Simon Yates pounces as Carapaz and del Toro hesitate, winning the 2025 Giro with a daring solo escape.

Simon Yates has won the 2025 Giro d’Italia in breathtaking fashion after an extraordinary final weekend that saw top rivals Isaac del Toro and Richard Carapaz inexplicably freeze in a Mexican standoff, allowing the Lancastrian to escape and secure the maglia rosa.

On Saturday’s decisive mountain stage over the brutal Colle delle Finestre, the 32-year-old Brit launched a perfectly timed solo attack, aided masterfully by teammate Wout van Aert. That daring move was enough to snatch the pink jersey, which he defended on the streets of Rome to seal his second career Grand Tour win – six years after he first triumphed at the Vuelta a España.

The drama reached operatic levels when Del Toro, the race leader heading into the final mountain stage, and Carapaz, just 43 seconds behind him, focused more on each other than on the Brit slipping up the road. Despite the Ecuadorian’s earlier aggressive tactics burning off Del Toro’s teammates, neither man seized the moment to chase Yates down, each fearing they would expose themselves to the other. The result was a surreal and static battle of nerves – which Yates exploited with surgical precision.

This bizarre impasse will go down in Giro history as one of its strangest collapses since 1989, when Pedro Delgado lost the race by missing the prologue start.

Yates, riding for Visma-Lease-a-Bike, delivered a performance marked by patience, intelligence, and unshakeable cool. Since Del Toro took the lead on the gravel stage into Siena, Yates rode a controlled race, never exposing himself, always biding time. When the Finestre arrived, he and van Aert struck like a hammer.

By the time the two South American rivals realised the danger, it was too late. Del Toro was isolated. Carapaz lacked support. Yates, with Van Aert acting as a masterful satellite rider up ahead, powered clear on the descent with 36km remaining. Neither Carapaz nor Del Toro dared blink, and their hesitation handed the Brit a gap he never relinquished.

EF Education had inadvertently set the trap for their own man when their domestiques launched the Finestre at breakneck pace, a move meant to help Carapaz. Instead, it shattered Del Toro’s support and left both contenders vulnerable to Yates’s ambush.

The win represents redemption for Yates, who memorably cracked on the very same climb during the 2018 Giro after leading the race for two weeks. That collapse haunted him for years. Now, in a perfect poetic twist, he has turned that heartbreak into glory on the same slopes.

His triumph was celebrated not just as a personal achievement but also as a masterclass in cycling tactics and discipline. For British fans, it was another golden chapter in the country’s remarkable run of Grand Tour successes.

“I just waited,” Yates said after hoisting the Trofeo Senza Fine. “It’s taken a long time to get back here, but I’ve always believed I could do it again. This one means a lot.”

His Visma team rode to perfection. Van Aert’s presence in the breakaway proved decisive, unnerving the competition and offering Yates the launchpad he needed. Their coordination highlighted the increasing importance of tactical planning and trust in teammates in modern Grand Tour racing.

As the pink confetti fell in Rome, Del Toro and Carapaz were left to contemplate what could have been – a misjudgement that cost them one of cycling’s most coveted prizes.