre like it was Redoute or something like that. I think they somewhat cooked Carapaz by doing that.

Regardless, turned out that he wasn’t going to outclimb Del Toro today, so it doesn’t really matter.

 

[Ripper]

Could also be bluster to cover feeling like he failed.

That could be it as well. It is a trend I have also seen when I raced ... some folks would sprint even if we were out of the top 10. Once I even did it. Although to be honest, at least in that circumstance I was in a small group with two others, who were teammates, and who were trying to work me over so one of them could get a coveted 10th or something in a one day RR. So my sprinting at that time was a bit of an F you to them.

 

[Sciatic]

Exactly Finestre is a climb of attrition. You set a steady hard pace, without shooting all your bullets in the beginning. How could EF have thought attacking from the bottom was a good idea?

Because Carapaz isn’t a tempo climber, he would have to do it with repeated attacks a’ la Contador. But I don’t know why they went quite so gonzo, but it made sense to ride very hard from the bottom.

 

[Ripper]

Del Toro is riding smart

This did not age that well

 

[Oldman]

Exactly Finestre is a climb of attrition. You set a steady hard pace, without shooting all your bullets in the beginning. How could EF have thought attacking from the bottom was a good idea?

I'd give that thought primarily to the impulsive Mr. Carapaz. He tends to play a bit more than he should and then pay the price. It's why Roglic almost always drops him at stage endings. Del Toro also needed some help but it's possible both were completely undone in week 3.

 

[Oldman]

Because Carapaz isn’t a tempo climber, he would have to do it with repeated attacks a’ la Contador. But I don’t know why they went quite so gonzo, but it made sense to ride very hard from the bottom.

Yates is a peaky climber, too. He had to make 4 jumps to get loose and still had the legs to see it through. The DS's in EF and UAE cars must have been losing their collective minds instead of forcing a collaboration.

 

[noob]

Rewatching while reading the forum is rather funny, just saying

 

[Bkinn]

Simon Yates was impressive today, but a part of this is thanks to Van Aert.

 

[Oldman]

Simon Yates was impressive today, but a part of this is thanks to Van Aert.

Partly, yes. Yates would have likely won by a lesser margin but all credit goes to him and the tactics that had a teammate, any teammate up the road.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Because Carapaz isn’t a tempo climber, he would have to do it with repeated attacks a’ la Contador. But I don’t know why they went quite so gonzo, but it made sense to ride very hard from the bottom.

He doesn't have a team that could hold on for long on the climb, and he obviously knew after the last few stages that he had to start early. I doubt they had expected to isolate Del Toro from the get go, but when it happened there was no turning back.

 

[Escarabajo]

I also believe that if you split open the race and start attacking from the bottom, you have no right to demand Toro to take turns. Carapaz is a funny guy.

Ok, fair. Lose the Giro then. The race is not against Carapaz only, that is just plain stupid.

 

[Pantani_lives]

Has anyone else ever won their 2 GTs with a 7 year spread?

Gimondi, Coppi and Bartali.

 

[Mayomaniac]

@Mayomaniac how is field day my man?

Also, where is @Gigs_98

Almost 30 degrees, lots of dust and a sunburned neck.

 

[Red Rick]

Almost 30 degrees, lots of dust and a sunburned neck.

Mistakes were made I guess

 

[mountainroad]

I love it; just like 2018. Young rider appeared dominant throughout the race, and a mature rider (who had been written off at this point) went big on Finestre and won decisively. Full circle for Yates.

 

[Poursuivant]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1928820781523374502

View: https://x.com/giroditalia/status/1928820781523374502


Beautiful 😍

 

[Escarabajo]

But why not just continue your effort and drop del Toro maybe a minute later? What does Yates have to with this? Carapaz wasn't strong enough, and neither was del Toro.

Because he couldn’t—wasn’t that obvious?
I don’t agree that Del Toro lacked the strength. You can’t say that for sure. He covered every attack. At some point, you have to improvise—and that means starting to defend your leadership in the Giro. There’s a valid case that Carapaz should’ve started working with him. Sure, that carries some risk—but sitting back and doing nothing wasn’t just unwise, it was also heartless"

 

[search]

Did Pool make it to the top with Pellizzari and Caruso?

this must be relatively close to the top, so probably yes

 

[Tim Cahill]

Oh dear, it's all kicking off

https://twitter.com/x/status/1928822313077645319

"Del Toro today proved himself to be the most cold-hearted and cowardly man in the history of cycling. Richard Carapaz demonstrated why he's an Olympic champion and a living cycling legend. Simple."

https://twitter.com/x/status/1928828480428331442

Good for Simon, he took advantage of the fact that Isaac del Toro was just holding on to Carapaz's balls the entire race and was never able to put his own balls to win by fighting.