A historic day on Colle delle Finestre delivered one of the biggest upsets in recent Giro d’Italia history. Simon Yates produced a career-best performance to blow apart the GC on the legendary climb.

It was the final mountain stage of the Giro d’Italia with Colle delle Finestre (18.6 km, 9.11%), where in 2018 Chris Froome had a 42-second gap over Tom Dumoulin, Thibaut Pinot, Miguel Ángel López, and Richard Carapaz. Froome did it in 64:19 min with 5.68 ᵉW/kg and launched an 80 km solo to win the Giro. In the 2024 Tour de l’Avenir, Pablo Torres almost pulled off the impossible with a new record of 60:45 min and 6.04 ᵉW/kg, beating Joe Blackmore by almost 4 minutes but still not winning the GC due to earlier time losses. Here in this Giro, with unexpected things possible in GC and 0.1 W/kg on this climb being worth around 1 minute, it was set to be an exciting finish.

Despite it being one of the hardest and longest climbs in cycling, EF Education went full gas at the start of Finestre for Richard Carapaz, with Isaac Del Toro following him. Simon Yates and Derek Gee stayed calm and did not blow up their legs at the start of what was essentially an FTP test, eventually catching up. Later, Yates attacked multiple times until he opened a gap, with Wout van Aert having been in the early breakaway up the mountain, serving as a possible satellite rider after Finestre. Del Toro and Carapaz stayed together, with Gee at some point pacing for both. Despite wearing the maglia rosa, Del Toro did not pull, knowing that Carapaz would attack him if he did and allowed Yates to increase his lead.

Yates delivered the best climbing performance of his career on Finestre with 6.20 ᵉW/kg for 59:23 min, beating Torres’ record by 1 minute and 22 seconds. Del Toro and Carapaz lost 1:38 min to Yates on the climb. Carapaz pushed 5.99 ᵉW/kg, while Del Toro, with more drafting, did 5.95 ᵉW/kg. Yates was 4:56 min faster than Froome in 2018 and much faster than his own time when he cracked on Finestre while defending his lead.

After Finestre, Yates had Van Aert to support him and was in the virtual leader’s jersey, while Del Toro and Carapaz refused to cooperate, handing Yates a huge advantage. Carapaz could no longer win the Giro, and Del Toro gave up, with Yates ultimately beating them by more than 5 minutes. Chris Harper won the stage from a breakaway, achieving a well deserved first World Tour victory.

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Stage 16 of the 2025 Giro d’Italia was one of the hardest climbing days in recent memory. Crashes and cracks reshuffled the GC, leaving young Isaac Del Toro in pink and veterans like Richard Carapaz and Simon Yates closing in.

It was one of the hardest climbing stages in the recent era of the Giro d’Italia, with multiple mountain passes and a hard pace throughout the entire day. The fight for the general classification ended for two major pre-race favourites. Primož Roglič, as usual in his first Grand Tour of the season, crashed multiple times and had already shown signs of weakness before stage 16. Today, the Slovenian crashed hard and did not finish the stage. Juan Ayuso also suffered from crashes in previous stages and cracked today, losing 14 minutes. Mikel Landa and Giulio Ciccone, who could have played a key role in the third week, crashed earlier in the race. With so many favourites out, the race was wide open. The inexperienced Isaac Del Toro was leading, while the 2018 and 2019 Giro d’Italia stars from the lower watts-per-kilo era, Simon Yates and Richard Carapaz, were breathing down the neck of the Mexican rider.

Today’s stage finished on San Valentino (18.05 km at 6.2%), a hard climb with two shallower sections that bring down the average gradient, but most of the climbing sections were above 8%. The stage was extremely demanding overall. Derek Gee burned 4601 kilojoules before San Valentino, riding for 4 hours and 50 minutes at a rate of 13.83 kj/kg/h. The GC group did 5.9 ᵉW/kg for 30 minutes on Candriai and a massive 6.20 ᵉW/kg for 38 minutes on Santa Barbara, with EF and Rafal Majka setting the pace, while Max Poole, Simon Yates and Michael Storer attacked. Some GC riders such as Arensman, Ayuso, and Bernal were distanced, although Bernal later rejoined the group.

