Stage 20 of the 2025 Giro d’Italia was always expected to be decisive, but few could have predicted just how defining it would become. Chris Harper claimed his first Grand Tour stage win with a 43-kilometre solo ride into Sestrière, while Simon Yates produced the ride of his life on the Colle delle Finestre, overturning a 1’21” deficit to seize the maglia rosa ahead of the final stage to Rome.
From the drop of the flag in Verrès, the race was animated. A flurry of attacks saw a seven-rider move go early, but the peloton didn’t let it stick. Soon after, a second, far more substantial breakaway of 31 riders formed, including Harper, Wout van Aert, Alessandro Verre, Carlos Verona, and Rémy Rochas. The make-up of the group meant the peloton was content to let it go, and the gap ballooned out to over nine minutes as the race crossed the Colle del Lys.
Photo Credit: LaPresseWhile the breakaway established itself, all eyes remained on the looming challenge of the Colle delle Finestre, the 18.5km monster of a climb, with its 9% average gradient and final 8km of gravel. As the break hit the base of the climb, Lidl-Trek ramped up the pace for Verona, with Pedersen in particular driving the tempo. Riders were shelled immediately.
Rochas was first to attack, and Harper responded, making the bridge. Only Verre was able to follow briefly before the Australian dropped him too. Harper didn’t panic, holding a steady rhythm all the way up the Finestre’s steep, loose gradients. Behind him, however, the real fireworks were beginning to spark. EF Education-EasyPost, sensing an opportunity for Richard Carapaz, lit up the GC group. They used Rafferty, Steinhauser, and Cepeda to launch Carapaz near the base of the climb, prompting an immediate response from race leader Isaac del Toro. It looked, for a moment, like a repeat of previous battles – until Simon Yates bridged across.
Yates didn’t wait. After marking the initial moves, he launched his first acceleration with 15km still to climb. Carapaz responded, Del Toro sat tight. A second dig came a few minutes later. Still no decisive gap. But the third attack finally did the damage. While Carapaz and Del Toro watched each other, Yates simply rode away.
The hesitation behind was striking. Carapaz appeared reluctant to tow Del Toro, while the Mexican seemed more concerned with marking his Ecuadorian rival than closing down Yates. The time gap began to stretch rapidly. By the time Yates crested the Finestre, he had over two minutes in hand and, crucially, he found Wout van Aert – who had dropped back from the early break to help. The pair worked together seamlessly across the valley to Sestrière, with Van Aert pacing Yates before peeling off on the lower slopes of the final climb. It was a move that arguably sealed the maglia rosa. Behind, the Carapaz-Del Toro duo continued to mark each other, with occasional half-hearted attacks, but no real cooperation.
Up front, Harper continued to ride his own race. With Verre distanced, he stayed calm, tapping out a consistent tempo. While Yates was tearing up the GC picture behind, Harper was focused on his own goals – holding off both the break remnants and the charging favourites to secure a monumental win.
Photo Credit: LaPresseReactions to an amazing stage
For Harper, the win was the reward after a Giro derailed by illness. He had started the race with GC ambitions, riding strongly through the opening week, but fell ill after the second rest day and slipped down the standings. His attention shifted to a stage win – and he delivered.
“Mentally and physically it’s been a challenging Giro,” Harper explained after his victory. “I came here looking for GC and I was feeling good in the first week, but then I got sick and slipped off. After that, the focus was getting into a break and trying to win a stage.”
Even during the stage, Harper admitted he wasn’t sure it would work out. “With the GC battle behind us, I wouldn’t have been surprised if one of the GC guys won,” he said. “When we started that climb, Lidl-Trek set a hard pace. When Rochas went, I followed. Only one guy was able to come with me, but I preferred to ride my own pace. I was nervous when I heard Yates had linked up with Wout. I just tried to manage my effort and hoped I wouldn’t explode.”
Harper eventually crossed the line alone, taking Jayco-AlUla’s second stage win of the race. “For me, it’s awesome, I couldn’t ask for a better finish. I’ve been a teammate of Simon in a lot of races, and I know how talented he is. I’m super happy for him to win the Giro.” For Simon Yates, the day carried emotional weight that went far beyond the jersey. It was on the Finestre in 2018 that his previous Giro dreams collapsed in dramatic fashion, after holding pink for 13 days. Today, seven years later, he returned to that same climb and rewrote the story.
“In the last few hundred metres I realised what I’d done,” Yates said, visibly shaken at the finish. “Although I had a big gap, I didn’t believe I was going to win the Giro. I’m not sure if I attacked at the same place I struggled in 2018. But I always had it in my mind to do something on this climb.” Yates said he felt strong all race but needed the right moment. “Today I was trying to get away, knowing that I could hold a high pace. I felt really good, I was able to push all the way to the top. And once I reached Wout in the valley, I knew I had to go all in.”
He struggled to hold back tears as the scale of the moment sank in. “I’m not really an emotional person, but even coming over the finish line I couldn’t hold back. I’ve spent a lot of my life targeting this race. There have been a lot of setbacks, and to finally pull it off, it’s the best moment of my career. I’m not getting any younger, and I don’t think anything will top this.”
While Yates celebrated, Carapaz and Del Toro arrived in silence. Carapaz, who had been considered a favourite just 24 hours earlier, could barely look up at the line. Del Toro, the 21-year-old who had held the maglia rosa with impressive maturity for much of the race, had lost his grip on it in the space of an hour of hesitation.
Carapaz was blunt post-stage. “Today we could have been the strongest, but it was the most intelligent who won,” he said. When asked if Del Toro had been racing more against him than for the win, he added, “Well, finally he lost the Giro. He didn’t know how to race well.” EF DS Juanma Gárate echoed those thoughts. “They both had the legs, it was down to tactics. When Yates attacked, Richie closed him down once. But at one point, you have to make your rivals close down the moves. Del Toro didn’t want to do that. We weren’t going to ride to help UAE and finish second.”
Yates now leads the Giro by 3:56 from Del Toro. Carapaz, third overall, is nearly another minute down. The final stage to Rome is processional – and it will be Simon Yates who wears pink into the capital, having completed one of the most remarkable redemption stories the Giro has ever seen.
Photo Credit: LaPresse2025 Giro d’Italia Stage 20 result
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