Yates Wins Giro d’Italia for Second Grand Tour Title

Date: 02 June 2025 - 21:35

News ID: ۱۴۰۲۵۳

ROME (Reuters) - Simon Yates of Visma-Lease a Bike won the 2025 Giro d’Italia on Sunday to claim his second Grand Tour victory, having effectively sealed the title a day earlier when he snatched the pink jersey from Isaac Del Toro.
Yates and other riders received blessings from Pope Leo at the Vatican before the Briton cruised to the finish in Rome on the final stage, which was won by teammate Olav Kooij in a sprint finish.
Yates, riding in all pink on a pink bike, also became the first rider since Alberto Contador in 2015 to win the Giro without claiming victory on any of the stages. His victory added to his 2018 Vuelta a Espana title.
“Honestly, it’s still sinking in. What a huge moment in my career... I couldn’t be prouder of the whole team over three weeks,” said Yates, the Giro’s 12th different winner in as many editions.
“It’s been good that we had the possibility to win the last stage with Olav. So we kept focused till the end. It’s a defining moment of my career, there’s no doubt about that. It’s a sweet success.”
Having raced for more than 82 hours, Yates eventually finished three minutes and 56 seconds ahead of Del Toro while Richard Carapaz was third, a further 47 seconds behind.
Yates, 32, famously lost the title in 2018 on the Colle delle Finestre climb but this year he closed that painful chapter on the same slopes by taking the pink jersey with Saturday’s stunning attack in the mountains.
After a 3,300-km journey through Italy, Albania and Slovenia, the final stage was a 143-km ride starting and finishing in Rome, including eight laps of a 9.5 km long circuit.
With the final stage underway, a relaxed Yates was all smiles as he cycled next to his twin brother Adam, putting his arm around the UAE Team Emirates rider.
As the riders cycled past Rome’s landmarks like the Colosseum, a six-man breakaway went 24 seconds ahead of the pink jersey group with less than 50 km to go.
But with one lap left, only Josef Cerny and Enzo Paleni were left in the lead. Cerny then dropped Paleni to attempt a solo ride to the finish but he was quickly reeled in with six kilometers left.
Visma-Lease a Bike wanted the perfect finish and they executed it to perfection when Wout Van Aert led the sprint out on the final kilometer before Kooij surged ahead to take the victory, his second after winning stage 12.
Kooij finished ahead of Kaden Groves and Matteo Moschetti as Visma-Lease a Bike became the first team in 26 years to win both the general classification and the final stage.
“When the ketchup bottle is almost empty... keep shaking, shaking, shaking,” Van Aert said.