Below the Colosseum, it was impossible to miss Simon Yates in pink as he rolled by with the crowds cheering him at the beginning of the final stage of this year’s Giro d’Italia.
After a meeting — and a blessing — with Pope Leo XIV in the Vatican, Yates, resplendent in the Maglia Rosa, lined up at the start alongside the 21-year-old man he took it from, Isaac del Toro, who was now wearing the white jersey of the youth classification leader.
It was the first time that the 32-year-old had worn pink since 2018, and now, on a mostly ceremonial stage, starting and finishing in the Eternal City, no one was going to take it from him.
As he rode around the ancient amphitheatre alongside Del Toro, Mads Pedersen in the sprinters’ purple jersey and Lorenzo Fortunato in the blue King of the Mountains shirt, he spoke to Chris Harper of Jayco-AlUla — Sunday’s stage winner and a one-time team-mate of Yates.
Yates was with Jayco (formerly Mitchelton Scott) for almost his entire professional career until 2025 when he joined Visma-Lease a Bike. And his old team seemed just as happy about the Lancastrian’s win as his new team.
“I don’t know what I’m happier about, winning the stage or seeing Yatesy win pink,” Harper said after stage 20. “He’s an awesome guy and I had the pleasure of riding with him for a couple of seasons and doing a lot of racing with him and I don’t think anyone deserves the pink jersey more than him.”
Yates’s relationship with this race is more than 2018, when he wore the pink jersey from stage six to 19 before he cracked on Colle delle Finestre and Chris Froome attacked. Despite winning La Vuelta that year, his collapse in Italy has loomed over him — the Giro d’Italia was the one that got away.
The new Pope spoke to the peloton before Sunday’s final stage in Rome
ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP
In 2019, returning to the Giro, Yates said before the race that if he were his rivals: “I would be scared, I’d be shitting myself. I’ve been thinking about this race for almost 12 months, I’m very focused, I’ve been very dedicated towards it.” But it wouldn’t be his year. Despite starting off well, Yates lost time, particularly in the second time-trial and didn’t win a stage, finishing eighth behind the winner, Richard Carapaz.
“It was a very disappointing Giro for me, personally,” Yates said after the race, “although disappointing isn’t the right word. Heartbreaking is more accurate. That’s OK. There’s always another Giro, another year, and I will come back at some point and try again. You can always learn and we will do that going forward.”
In 2020, in a Covid-struck year, Yates returned again to line up in Palermo — this time in October after the race was pushed back. It was clear that the man from Bury held a special place in the hearts of the Italian fans, who had not forgotten 2018. He had become something of a tragic hero in Italy, a place which loves an attacking display and the human story of the sport. On the first stage in 2020, a time-trial, Yates was greeted with a huge cheer: “Bravo, Yates! Grande, Yates!”
Yates did not finish that Giro, abandoning before stage eight after testing positive for Covid. It was a race ultimately won by another Briton, Tao Geoghegan-Hart.
Again he returned in 2021 and again he was the favourite for the race, and again it wasn’t to be. He was as high as second in the general classification and took the win on stage 19 but would ultimately finish in third, over four minutes down on the winner Egan Bernal.
And still he kept going, Yates had not worn the Pink Jersey since that day on Colle delle Finestre, but he still believed in the Giro, it was unfinished business. In 2022 he returned, won two stages but shipped almost 11 minutes at the infamous Blockhaus and abandoned the race on stage 17 after an earlier fall.
Yates lost time on the Blockhaus climb on stage nine of the 2022 Giro and eventually abandoned the race on stage 17
TIM DE WAELE/GETTY IMAGES
In 2023 and 2024 Yates did not ride the Giro. As his team’s leader, all eyes were on the Tour de France, where he managed a fourth place in 2023. Throughout these years Yates built one of the best records of any British road cyclist. He has won stages at all three grand tours, he has won Tirreno-Adriatico and La Vuelta, but still he was missing the Giro d’Italia.
Perhaps it took a change of team. Visma are a far larger outfit than Jayco and are considered one of the so-called super teams of World Tour cycling. Had he gone as far as he could go with Jayco? Quite possibly, he needed something new, where things are done differently and there is a relentless mentality to win. He also probably needed Wout van Aert.
It was fitting, then, that for his first grand tour for his new team, Yates would put the Pink Jersey back on, finally, after snatching it on the same climb he lost it in 2018. Seven years later, Yates was finally the Giro champion.
Yates, right, could enjoy the moment of riding into Rome as the champion alongside his twin brother Adam
LUCA BETTINI/AFP
“I’ve really invested a lot of my career and my life into targeting this race, and there’ve been a lot of setbacks. And it’s been hard to deal with,” he said. “So I’m really in disbelief that I’ve finally managed to pull it off.”
There are few rivals that would begrudge Yates his Pink Jersey. “For sure [Yates] was the most intelligent,” said Del Toro, who led from stage nine to 20. “So chapeau to Visma because they played it well.”
Del Toro is young. There is some question about his team’s tactics in that final mountainous stage. Certainly UAE Team Emirates should have had someone marking Van Aert in the breakaway, for example, but also the young Mexican ended up playing games with Richard Carapaz, the wrong man to watch, in the end.
But the Little Bull will be back. He has had an incredible Giro for someone so young, and as Yates said in 2019, there’s always another Giro.
After the final sprint stage in Rome was won by Olav Kooij (a cherry on the top for Visma) Yates stood in front by the Circo Massimo — the scene of so many ancient chariot races — clutching the Senza Fine (without end) trophy. It was done, he was the 2025 champion and his name was now inscribed alongside all the greats of the Giro d’Italia.