No one has ever climbed the Finestre faster than Yates, but van Aert also smashed records in Giro coup

The Finestre was made extremely tough from start to finish, partly thanks to Richard Carapaz's early breakaway. The Ecuadorian set off on his adventure at the foot of the climb. After falling behind for a while, Yates caught up with Del Toro and his closest rival. He chose his moment and then rode away alone. From there, it was a constant climb, which he did brilliantly. According to Climbing Records, he completed the 18.3 kilometers of grueling climbing in less than an hour: the British rider took just 59 minutes and 22 seconds to conquer the monster of Piedmont.

In doing so, he smashed the record on that climb. That record was previously held by Pablo Torres, who also started at the foot of the climb in the Tour de l'Avenir and needed 1.23 minutes longer. Carapaz and Del Toro were 15 seconds slower than the young Spaniard. The last time the Giro passed the summit was in the infamous 2018 edition when Chris Froome took control of the Giro. He took 1 hour, 4 minutes, and 20 seconds: almost 5 minutes slower than his compatriot, whom he knocked out of the pink jersey that day.

Yates flew up the Finestre and then plunged into the descent. There, he encountered his teammate van Aert. The Belgian had completed the Finestre 9 minutes slower than his lead rider, so he caught up with him at the perfect moment. He then knew exactly what to do: pedal hard on the flat sections towards Sestrière. We saw the old van Aert resurface, the monster that dropped Pogacar in the 2022 Tour de France.

With Yates on his wheel, he quickly extended his lead over Del Toro and Carapaz from 2 to 5 minutes. His Strava account shows that the 30-year-old steam train set a blistering KOM on those strips: in a 13-kilometer segment, for example, he was a minute and a half faster than Brandon McNulty, who was trying his best to catch up with his team leader Del Toro. Van Aert rode so hard that he even achieved his best-ever hourly average: no less than 428 watts for 60 minutes...