When San Valentino began, it was already clear the breakaway would take the stage win. XDS Astana duo Christian Scaroni and Lorenzo Fortunato were head and shoulders above the rest and crossed the finish line together. Wout van Aert, who was also in the breakaway, dropped back and paced the GC group for Simon Yates until 12 km to go. Soon after, Giulio Pellizzari attacked. Nobody followed, as he was five minutes back in the GC and had lost time supporting his team leader Roglič. He was never caught by the other GC riders.

Simon Yates was the first of the main contenders to attack, with Carapaz and Del Toro following and Gee bridging across. Carapaz, just like in the 2019 Giro, attacked. Del Toro and Yates stayed together, watching each other. The Mexican rider was not feeling great and cracked, finishing behind both Bernal and Damiano Caruso, but he managed to keep the pink jersey. Carapaz gained 13 seconds on Gee and 42 seconds on Yates, keeping the top four in the GC very close and setting up one of the most exciting third weeks of a Grand Tour this decade.

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Despite this stage being extremely hard even before the final climb, and despite San Valentino not fully suiting pure watts-per-kilo riders due to its irregular gradients, the numbers were still very high. Giulio Pellizzari, attacking earlier from the GC group, climbed San Valentino at 6.23 ᵉW/kg for 44 minutes and 22 seconds. Very few 21-year-olds in cycling history have done such a performance on a tough Grand Tour stage, with one of them being Tadej Pogačar in the 2020 Tour de France just before turning 22 comes close.

Unfortunately for Pellizzari, he had to work for Roglič earlier in the race, potentially losing his chance to win, or at the very least, to podium in this Giro. Carapaz, Yates, and Gee all produced between 6.03 and 6.15 ᵉW/kg for 44 to 45 minutes. All three were very strong in the 2024 Tour de France, where Gee finished 9th overall and Carapaz and Yates starred in possibly the highest-level mountain breakaways in cycling history, finishing first and second on stage 17 ahead of Enric Mas and other top names. The difference now is that Pogačar, Vingegaard, and Evenepoel are not here. This Giro d’Italia is far from over, with several mountain stages still to come in the final week.

Demi Vollering dominated the queen stage of Itzulia Women 2025 with a solo masterpiece, dropping everyone on the final climb and producing the best sea-level performance ever recorded.

It was the queen stage of Itzulia, with Mischa Bredewold defending the leader’s jersey. SD Worx had won every Itzulia stage and GC since the race began in 2022. Demi Vollering took the overall in 2022 and 2024, while Marlen Reusser won in 2023 thanks to a long-range attack, with teammate Vollering finishing second. This time, Vollering was riding for FDJ Suez and came in as the clear favourite for the GC, with a lot of climbing on the menu.

It was a tough day, with a high pace on Jaizkibel and relentless hills throughout the stage. Nadia Gontova burned 1806 kJ over 2:30h at 13.28 kJ/kg/h, a very hard stage by women’s racing standards. On the decisive Mendizorrotz climb, Demi Vollering put everyone under pressure, with only Mavi Garcia and Antonina Niedermaier able to follow. When Vollering launched her attack, no one could respond, and she went solo.

Vollering’s effort on Mendizorrotz was exceptional: 6.4 ᵉW/kg for 10:18, the most impressive sea-level climbing performance recorded so far. In the 1990s, Fabiana Luperini likely produced stronger efforts, but without verifiable data or footage, it’s impossible to confirm. With 537 ASLP (adjusted sea level power), this climb ranks as the second most impressive ever recorded, only behind Vollering’s 2023 Tourmalet ride, where she attacked at altitude after already 30 minutes of climbing: 540 ASLP with 5.58 ᵉW/kg for 21 minutes (6.01 ᵉW/kg adjusted to sea level).

On this Itzulia stage, Bredewold and the GC group lost 47 seconds to Vollering on the short climb, while Niedermaier finished in between, producing 6.0 ᵉW/kg for 10:48, an outstanding performance by the 22-year-old German climber, who is out of contract after this season.

Vollering soloed to her third Itzulia GC victory, beating the chasing GC group by nearly a minute. Niedermaier was eventually caught by them. It was the first time an SD Worx rider didn’t win a stage or the GC, though Bredewold wasn’t far off, finishing second overall and sixth on the stage.

