‘Savage’ Colle delle Finestre will decide who wins the Giro d’Italia – Isaac del Toro or Richard Carapaz

by May 30, 2025

written by May 30, 2025

After a minor GC skirmish came to little on stage 19, the final mountain stage of this year’s Giro d’Italia, featuring the “savage” Colle delle Finestre climb, looks set to decide who takes home the pink jersey on Sunday in Rome.

The race is finely poised going into the final weekend, with 21-year-old Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) top of the pile in the general classification. Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) is second, 43 seconds down on the Mexican, while Britain’s Simon Yates (Visma-Lease a Bike) is in third, 1:21 down on the UAE Emirates rider.

A brutal day in the Valle d’Aosta on Friday took in almost 5,000 metres of elevation, but there were minimal changes in the overall standings. The Colle delle Finestre now looms large on the horizon, and is set to decide the race once more. The gravel climb is stooped in recent Giro folklore after Chris Froome turned the tables on Yates in the fight for overall victory on its steep gravel slopes in 2018.

“The Colle du Finestre, phwoar,” he said. “It’s just a savage climb, the finish over the top of there was really hard too. All the way from the bottom it’s the same, it doesn’t get any harder when you hit the gravel, I don’t think. The decisive bit in my race on the Finestre actually came through the bottom in the hairpins. You’ve really just got to get into your own rhythm, all the way to the top. That’s the only way to handle it, it’s pretty hard all round.”

“Once you hit the gravel then you can potentially get in a bit more of a rhythm,” Blackmore said as he continued to reflect on his experiences of the climb “The gravel was pretty loose last year though, so it made it really hard when you’re knackered to keep control of where you’re going. I remember that you’ve almost got to ride it where the cars drive in the middle, as it seemed to be really loose, particularly on the sides. It might be different in the Giro.”

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‘Savage’ Colle delle Finestre will decide who wins the Giro d’Italia – Isaac del Toro or Richard Carapaz

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