That was an astonishing stage on Saturday. Basically first and second riders failing to chase down the third placed (in the overall timing) and both letting him eat their leads while first keeping an eye on each other and then refusing to help each other in a fight back. Great riding from Yates but also superior riding from Yates' team with some well planned moves and Van Aert riding himself into the ground to keep Yates ahead and keep the gap to the recalcitrant chasers. Just amazing to have pulled it out of Del Toro's hands, a truly historic stage.
posted by biffa at 1:31 PM on June 2 [6 favorites]

This was incredible to watch and I'm so happy to see it discussed on the Blue! I'd dipped in and out of the Giro this year, fully watching only a few stages - it's difficult to fit it into an eastern North American working calendar, especially for three weeks. But the stage on Saturday was an absolutely fascinating turnaround.

The teamwork on team Visma-Lease a Bike has been incredible and really changing both predictions and outcomes. I'm excited to see what they'll bring to the Tour de France in a few weeks.
posted by neutralhydrogen at 1:39 PM on June 2 [4 favorites]

way to go Yatesey!
posted by birdsong at 1:48 PM on June 2 [1 favorite]

I'd dipped in and out of the Giro this year, fully watching only a few stages - it's difficult to fit it into an eastern North American working calendar, especially for three weeks.

Yeah, I can't believe that I used to mostly kinda sorta watch the TdF every day for a month back in the TiVo era. Flat stages weren't bad, I could mostly scan through them at speed watching for break aways and catches (and crashes) and it still took a solid hour every night, but the editing of a mountain stage meant I basically had to watch the last climb in real time. I've always said that I would just watch it live on an iPad while I worked from home for the past few years, but that just hasn't really worked out. The American color commentators and production in general got a little iffy, so ... eh?
posted by Kyol at 2:00 PM on June 2 [2 favorites]

Kyol: " I've always said that I would just watch it live on an iPad while I worked from home for the past few years, but that just hasn't really worked out. The American color commentators and production in general got a little iffy, so ... eh?"

FWIW, coverage for the Giro this year (and last I think) was on Max HBO Max and wasn't terrible. The commentary and coverage was by The Breakaway, from TNT Sports in Britain. It offered a main feed, your typical race coverage with rotating shots of the peloton and so on, but also a "multi-feed" channel in which you got four boxes with varying shots - such as the rear of the peloton, front of the peloton, the breakaway, or even the helicopter shots. The only annoying thing was you had to watch the same ad over and over whenever you switched back and forth.
posted by Atreides at 2:26 PM on June 2 [1 favorite]

Yeah, I think some of it is lingering annoyance from when Bobke would substitute for Phil or Paul (or both!), and Christian was doing such a lousy job on the back of the motorcycle that I wasn't sure what value he was bringing to the commentary.

I think Bob has probably grown into it a bit - practice makes perfect and all, but NBC's coverage was just so.. Ecch the last time I watched. Like just use the international feed, guys? Anyone who cares enough about grand tour cycling is already metric friendly enough that we don't need speeds and distances in miles and "hey there's an American cyclist in 87th place, 27 minutes behind the yellow jersey!" and all.

(I mean, to be fair, I have the John Tesh TdF album in my library and I still get pumped up when it comes on. It's my personal Roundball Rock.)

Anywho, this is about the Giro and not the Tour, so anyway.
posted by Kyol at 2:37 PM on June 2 [1 favorite]

In 1985 I got the job of covering the Giro for an American bicycle magazine.

It was the first grand tour for an American team. I went with the 7/Eleven team, coached by my friend Mike Neel.

An overwhelming experience for all of us.
posted by Repack Rider at 3:28 PM on June 2 [11 favorites]

One other interesting twist is that Yates twin brother Adam was a teammate of Del Toro and had tried to help him win over his brother.
posted by jvbthegolfer at 3:31 PM on June 2 [2 favorites]

The Giro was excellent this year, and the crew at TNT's the Breakaway were excellent as well. The Simon Yates story is one of the greatest sports redemption arcs ever thanks to the events that unfolded on Saturday's stage 20, but there were so many other great tear-jerking moments as well.
My favorite was Carlos Verona, apparently (by the reactions) beloved by the entire peloton for his unselfish role as a domestique , not only unexpectedly winning a stage from a breakaway, but doing it in front of his wife and kids, who were there to meet him for the rest day the following day.

