At the end of a tortuous Giro, Simon Yates finally sees life in pink – Liberation
In terms of awards, cycling is an inventive sport. The winners of Paris-Roubaix take down a giant pavement, at Tirreno-Adriatico on a lifting an imposing trident, while the best Breton of Tro Bro Léon receives a piglet. At the end of the Giro, the wearer of the pink jersey receives a cut figured by a long golden ribbon which seems to be wrapped towards the infinity, like a barber brand or a fusible paste. The Briton Simon Yates (Visma-Lease A Bike) is expected to raise this spiral on Sunday after a final gala stage in the streets of Rome, after having knocked down the Tour of Italy this Saturday, May 31 in the Col des Finestre. Perhaps he will say that this year, the image trophy perfectly the race he embodies: a tortuous course which we do not know what each turn will reveal.
In other words: a magnetic, tortuous edition, with numerous theaters and the suspense maintained until its end. Before the decisive stage of this Saturday, Simon Yates only pointed to third place, at 1 minute 21 from the pink jersey. Or the return of the glorious uncertainty of sport to the Giro, after a Cru 2024 where we were bored closed in front of the outrageous domination of Tadej Pogacar. This year, the ogre was not there, leaving the field to a a priori more open tray. Two favorites still detached themselves clearly at the start. First another Slovenian, Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), 35-year-old Biscard Madré at the Empire General’s list, Including a Giro torn off two years ago the day before. Opposite, a 22 -year -old Spaniard, Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates), already one of the most sharp blades in world cycling.
Everyone arrived with a team cut for the big epics. None will see the finish line. The two fell during the dreaded 9th stage, which took white paths in the heart of Tuscany. Ayuso, the hardest hit, will get away with three knee stitches, a pedal stroke and lost ambitions. An insect will complete its ordeal from an bite to the eyelid: it is the distorted face Elephant Man that Catalan threw the sponge on Thursday. As for Roglic, he fell back the day after his first gadin, recognizing a stretching time in Lucca. Then once again, six days later, in the descent of the carbonare, again under the waters. It was too much for Primoz the Deveine, Who signed his fifth abandonment on Tuesday on his last nine participations in a big round.
In this massacre game, the strongest team (UAE Team Emirates) seemed to be able to keep their hands with a spare leader: the young Mexican nugget Isaac del Toro. At 21, the one who had already impressed among the juniors (a tour of the future in 2023, reference test) seemed to be able to keep the pink jersey, which he will have wore twelve days. But a crazy scenario, during the penultimate stage, decided otherwise. The leader was attacked very early by his runner-up, the experienced Equatorian Richard Carapaz (EF Education-Easypost), before Simon Yates was invited to the fight and then left alone in the formidable pass of the Finestre. We then attended that cycling can produce more beautiful: a part of poker between the two Latin American to know which of the two would make the effort to roll on the third man. A burial: Yates arrived more than 5 minutes ahead.
What take a pink jersey to the taste of revenge to Sestrières. Seven years earlier, during a partly disputed stage on these same roads, the one who seemed able to win the 2018 Giro had gone through the window, conceding almost 40 minutes to the future winner, Chris Froome. What also sign, at 32 years old, the best success of a career in the jet of saw of pure climber, it, Adam Yates’s twin brother, Who ran this giro … in the UAE jersey.
Marked by sometimes very hard weather conditions and other notable abandonments on injuries (the most elegant of Italians Giulio Ciccone on fall in the 14th stage, the former winner I Hindley communioned in the 6th stage, the climber Mikel Landa Vertebra fractured from the first), this Giro did not only have a hidden airs. For The Danish Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek)it was a paved path of glory: four stages victories (he can still win in Rome) and the cyclamen jersey of the standards. In this area, we were waiting for a duel with Wout Van Aert (Visma-Lease A Bike), the other great specialist in classics. But the Belgian arrived sick on the Giro and took a long time to get into legs. He all the same triumphed in Siena after the famous construction site of the White Ways, as an echo in his victory at the Strade Bianche in 2020, on the same theater of operations.
On the French side, the soon retired Romain Bardet (Picnic-Postnl) tried a lot but failed to enter the Select club of the stage winners on the three large towers. The three-color scar could have been total, if Nicolas Prodhomme (Décathlon-Ag2r) had come to win, Friday, a solo victory in the queen stage (almost 5,000 meters of elevation). A success as beautiful as it is unexpected for this laborious 28 -year -old teammate, who arrived at the bike a little later as the average. Ten years ago, at the age when Del Toro won the tour of the future was an electrician. « It is good to know what is next to the bicycle, he said to The team. In apprenticeship, it was at least 35 hours of work with a salary of 600 euros I believe. I realize that living my passion today is a great chance. ” There are simple happiness.
