Zonneveld pinpoints problem in Del Toro's lost Giro: "UAE is, for the most part, simply not a team"

First of all, Zonneveld had to praise Yates, who, after a difficult Giro, suddenly found himself in the pink jersey. Just one day earlier, he had completely written off the British rider. "This is even more extreme than all the comebacks we've seen recently because Yates was practically nowhere to be seen. How often did we say it was a miracle that he was still in the top three? He slipped through everywhere."

"I didn't expect him to be at the level to compete for the Giro victory," said the sports manager of BEAT Cycling. "It hasn't been a good year for him so far. He had trouble adapting and was a bit sick... We saw yesterday that he disagreed with the tactical plans. It hasn't been a happy marriage so far."

Yates made excellent use of van Aert in the breakaway. Zonneveld was frustrated when he saw that UAE wasn't sending anyone to help. "When I saw that... I thought: are they doing it again? UAE has said several times that Pogacar didn't necessarily lose those two Tours to Vingegaard but mainly to van Aert. That's what they were most afraid of. He was always a weapon because he was immediately in the early breakaway and survived the climbs. Then, in the final, he could make a huge difference either by bringing Vingegaard back or crushing Pogacar."

"This guy has already cost them two Tours!" he continues. "How did they manage to ignore a group that included van Aert? No McNulty, no Baroncini, no one. They let that breakaway ride away and then gave them so much time; you just know that van Aert has a chance to be valuable in the mountains. The American domestique of pink jersey wearer Del Toro is particularly to blame."

He's been invisible throughout the Giro, according to the former cyclist. "He's a powerful force who, in theory, can be used in various ways. You can use him as a kind of Kelderman but also as a kind of van Aert. McNulty probably could have done what he did even better. They came here with Ayuso and Yates as lead riders, and then Del Toro joined them, but somehow, they managed to use McNulty hardly at all."

McNulty eventually ends up in ninth place in the GC, where the team's interests are inextricably linked. This became painfully clear when Carapaz made his first breakaway. "Arrieta tries to close the gap to Carapaz. Behind Arrieta is McNulty, who just sits back. Del Toro is on his wheel, and he's like, 'Isaac, figure it out.' And then he just comes up on Sestrière with Del Toro! That says a lot about the UAE team, which, for the most part, is simply not a team."

Carapaz made his move early. It's logical but, at the same time, a bad idea, according to Zonneveld. "He thinks: Del Toro isn't on my wheel, so I'll just go for it. But after two kilometers of Finestre, both are already at maximum heart rate and lactate levels. Yates let that attack pass and rode at his own pace."

When the Brit rejoined the race, Del Toro was in a tight spot. Letting him ride at first wasn't a bad idea. "If he responds to Yates immediately, Carapaz will be okay with that. Then he'll go, then Yates again, then Carapaz again... I think he was counting on support from his teammates when they slowed down. But really, no sign of it. As good as they were yesterday, they were just as bad on the Finestre."

Carapaz also stayed put during the decisive breakaway by the eventual Giro winner. "Which is super smart. He lets it slow down, and what does Del Toro do? Instead of doing Mollema-style lead-outs—keeping the pace going, giving your opponent the idea that you're still in the game—he does nothing. If you don't do it as the pink jersey wearer, Carapaz isn't going to do anything at all."

Then, it was up to Del Toro, as the pink jersey wearer, to do the work. "There's a moment when they say from the team car: okay, I know we said you should focus only on Carapaz, but now is the time to take action. You can't let it come to a complete standstill because you're giving Yates free time. You can keep playing this game until you're 30, 40, maybe 50 seconds behind, but you can't give away your entire lead."

That's what happened. How the two rivals rode the climb can't have done them any good. "If you use up five arrows and then slow down completely, you're climbing the mountain ineffectively. Then you can't compete with someone a little weaker on the climbs. Honestly, I don't think Yates was the strongest today, either. He was very good, but when you see what those two guys did: like skating 10 kilometers, and then following that with laps of 25 and 38."

The gap to Yates was still 2 minutes in the valley, but the chasers slowed down there. "Carapaz thought: my Giro is over. I don't think you can blame Carapaz too much. Maybe EF went too fast and should have opted for a longer effort instead of going full throttle for two or three minutes. But he's not so good at that."

"It wasn't because he couldn't do any better," says Zonneveld. Del Toro still had some energy left in his legs at the finish line. "A lot of people say that Del Toro wasn't good. But if Del Toro could follow Carapaz here, how he responded to the attacks and how much he still had left in the sprint: there was a lot left in the tank." Later, Del Toro said he could have followed Yates but was in a tight spot with Carapaz.