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Stage 5 of the 2025 Vuelta España Femenina was the first hard test of the season. FDJ–SUEZ lit up the race early, setting a brutal pace on the climbs and forcing major splits before the final ascent to Lagunas de Neila

It was the first major climbing day of the 2025 season in the women’s calendar. Demi Vollering, now riding for a new team, aimed to defend her title with an Avengers climbing support cast, including Evita Muzic and Juliette Labous. FDJ–SUEZ set a hard pace from the first climb, with Labous shredding the group early on. Vollering waited for her teammates while still keeping the pace high in the final kilometre of the Alto de Rozavientos. The tempo was relentless: 4.9 ᵉW/kg for 24 minutes, with the last 14 minutes averaging around 5.3 ᵉW/kg. And that wasn’t even the final climb, meaning much of the energy was spent on Rozavientos.

On the descent and in the valley, several riders managed to return to the front. By women’s cycling standards, the stage was already brutal, with Labous expending 1,777 kJ over 2 hours and 56 minutes at an average of 11 kJ/kg/h before reaching Lagunas de Neila.

Muzic set the pace at the base of Lagunas de Neila, and Labous launched an attack with 4 km to go, baiting Anna van der Breggen into the chase, with Vollering calmly following on the steep gradients. One kilometre later, Vollering attacked with a sharp acceleration. Marlen Reusser looked impressive, flying up the steep ramps and proving to be the only rider able to even partially respond. Unsurprisingly, Vollering continued her dominance on hard mountain stages with a strong solo win. Reusser, on a climb that doesn’t suit her, lost only 24 seconds and clearly produced the best climbing performance of her career, now racing with the Movistar team.

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On the final climb, Vollering averaged 5.19 ᵉW/kg for 23:52 minutes. As the climb was at relatively high altitude, her sea-level equivalent power was 5.51 ᵉW/kg, an extremely impressive effort given the stage’s difficulty. Despite the steep gradients, Reusser managed 5.10 ᵉW/kg. With more high mountains to come, this Vuelta promises more outstanding climbing performances.

It was a w/kg test for almost an hour on the giant Thyon 2000 climb, with UAE Emirates dominating another World Tour climbing race, but João Almeida once again unable to be clutch.

It was Thyon 2000 day in the Tour de Romandie with UAE Emirates being the favourites, as they had João Almeida and Jay Vine as the race leader, both of whom excel at a w/kg test for almost an hour. The climbing record was set by Adam Yates in 2023 with him doing 5.95 ᵉW/kg for 58:35, beating Thibaut Pinot. In 2025, nothing had changed as another Frenchman, Lenny Martinez, and UAE were among the favourites. The stage was high intensity before Thyon 2000, as Oscar Onley, before the climb, did 2461 kJ for 2:52h at 14.99 kJ/kg/h.

Surprisingly, Argentinian Eduardo Sepúlveda from Lotto was pulling for Lennert Van Eetvelt, which was enough to distance Aleksandr Vlasov. Not long after his pull, Pablo Torres, Geraint Thomas, and even Remco Evenepoel, who was working as a domestique for Junior Lecerf and helping his teammate to fight for the top 10 in GC, were dropped.

When the steepest part started with 8 km to go, UAE activated with Jay Vine, who made a very select group with Almeida, Martinez, and Lorenzo Fortunato. Despite Vine being in the leader’s jersey, he was working for the Portuguese, showing why he won on Pico Jano in the 2022 La Vuelta, beating Evenepoel, Roglič, and others from the GC group. In the end, it was Martinez vs. Almeida, with the Frenchman securing another WorldTour win in 2025.

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Martinez and Almeida did 5.89 ᵉW/kg for 58:42 riding up to altitude, not far off Adam Yates’s 5.95 ᵉW/kg for 58:35 in the 2023 record. The performance was impressive as the race was not easy. U23 riders Mathys Rondel and Jørgen Nordhagen performed exceptionally well for their age. Nordhagen, who is only 20, survived for a long time in the leading group and did 5.75 ᵉW/kg, beating big names. Not many second-year U23 riders in history could have produced this kind of performance after such a high-intensity day, with another climber born in 2005, Pablo Torres, still trying to find his Finestre 2024 legs.