"When Carapaz realized he wasn't going to leave Del Toro he didn't care about anything else" - Johan Bruyneel

The Giro d'Italia made a historic turnaround yesterday with Simon Yates' incredible overtaking of Isaac del Toro and Richard Carapaz in an incredible day in the Finestre. Johan Bruyneel and Spencer Martin have shared their opinion on it.

On The Move podcast there was a very clear opinion: There were serious mistakes on the part of EF Education - EasyPost and UAE Team Emirates - XRG, and Carapaz is more to blame than Del Toro for what happened;

The first big mistake is not countering that a man like Wout van Aert, who has helped Jonas Vingegaard win 2 Tour de France, was in the day's breakaway: "The first thing to say is that seeing that in the breakaway of 30 riders was Wout van Aert, it's a big mistake on the part of UAE and EF not to have had anyone there, I think they underestimated Simon Yates, me the first, I wrote him off. I was wrong. Everyone knows Van Aert wasn't going to win the stage, not this Van Aert, he was there for a purpose."

He insists on that idea, of extra help for both of them in case something like what ended up happening ended up happening:

"It would have been good for Del Toro, had Carapaz left him, to have someone in front of him to help him. Carapaz, if he had left, to do the finish. It's easy to say it from here now, everyone was very tired. They could have had Arrieta and Steinhauser helping them later in the valley".

Bruyneel puts the spotlight on what he believes was Richard Carapaz's big mistake: "Carapaz attacked in the first kilometer on Finestre, I thought it was a very very strong gamble, and I think it was also his mistake. The fact that Del Toro could follow him, not immediately, but with his rhythm, taking his time without violent accelerations".

"He did it 2, 3, 4, 5 times. With 17 km to the top Simon Yates was 20 seconds behind them, it was impossible to think he was going to win the Giro, and he ended up doing it by 4 minutes. Obviously Simon was strong, but a lot of things happened for him to end up winning."

He commented on the pink jersey Del Toro's tactics: "I think they both made mistakes, but I think Carapaz made the biggest ones, whether it was deliberate or not is another discussion. If you put the focus on Del Toro, seeing that Carapaz again and again tried to drop him, it's easy to understand for an inexperienced 21-year-old kid who had never seen himself in one of those to do what he did, in fact he did a great race on a physical level because Carapaz couldn't drop him. It's logical to understand that he didn't want to collaborate with Carapaz because when he was 300 meters in the lead Carapaz was going to attack him.

The key moment for Simon Yates to seal the Giro d'Italia 2025: "Del Toro made mistakes, but I'm going to give him the benefit of youth, that he went to the edge of his limits, afraid of Carapaz's attacks. For me the key was that when Carapaz realized he wasn't going to drop Del Toro he didn't care about anything else."