Step one to Grand Tour victory: patience. Up until stage 20 of the Giro d’Italia, when he made his big move on the Colle delle Finestre, when had you seen Simon Yates during this race? As Richard Carapaz took stage wins with swashbuckling attacks for EF Education-EasyPost, and Isaac del Toro was thrust into the spotlight thanks to rumours of unrest around UAE Team Emirates-XRG’s leadership strategy, Visma-Lease a Bike, from a general classification perspective, slid under the radar.
“I think with the way the race was organised it was always going to be decided in this last week, so it was about staying safe and not losing time,” Yates stated after he took the pink jersey on the penultimate stage. “Thanks to my teammates I did. It was incredible that I was always in the right place at the right moment.”
With that statement, the British rider tells us about step two to Grand Tour victory: teamwork. Yates repeatedly mentioned the importance of those around him during the last three weeks, whether that was his teammates keeping him out of trouble in hectic bunch sprints, or up front in on stage nine’s gravel roads to Siena (the British rider finished fifth that day on the type of terrain that he admits he usually dreads.) The way that Visma-Lease a Bike executed their strategy on stage 20 was a culmination of the work they have done over the last 19 days to achieve one, collective goal: the maglia rosa with Simon Yates.
It began with Wout van Aert getting himself in the 30-rider strong breakaway of the day on the rolling roads to Sestrière as a satellite rider for his general classification leader behind. With the time gap the breakaway were given before the key climb of Colle delle Finestre, Van Aert was able to stay away from the GC group until Yates caught him on the descent. Then, it was time for the Belgian to pace through the valley roads and as far up the final ascent as he could – a task he completed to perfection.
“Everyday we’ve had riders up the road in the breakaway purely for situations like today. The team has been really committed so we’ve had options everyday and today was the first day we really used it to our advantage,” Yates explained. “Wout was the one who was there and he really did everything for me. It’s not the first time he has shown himself to be one of the best teammates in the world and a champion himself.”
Yates’ coach at Visma-Lease a Bike, Jesper Morkov, shared this sentiment: “Simon was really good today and we had a good team around him. We did the right things but we also tried to search for our luck by having Wout in the breakaway. It was above our dream scenario to have him there and do a descent with Simon, then pulling full gas in the valley was a gamechanger. Simon could sit in his pocket,” the Danish man said after the stage.
The third step to Grand Tour victory is perhaps one of the most challenging to hold on to: belief. Yates lost time on stage 19 under the pressure of attacks from Del Toro and Carapaz, and he had demons to fight on the Finestre after being badly dropped there in 2018 when he was within touching distance of the pink jersey.
Even leading up to this Giro, the British rider had only raced in Tirreno-Adriatico and Volta Ciclista a Catalunya where he finished 14th and 9th overall respectively – he didn’t look in like he was in Grand Tour winning form. These factors combined are enough to test any rider’s mental strength and confidence when it comes to having the courage to try and win the Queen stage of the Giro. Yates’ long-range on the Finestre, however, was a sign of both his and Visma-Lease a Bike’s unwavering determination.
“I had the idea to try and get away from the other two guys on the podium because I knew once I got away I was strong and could hold a high pace – those two had shown that they are a lot more explosive in the finales so I wanted to go at it alone myself,” the 32-year-old stated. “This final week, already on stage 16 I tried something but was not strong enough, so I did have some doubts this morning to try something on the climb but my team really believed in me too and we pulled it off.”
Visma are, of course, no strangers to attempting to win leader’s jerseys in Grand Tours. The Dutch squad have taken nine in their existence so far – this will be ten as long as there are no disasters for Yates on the final stage of the 2025 Giro in Rome. However, the competition is getting stiffer and it’s getting harder to take victories as each season of professional cycling rolls on. There isn’t one blueprint, but instead it takes innovative, clever thinking to stay ahead of the curve, as well as togetherness and cohesion between a team. This year’s edition of La Corsa Rosa has been an example of that. When Yates takes to the top step of the podium in Rome tomorrow, it will be well deserved for a team which has given this everything.
