Lancastrian Completes Improbable Heist as His Distracted Rivals Lose Plot

The Mexican standoff is a much-loved cinematic device, but the stalemate beloved of western movie script writers has rarely, if ever, decided one of cycling's Grand Tours.

- William Fotheringham

The Mexican standoff is a much-loved cinematic device, but the stalemate beloved of western movie script writers has rarely, if ever, decided one of cycling's Grand Tours. The 2025 Giro d'Italia was the exception, appositely as the biggest loser was an actual Mexican, Isaac del Toro, with the unassuming Lancastrian Simon Yates the two-wheeled equivalent of the bandit who skips off with the loot, while two other bandits – in this case Richard Carapaz and Del Toro – stare each other down waiting for the other man to blink.

Yates's second career Grand Tour win, forged on the Colle delle Finestre on Saturday afternoon in a peerless display of courage and cunning, and sealed 24 hours later in Rome, will go down in cycling's annals as one of the most improbable heists the sport has witnessed.

The endless joy of the Grand Tours – Spain, France, Italy – is that they throw up all kinds of scenarios, but there have been few, if any, where the decisive plot line was a frozen stalemate between the cyclists in first and second places, each waiting for the other to move while a third man skipped away to victory. This was probably the most bizarre act of self-immolation in a Grand Tour since 1989, when Pedro Delgado wrecked his race on day one by getting lost en route to the start of the prologue time trial.