Giro d'Italia, Simon Yates wins the pink jersey on Colle delle Finestre. The conclusion in Rome

Between two quarrelsome, the third enjoys. Here is the unexpected twist. The one that overturns all the predictions. And that once again reiterates that cycling is not a sport that can be completely calculated, completely played on algorithms, on radios and computers. Because if that were the case, we wouldn't be here talking about the new winner of this Giro d'Italia, the Englishman Simon Yates, who with a surprise move, on the Colle delle Finestre, snatched the pink jersey from Isaac Del Toro, the very young Mexican who has been leading the standings for eleven days. Del Toro had won it in the tenth stage, the one in Siena of the Strade Bianche and lost it again in the dust of the dirt road of the Colle delle Finestre, the deadly ramp with 45 hairpin bends that if you take it as Yates did takes you straight to Paradise. A Paradise in pink that sounds like a great revenge for this 32-year-old rider who, right on the Colle delle Finestre in 2018, had sensationally lost the pink jersey and the Giro when he thought he had it in his grasp. Seven years later, almost a nemesis, as if that terrible crash had transformed him into a life lesson, this shy and reserved champion, with tears in his eyes and a voice hoarse with emotion, took back what he had stolen with a sensational action achieved with the push of the heart and the cold lucidity of experience.

A famous maxim by a great English philosopher, Bernard Shaw, warns that men have never learned anything from experience. Well, Simon Yates, perhaps not as deep a thinker as Shaw, has certainly learned that severe lesson from the 2018 Giro that he has carried with him like a scar for these seven years. To oust Del Toro and also Carapz, from whom he was one minute and 21” behind in the standings, the captain of Visma Leale e Bike invented a small masterpiece of tactics and cunning, letting them go wild on the Colle delle Finestre where the two duelists from the first ramps, due to the vehement attacks of Carapaz, gave each other a good beating. Like two boxers who want to deliver the knockout blow in the last round. Except that the Colle delle Finestre is a long and exhausting climb, with your bike slipping away from you, which does not allow you to throw yourself into the fray, wasting precious energy that could come in handy in the final part, on that false flat that after the Colle leads to the finish line in Sestriere. Well Yates, who could count on the powerful help of his teammate Van Aert in front, sent ahead with a group of escapees - among whom the winner of the stage, the Australian Chris Harper, will emerge - Yates, being able to count on this important point of reference, let Del Toro and Carapz vent, then he took off on his own, surprising his two rivals. The two, who were too busy marking each other (do you go or do I go?) allowed the Englishman to accumulate a considerable advantage at the top of the hill, of about a minute and 40”. A good advantage, certainly, but one that could have been recovered on the descent and on the false flat that precedes the arrival at Sestriere. Here the blitz of the new pink jersey was completed. In fact, thanks to the support of Van Aert, a generous and powerful rouleur, Yates not only maintained his advantage but extended it to more than five minutes. An enormity that makes us understand how much Del Toro and Carapaz, on the eve of this stage indicated by everyone as probable winners of the Giro, let slip from their hands a race that by now was almost in their grasp. Del Toro probably paid for his young age (21 years old) and his inexperience (“I'm still happy with what I did, this second place will help me for the future”), while Carapaz made a tactical mistake by playing all his cards right from the first ramps of the Colle delle Finestre, a climb that always makes the difference, as had already happened negatively to Yates and instead positively to Chris Froome in 2018 and Paolo Savoldelli in 2005. It's a junction, a sort of sieve, that's no joke. The Giro is held here and in fact this English rider, who we had mistakenly called a “procrastinator”, has laid the foundations for his feat. An extraordinary feat, achieved right on the day of judgment, before moving to Rome for the final stage that will also receive the blessing of Pope Leo 14.

If Yates's, a small but brave captain, was an undertaking that will remain in the long history of the Giro and cycling, it must also be said that the two rivals, Del Toro and Carapaz, and their teams, made an almost unforgivable error in evaluation and strategy. "It was difficult to choose how to move, if we had put a man in front perhaps we would have missed the one behind, but in these cases you always risk making a mistake..." said Mauro Gianetti, team principal of UAE Emirates, Del Toro's team that until now had always imposed control of the race. "However, Simon Yates was incredible, he didn't follow Carapaz's violent attack, and then, thanks also to Van Aert's help, he went on to win this Giro, taking great revenge on this climb. We couldn't have done more, but we discovered a champion like del Toro, an intelligent champion who is popular and who will give us a lot of satisfaction in the future". All true, all right, the boy is only 21 years old. “He has the future in his hands,” observes Rafal Maika, a long-time Emirates lieutenant. “You will see that he will come back here to win the Giro and also the Tour.”

Maybe, the premises are there, but seeing a Giro like this slip away practically on the last day, is not exactly the best. It remains however the great feat of Simon Yates. A shrewd and tenacious champion who knew how to wait and strike last.