Cycle racing is in a golden era, and not simply because of Tadej. The women's pro tour is outstanding and the class of the riders across the UCI right now is out of this world.
posted by OHenryPacey at 4:27 PM on June 2 [4 favorites]

What a grand tour! It was such a relief to not have Tadej (or Jonas) in the race and for it to feel like a foregone conclusion. So many twists and turns. Unfortunate that some of the favorites had to abandon but it certainly only added to the intrigue!

Visma has a very good team but clearly not the best team top-to-bottom in the tour. UAE was loaded. But Visma executed their strategy perfectly and it paid off. And of course having Mr. Do-It-All Wout van Aert doesn't hurt your sprinting and GC chances.

I thought del Toro was a breath of fresh air and had such composure throughout. Honestly, with a 21-year-old rider, I firmly place the blame on the DS and team for that meltdown on the Colle delle Finestre. They should have gotten some support into the break AND also should have been making it clear when it was time to start chasing. After the race he had incredible composure for a guy who is barely of (US) drinking age. I hope he has a bright future ahead.

Didn't love Carapaz's dismissive/disparaging comments but he's such a competitor so I can appreciate the disappointment. But at the end of the day, stop blaming the other guy for not riding with you. S Yates did almost the entire hour climb solo and managed to set the all-time best time on it. Carapaz has no one to blame but himself and his team. When Yates attacked, he should have tried to stay on the wheel.

A wildly entertaining Grand Tour and I can't wait for the TdF in a month!
posted by robot_jesus at 6:02 PM on June 2 [4 favorites]

Also a fantastic Giro for Wout van Aert. After a strong but not spectacular Spring Classics season, he goes on to not only take a stage win in the Giro, but also to play a key role in Simon Yates' big move on the Finestre. Really an excellent result. Chapeau!
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 7:00 PM on June 2 [3 favorites]

And he's my personal favorite rider, TheWhiteSkull! van Aert's rise to stardom perfectly coincided with my deep-dive into pro cycling circa 2019/20 so it's been fun to follow his career. After crashing out of the green jersey in the Vuelta last year, it wasn't clear if he'd ever be able to regain his previous form. Well, it seems that he may have not just regained it, but exceeded it! Great to see him back on top of his game and being the ultimate Swiss army knife for his team.

In addition to that ride up the Finestre and his stage win, you forgot to mention that he perfectly delivered Kooij to two sprint wins! (And, admittedly, left a little too early for another one just to prove he's still human.)
posted by robot_jesus at 7:13 PM on June 2 [2 favorites]

Didn't love Carapaz's dismissive/disparaging comments but he's such a competitor so I can appreciate the disappointment. But at the end of the day, stop blaming the other guy for not riding with you. S Yates did almost the entire hour climb solo and managed to set the all-time best time on it. Carapaz has no one to blame but himself and his team. When Yates attacked, he should have tried to stay on the wheel.

One of the things that I think a lot of the conversation about Yates' win is missing is the fact that he literally put Carapaz and Del Toro in a no-win situation, and that is very hard to do in bike racing. That's why the two of them had such a stalemate between the two of them. Either of them riding would be giving up the win, and that is the only thing that either of them were interested in. Winner mentality shit.

