“I brought them back to within eight seconds of Yates” – Did Dries de Bondt try to save Isaac del Toro’s Giro?

While Simon Yates conquered the Colle delle Finestre on Stage 20 of the 2025 Giro d’Italia, sealing his Grand Tour victory with a stunning solo move, another, less-heralded figure quietly helped shape the drama. For a few fleeting minutes, as Yates rode away and rivals Isaac Del Toro and Richard Carapaz hesitated, Dries De Bondt inserted himself into the defining moment of the race.

The 33-year-old Belgian, riding for Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, had no business dragging general classification contenders up a mountain. But as De Bondt later revealed to WielerFlits, it was a calculated move. With his future uncertain, he used the Giro as a stage, quite literally, to sell himself.

"I still haven't received any clarity from my team whether I will be allowed to stay in 2026,” De Bondt admitted. “So it seemed like a good idea to market myself during the Giro."

Behind the scenes, De Bondt had already reached out to other teams. One of them was EF Education–EasyPost, home to Richard Carapaz. “I did the same with Ken Vanmarcke,” he said, referring to EF’s team manager. “'If you're still looking for riders for 2026: I'm on the market', I told him.”

Vanmarcke's response came just before the penultimate stage. "He said: 'Are you planning anything today? It's going to be very difficult for us to send riders into the early breakaway. But look: if you're in there and you can play a role somewhere that's important in the final result of the Giro, then something serious can come from that.' That inspired me to do what I did for Carapaz.”

So when the opportunity came, De Bondt acted. With Del Toro and Carapaz losing time to Yates, 22 seconds adrift, he hit the front, towing the duo up the lower slopes of the Finestre.

“I brought them back to within eight seconds of Yates,” De Bondt explained. “But after three minutes of giving it my all, I was of course out of the running. At 73 kilos, my wattages were a lot higher than those of the climbers. They could see Yates riding, he wasn't even that far ahead. I had hoped that they had the brains and the legs to close the gap. Then the game could start again. But that wasn’t possible anymore.”

His act raised eyebrows, drawing questions from fans and pundits alike. But that, he says, was the whole point. “After that action, I got a lot of questions about why I did that. And that was exactly what I wanted, because it made it clear to everyone that I am on the market.”

Whether the bold gesture results in a contract with EF remains to be seen. “They only have to give me a contract if they are convinced that they can use me there,” De Bondt said. “If they bring me to the table with the right people to talk to, that is already a victory in itself.”

Despite a solid season and experience at the highest level, De Bondt finds himself in limbo, an increasingly common story in the modern transfer market. “Everyone I tell that I do not have clarity yet is taken aback. For someone who has no inside information, it seems obvious that they are going to extend me. But that is not the case.”

The Belgian believes he may be the victim of circumstance. “I think I am the victim of the arrival of other riders,” he said, referencing the incoming signings of Tiesj Benoot and Olav Kooij. “And those guys also bring people with them. That means there are fewer spots left, and then the team has to think hard about how they want to fill the remaining spots. It is not easy for the team to extend everyone who is out of contract.”