"It was the essence of cycling. 'Someone else should do it,' is our mantra"

The Doc muses on Del Toro and Carapaz’s self-defeating rivalry

- Michael Hutchinson

I very much enjoyed the penultimate stage of the Giro d'Italia this year, as Simon Yates carried out one of the great cycle-racing burglaries of recent years on the very climb where he had a Giro title snatched out of his grasp in 2018.

There were many reasons to love it - there was Drama! Redemption! Gravel! - but the best of it was the stand-off between Isaac Del Toro and Richard Carapaz. I wouldn't want to diminish the excellent ambush Yates and Wout van Aert sprang, but there was a long section of the race where Del Toro and Carapaz performed a cycling version of Waiting for Godot:

“Someone ought to chase.”

“Yes, someone definitely ought to chase.”

(Stage direction: Neither of them chases.)

Amid the hoohah about the team tactics, and the foolishness of letting a Grand Tour slip away while you look at another rider, I'd like to point out that what Del Toro and Carapaz were doing is the essence of cycling. “Someone else should do it,” is our mantra.

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