"Carapaz blew everything up and I think that was a mistake" - Johan Bruyneel on the decision that may have cost Richard Carapaz a Giro victory

With the Giro d'Italia over, Johan Bruyneel, Spencer Martin and George Hincapie analyzed the Giro d'Italia and it's decisive moments including stage 20 where Richard Carapaz, Isaac del Toro and Simon Yates headlined a battle for the ages.

They mainly focused on the key stage of the race, stage 20, in which Simon Yates ended up snatching the pink from Isaac del Toro. Both agreed on two things: that the Briton ended up blowing away his rivals for quality, that he was underestimated and that Carapaz made a mistake by attacking so early in Finestre.

Bruyneel is clear that Carapaz and the EF made the wrong strategy by attacking early on such a long climb, and a rider like Simon Yates, who was in top form at the end of the race, took advantage of it:

"You can look at it in different ways. We have to keep in mind until nothing that Simon Yates is a great cyclist. He flew in the second part of Finestre. What happened at the beginning is that Carapaz blew everything up and I think that was a mistake considering it was a one-hour climb. Simon Yates didn't react, maybe because of legs or maybe because of doubts, but he was getting more confident. You could see in the way he was on the bike that he was getting more confident as he went up. He was flying at the end".

Combining a flying Yates with a strategy that didn't take into consideration his growing gap, Isaac del Toro reached the summit already behind in the provisional classification. Later, Richard Carapaz refused to collaborate, and the two lost minutes which were then unrecoverable.

"So that's the first thing, that Carapaz and Del Toro ran into a great Simon Yate that day. The second is that they underestimated him. They didn't think he was going to be a great rival because he had been losing time and hadn't hurt Del Toro and Carapaz up to that point, but you have to put a value on his incredible performance that day."

George Hincapie was impressed with Yates and incredulous with the tactics of Carapaz and EF at the start of Finestre:"Yates lost half an hour to Froome seven years ago, he would be thinking about it for sure from the start of the race. He's an experienced rider in a great team. They went into that climb like it was a one-kilometer climb, from a classic".

"Doing that at the start is going to put a lot of lactic acid in your legs that's going to affect your climb. They went too hard from the bottom, they wanted to go all in, but I was surprised to see how they put so much pace in. Simon Yates came back, smelled the blood in his legs, metaphorically speaking, and took advantage of it"2.

"What an incredible climb. He beat the record by four or five minutes (around one and a half over Pablo Torres, ed.). Three weeks in a grand tour, tactics and perfection. It was one of the most exciting stages in recent years and that's what cycling is all about".