“Yates was the most sober” – Cyrille Guimard dissects Giro and previews Pogacar, Vingegaard and Evenepoel’s Dauphine showdown

Simon Yates’s stunning victory at the 2025 Giro d’Italia continues to generate conversation across the cycling world. But few offer analysis as nuanced, or as cutting, as Cyrille Guimard, the former sporting director, commentator, and one of the most experienced minds in the sport. Speaking to Cyclism’Actu, Guimard provided a wide ranging debrief on a race that began with hype around youth and ended with a veteran riding the smartest race of his life.

So what did the expert really think?

At the heart of Guimard’s analysis between the emotional hype surrounding young talents like Isaac Del Toro and the old school strategic maturity shown by Yates and his team, Team Visma | Lease a Bike.

“The one who was the most sober throughout this Giro was Yates,” Guimard noted. “He only moved twice throughout the entire Giro, he was almost forgotten as a real opponent for the win.”

That quiet patience turned out to be Yates’s greatest strength. As Del Toro and Richard Carapaz engaged in a tactical chess match, one that increasingly looked like a standoff rather than a fight, Yates waited, conserved energy, and struck precisely when it mattered most: on the Colle delle Finestre, with Wout van Aert waiting ahead.

Guimard doesn’t absolve Del Toro and Carapaz of responsibility for the result. On the contrary, he sees clear strategic failure.

“When Yates went out, one, he had the legs, and behind him, who made the effort? Carapaz or Del Toro? Logically, it’s Del Toro who has to do it, because he’s the one with the jersey. If Del Toro holds back, it’s because he doesn’t have the legs to go after it.”

That moment, when neither rider responded, when they hesitated and fell into a game of chicken, was the defining collapse of the Giro. In that hesitation, Yates did not just attack with a short burst, he vanished. By the time the chasers realised the danger, van Aert had begun his hour-long career-best pull, and the pink jersey was gone.

Guimard also suggests that this strategic passivity was a symptom of broader pressure, particularly on the young UAE team of Del Toro and Ayuso.

“There was such excitement around the youngsters that they perhaps had a little trouble handling the pressure, as well as the strategic aspect,” he observed. “There was a moment when Ayuso and Del Toro were, whether we say it or not, in opposition... That’s not what was planned at the start. The emotional burden and the pressure on these two riders... in my opinion it cost dearly.”

Del Toro in particular, he believes, may have been trying to emulate the all-conquering Tadej Pogacar, a comparison frequently made during the Giro.

“Yes, so Pogacar, because of his performances, but especially the way he goes after his victories, by obligation, there is a desire to mimic,” Guimard said. “More and more, we see riders attacking far from the finish, taking risks, and sometimes it works... But if he loses, in my opinion, that’s not it.”

The implication here is subtle but important. Pogacar’s style may be thrilling and successful, but copying it without the same physical supremacy is a strategic trap, one that Del Toro fell into. After all, Pog is truly one of a kind…

And yet, Guimard’s tone is not cynical. There is admiration for Del Toro’s ambition, for his willingness to try, and even for the unpredictability that the Giro continues to provide.

“The Giro is an event where there are many more breakaways... stages that are more interesting than what we can have in the Tour de France, which is still a little too locked down,” he said. “There, there is movement and it’s interesting to follow.”

But alongside that praise, Guimard poses a larger question about the structure of modern racing. Referring to Mads Pedersen’s dominance in the points classification, he wonders what these “secondary classifications” really contribute to the competition.

“Do these secondary classifications... correspond to something that can be used for something in the course of the race? I have the impression that we should perhaps think about the model of these secondary classifications in the future.”

Pedersen’s brilliance in the sprints was undeniable, but Guimard’s point is that this kind of parallel competition, while rewarding consistency, may be drifting from the heart of the racing narrative. If a rider like Yates, who didn’t win a stage, can win the Giro, and a rider like Pedersen, who dominated multiple days, still finishes with limited impact on the overall picture, perhaps there’s a structural question worth asking.

He’s not alone in raising this. But was it still not amazing to see Pedersen at his very best, especially in week 1?

Still, if there was one figure who transcended both structure and narrative, it was Wout van Aert. Guimard gives the Belgian full credit for the pivotal role he played on the Finestre.

“Who thinks that Van Aert will pass the Finestre like he did? And to be able to ride so fast after?” Guimard asked. “But, after analysis, when the race is over, yes, it was a mistake [to let him go].”

The combination of Yates’ timing and van Aert’s power was simply too much. The fact that this move echoed past editions, “Hinault, he also won a Giro d’Italia that way,” Guimard recalls, only reinforces how timeless this tactic is: let one man go up the road, have him wait, and detonate the race from behind.

Guimard’s final thoughts turn to the Dauphiné, where Pogacar, Vingegaard, and Evenepoel will race together for the first time since the 2024 Tour. And once again, he injects caution into the preview.

“Just because you won the Dauphiné ahead of Vingegaard... doesn’t mean you’ll win the Tour,” he warned. “We’re facing riders who are coming off work blocks. Vingegaard, we don’t even know if he has raced since the beginning of the year.”

That’s not a dismissal, but a reminder. In modern cycling, preparation matters more than race days. Evenepoel knows this very well, as in last year’s Dauphine he was dropped on the climbs, but a month later he was on the Tour podium.

“We’ll still have clues, but we have to look around, not in the middle.”