So I didn't take Carapaz's comment about the most intelligent rider winning as a dig at Del Toro, so much as it was a hat tip to the pickle that Yates/Visma put him and Del Toro in.
posted by entropone at 4:02 AM on June 3 [3 favorites]

Must have felt like such redemption for Yates. Way to put the demon to rest, sir.
posted by RoboSchro at 5:42 AM on June 3 [1 favorite]

I too missed most of the race this year (due to the price of spectating in Sweden increasing over 1000% in a span of two years, thanks WarnerBrothers/Discovery) but did tune into a stream on Saturday to catch the fireworks. A truly amazing race. Yates has the same pedaling style on the bike as his brother, they are truly twins. And yay Wout, it was great to see him in form again. (sidebar: two years ago I saw Wout out training before the Tour de Suisse from the comfort of the Bernina Express train. You have my permission to be jealous.)
posted by St. Oops at 5:48 AM on June 3 [2 favorites]

[jealous]

I was listening to a podcast wrap up of the race this morning and one of the commentators was just saying something to the ilk of, "You can blame del Toro and Carapaz or their teams for not doing this or that, but also at the end of the day, you had van Aert waiting for Yates and there is nothing you could do to change that."
posted by Atreides at 7:00 AM on June 3 [3 favorites]

Some great photos from the stage
posted by sepviva at 8:42 AM on June 3

Those are great, thank you for sharing!

I honestly did not realize cyclists still grabbed newspapers for insulation until I saw the photo.
posted by Atreides at 8:46 AM on June 3

"You can blame del Toro and Carapaz or their teams for not doing this or that, but also at the end of the day, you had van Aert waiting for Yates and there is nothing you could do to change that."

You could have had someone from either Del Toro and Carapaz's teams up ahead with Van Aert to drop back to help their lead catch up with the break.
posted by biffa at 12:47 PM on June 3

I think the argument was that even having a teammate or two drop back wouldn't have been enough with the wild power that van Aert was dropping to get Yates the win. That and the incredible climb Yates put into pulling so far away so rapidly (relatively speaking).
posted by Atreides at 2:16 PM on June 3

I think there are a lot of factors that went into this, and Yates' victory is a great example of just how tactically complex cycling can be. This is just my take.

1. Break formation. EF and UAE did not have ANY riders in the break. Visma knew the value of having a satellite ride up the road to be able to help Yates in the late stage of the race, and they put substantial effort into getting Wout into the break in the first place. That alone should have signalled to the directeur sportifs on both EF and UAE that Visma were up to something, but apparently not.

2. Break advantage. Wout was only going to be of use to Yates if he made it over the Finestre before the main GC group. If the GC group caught the break on the climb, then they would quickly pass them and the advantage of having satellite riders would have been almost nil. EF and UAE, particularly UAE, should have known that this break would be dangerous if they got too much advantage, and yet there was no coordinated chase or attempt to at least peg their gap at around 5-6 minutes. Instead they were able to hit the bottom of the Finestre with nearly 10 minutes on the GC group, thus almost guaranteeing that Wout would be over the top of the climb and waiting for Yates.

3. Indecision. I think Carapaz was right to look to Del Toro to chase and close the gap to Yates. It's not unreasonable to think that the person in the maglia rosa would want to defend that position. Del Toro should have been prepared to chase and run the risk of having Carapaz attack him in order to preserve first place. Del Toro's DS really dropped the ball on this one. He basically surrendered first place without a fight.

4. Yates. His climb up the Colle Del Finestre smashed the previous record. Whatever tactical shenanigans were happening behind him, it was an inspired ride. Some cool stats in this article.

5. Wout. Yates crested the climb with around 2 minutes' advantage on Carapaz and Del Toro. Not long after, Wout was waiting for him. Wout rode like a train in the valley and up the lower slope of Sestriers and extended that lead from 2 minutes to 5 minutes. That is insane, given the distance. He completely turned himself inside out on that valley road. There's a clip floating around of him as he finally pulls off on the final climb and he just about comes to a standstill. He gave everything he could possibly give in pursuit of Yates' victory. Absolutely incredible.

TL;DR: pro cycling is awesome, Visma were tactically astute and prepared to gamble everything in order to win; Yates and Van Aert were on fantastic form.
posted by tim_in_oz at 4:14 PM on June 3 [1 favorite]

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