This year I have been following the Giro d' Italia for the first time as I normally only watch the Tour de France and what a treat this race was. Last year Pogacar basically won the Giro after the 2nd stage and went on to win by a massive margin of 10 minutes. This years race without the worlds best Pogacar involved has allowed others to shine.
Today was the penultimate stage of 205km featuring the famous Colle delle Finestre climb which is so severe it is uncategorized. 19.3 kilometers with an average gradient of 9.2 degrees which includes 5 kilometers of gravel road sounds like a recipe for attacks to happen.
Isaac del Toro was the leader of the race before todays stage with a lead of 41 seconds over second placed Richard Carapaz and Simon Yates in third trailing by 1 minute and 21 seconds. I had del Torro winning this years Giro as he had the fire power to counter act anything Caparaz threw at him.
Simon Yates in 2018 was leading the Giro at the same venue as today and lost 38 minutes cracking on the gravel slopes dropping from 1st to 8th. No one had him in their thoughts when it came to making a challenge today and that would include del Torro and Carapaz. Yates in third spot has not really done much this year and has never threatened the lead.
This afternoon Yates attacked his rivals 3 times with no luck and he could not break away. The 4th attempt was successful and he left del Torro and Carapaz in his dust never to be seen again and even then the 1 minute 21 seconds he had to make up no one thought was possible. Yates linked up with team mate Wout van Aert it what has to be a planned move and saw Yates slip streamed into a 5 minute 17 seconds gain over his closest rivals. Hard to believe Yates has a 3 minutes and 56 seconds lead with only 1 stage left which is more of a parade around Rome where the lead will not be challenged.
One has to question the tactics of del Torro and Richard Carapaz because they concentrated on themselves with their own battle being first and second and misjudged what Yates and his team had lined up strategically. This was a cycling lesson and they lost the plot and ultimately they lost any chance of winning the race. They underestimated Yates and conceded the race when Yates had a built up a 4 minute gap with no hope of catching him.
This is only the second grand tour race del Torro has entered so finishing in second place is still a great achievement and he would have learned so much from the last 3 weeks. Being part of Team Emirates which is Pogacar's team they have a possible future champion. Pogacar would never had made this same mistake and he would have not allowed Yates to break away like he did and why he is the best rider in the world and will be favorite for the Tour de France in a months time.