Second victory in a Grand Tour for Simon Yates by winning the overall classification of the 2025 Giro d'Italia

Road 01/06/25 19:12 Migue A.

For the third consecutive year, the Giro d'Italia repeated its final stage through the streets of Rome. A tribute to the new winner Simon Yates, who turned the race around with his spectacular attack on the ramps of the Colle delle Finestre yesterday. A final stage that, as always in this type of finale, had moments for different tributes and also for competition with the final laps around the usual circuit in the most monumental area of Rome.

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Olav Kooij put an end to the Giro d'Italia 2025 with victory in the 21st stage

An exciting Giro d'Italia comes to an end, maintaining tension from start to finish. The start in Albania seems like a distant memory when both Primoz Roglic and Juan Ayuso were the main favorites. Today, neither of them managed to reach Rome after three weeks where nothing went as planned.

We also remember that terrible crash that left us without Mikel Landa, fortunately, with fewer consequences than initially thought, and the Basque rider did not hesitate to announce a few days ago that he will probably be at the start of the Vuelta a España.

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21 stages in which a very young Isaac del Toro has graduated in the world of cycling, showing the great cyclist that those of us who regularly follow this sport already knew he was. In which Richard Carapaz, whom many already placed at the end of his career, has shown that he still has a lot left; or in which we saw Egan Bernal smile again despite the Giro d'Italia ultimately being a bit too long for him.

We cannot forget the tremendous Mads Pedersen, who, although he could not finish the classics with that dream cobblestone in Roubaix, continues to show that the Yorkshire World Championship was no coincidence. And speaking of classics specialists, although Wout van Aert did not dominate, he was essential once again for the final victory of a teammate after his excellent work yesterday after the Colle delle Finestre, repeating what he did for Jonas Vingegaard in the Tour de France on the slopes of Hautacam.

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Final victory for a fantastic Simon Yates who never gave up, even though his legs placed him slightly below Carapaz and del Toro in the face-off. However, the British rider knew how to move intelligently, demonstrating that in cycling, the strongest does not always win, to turn the race around and achieve the victory that the Giro d'Italia owed him since 2018.

The last stage to pay tribute to all of them, with a route similar to the last three years with a first part towards the coast of Lazio and then returning to the Eternal City to complete 8 laps around a circuit in the most monumental part of Rome with the Imperial Forums and the Colosseum as exceptional spectators.

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Before that, during the neutralized section of the stage, the peloton headed to the Vatican City to pay tribute to the recently deceased Pope Francis. The peloton made a stop at the entrance of this city-state to be received by the new Pope Leon XIV, to whom Mauro Vegni, director of the Giro d'Italia, presented the pink leader's jersey before the pontiff addressed the cyclists and bestowed his blessing upon them.

After the round trip to the coast, at a leisurely pace and with the usual moments of posing for the media, they arrived at the circuit in Rome and a group of 6 cyclists formed seeking to make this 21st stage also have a breakaway of the day. Alessandro Verre, Enzo Paleni, Josef Cerny, Michael Hepburn, Andrea Pietrobon, Martin Marcellusi showed themselves and tried to go as far as possible, although the peloton barely gave them half a minute of respite. They gradually fell back, except for Josef Cerny and Enzo Paleni, who managed to reach the final bell for the start of the last lap.

Cerny managed to resist, showing off his time trial skills until 6 kilometers to go. Then came the moment for the sprint teams and the search for the best position for the final straight.

They reached the last kilometer with Visma-Lease a Bike perfectly positioned. Wout van Aert launched a strong attack in the last 700 meters, which sloped upwards, with Olav Kooij on his wheel and Mads Pedersen behind him in what seemed to be a mano a mano between the two fastest riders in the race. Kooij launched at just the right moment, and when Pedersen was about to follow him, Matteo Moschetti slipped in from behind and left him trapped without a chance to contest. However, Q36.5's rider came from too far back to have time to catch up to a very fast Kooij who won the final stage of this Giro d'Italia 2025. On the other side, Kaden Groves also failed to catch up, enjoying a cleaner sprint but lacking the strength to overtake the Visma-Lease a Bike rider.