Visma | Lease a Bike’s Simon Yates turned in a record-breaking performance on the legendary Colle delle Finestre before leveraging impeccable teamwork to vault into victory at the Giro d’Italia. Wout Van Aert and Olav Kooij also won stages, making for an incredible Grand Tour from the Team.
Seven years ago on the brutal Colle delle Finestre gravel climb, Yates saw a potential Giro d’Italia victory evaporate as he lost 38 minutes on the stage to that year’s eventual winner. 2025 was a completely different story: after riding away from his GC rivals, Yates set a new record up the Finestre, before connecting with Wout Van Aert who had been in the day’s early breakaway. In a masterful display of tactical teamwork, the duo worked together to put time into their rivals and seal overall victory for Yates.
Following a Spring Classics season of near-misses, Wout Van Aert came in hungry for the win at his first time racing the Giro d’Italia. He added another 2nd place on Stage 1, but then roared to victory on Stage 9 into Sienna. This win allowed WVA to join a very select group of riders who have won a stage in all three Grand Tours.
Despite being known more for his climbing ability than racing against the clock, Yates nonetheless turned in a solid performance in the two crucial time trial stages. Wearing the radical Aerohead II which was developed in close collaboration between our product designers and the Visma technical equipment team, Yates managed to stay within a handful of seconds of his GC rivals.
To cap off a supremely successful Grand Tour for Visma, Olav Kooij won the final stage into Rome, with the entire team wearing pink helmets to celebrate Yate’s GC win. This was Kooij’s second stage win, and once again, Visma’s teamwork was essential, with Edoardo Affini taking a monster pull until 1km to go when Wout Van Aert took over and kept Kooij in perfect position to finish an incredible Giro d’Italia with another impressive win.
