"Yates was practically nowhere to be seen" - Zonneveld shocked with Del Toro and Carapaz allowing Simon Yates to win Giro

Stage 20 of the 2025 Giro d'Italia will be a day for the ages but at the moment one that has sparked debates in every corner of the cycling world. Simon Yates was impressive and won the race on the legendary Colle delle Finestre, but simultaneously there was a lot of puzzled heads over the tactics of Isaac del Toro, Richard Carapaz and their respective teams.

"This is even more extreme than all the comebacks we've seen recently because Yates was practically nowhere to be seen. How often did we say it was a miracle that he was still in the top three? He slipped through everywhere," Zonneveld said In de Waaier podcast.

"I didn't expect him to be at the level to compete for the Giro victory. It hasn't been a good year for him so far. He had trouble adapting and was a bit sick... We saw yesterday that he disagreed with the tactical plans. It hasn't been a happy marriage so far." But the Briton, through a consistent race and without major time losses, found himself going into the queen stage in third place overall, and managed to take advantage of brilliant legs and a psychological battle between the two riders in front of him in GC to take over the pink jersey.

But this was a victory equally built on tactics and lessons, one in particular that the Dutch pundit argues UAE haven't learnt. "When I saw that... I thought: are they doing it again? UAE has said several times that Pogacar didn't necessarily lose those two Tours to Vingegaard but mainly to van Aert. That's what they were most afraid of. He was always a weapon because he was immediately in the early breakaway and survived the climbs. Then, in the final, he could make a huge difference either by bringing Vingegaard back or crushing Pogacar."

Visma's tactic worked to perfection, as van Aert's support before Sestrière helped the gap grow to unreachable numbers. "This guy has already cost them two Tours! How did they manage to ignore a group that included van Aert? No McNulty, no Baroncini, no one. They let that breakaway ride away and then gave them so much time; you just know that van Aert has a chance to be valuable in the mountains".

Zonneveld is specially critical of UAE, who did not have one rider in a group of around 30, and simultaneously had no-one able to support Del Toro when Richard Carapaz attacked. "The American domestique of pink jersey wearer Del Toro is particularly to blame. They came here with Ayuso and Yates as lead riders, and then Del Toro joined them, but somehow, they managed to use McNulty hardly at all. McNulty eventually ends up in ninth place in the GC, where the team's interests are inextricably linked". 

"Del Toro is on his wheel (at the bottom of the climb, ed.), and he's like, 'Isaac, figure it out.' And then he just comes up on Sestrière with Del Toro. That says a lot about the UAE team, which, for the most part, is simply not a team." The presence of a rider like McNulty or Igor Arrieta could've changed the outcome of the Giro following Finestre; but without collaboration, Isaac del Toro refused to work for Richard Carapaz who had played his cards.

"There's a moment when they say from the team car: okay, I know we said you should focus only on Carapaz, but now is the time to take action. You can't let it come to a complete standstill because you're giving Yates free time. You can keep playing this game until you're 30, 40, maybe 50 seconds behind, but you can't give away your entire lead".

It was a victory of tactical prowess and pieces coming together for Visma. "Honestly, I don't think Yates was the strongest today, either. He was very good, but when you see what those two guys did..."