The Giro d'Italia wanted to surprise on its final day of racing and did so on the Colle delle Finestre, the epic and dramatic climb where Simon Yates had lost the pink jersey in 2018 against Froome. Today, the British Visma - Lease a Bike rider took his revenge and on the climb with 25 hairpin turns and gravel he conquered the most beautiful victory, one he had caressed and dreamed of many times.

"I understood what I did, what happened, only in the last hundred meters" - said a moved Simon Yates during the press conference - "I knew the gap was large, but at the same time I felt so much pain in my legs. At one point, I couldn't feel them anymore. I tried to be confident until the end and then everything was truly beautiful".

Looking back in time, the Colle delle Finestre was the climb where Froome turned the race around, taking advantage of the British rider's crisis, who that day arrived at the finish line 38'51" behind. Froome won the pink jersey and today, 8 years later, it was Yates who wore the symbol of the race, which he will bring to Rome tomorrow. "I couldn't say if the point where I attacked today was the same point where I was in crisis in 2018. I only know that I was feeling good and wanted to try. I knew that Carapaz and Del Toro would be more explosive than me in the finale and it would have been a problem to have them nearby, so I had to try to go alone and take a risk".

Yates risked everything to conquer the most beautiful victory of his career and decided to do so on the gravel, that white road section less suited to his characteristics.

"Gravel doesn't suit a rider like me very well, because I'm someone who likes to push on the pedals, on gravel there's no traction but I was feeling good, I managed to push until the end and then the team supported me greatly, with Van Aert who was phenomenal".

At the start of the pink race in Albania, Yates was among the favorites along with Ayuso and Carapaz, then Del Toro won the pink jersey and UAE made the race hard every day to defend it.

"From the first day, the team believed in me and in this goal. When I saw the course design, what happened in 2018 immediately came to my mind, and so I told myself that I had to try on that climb. The Colle delle Finestre ultimately represented one of the most dramatic moments of my career, but now also one of the most beautiful. After that defeat, I never lost hope, I never stopped believing and I needed to believe in myself to live a day like this. In these three weeks, I tried to hide a bit because I knew the race would be decided during the third week. My goal in the first days was not to lose time with crashes and time trials, and the team did an incredible job, I was always in the right place, at the right time, I never crashed and this was important".

Simon Yates is 32 years old and has participated in 17 grand tours. In 2018, the year he lost the Giro, he managed to win the Vuelta a España, but his dream was to win the Italian stage race. He returned to the Giro several times and in 2021 he managed to finish third, but victory had always eluded him for various reasons.

"The last week started with the sixteenth stage and it was difficult, I tried but I wasn't as strong as today. Even this morning I had some doubts, but the team always told me to believe in myself, so I tried and it went well.

At this moment it's difficult to say what this day represents for me. It's certainly the peak of my career, I don't think there will be anything more beautiful for me, also because I'm not so young anymore. I tried many times in the past to win the Giro, it was one of my great goals and for one reason or another I didn't succeed. But now I'm here and I did it".