dItalia

Visma-Lease a Bike rider Yates was visibly frustrated after finishing 24 seconds behind Del Toro in seventh.

“The plan was completely different from what we did today, so I will talk about that with the team,” he told Eurosport.

“I will not say anything more about that.”

However, team director Marc Reef said the day went “exactly as we agreed”, and added Carapaz and Del Toro were “just a bit stronger”.

Although Yates, 32, could still overhaul Carapaz and Del Toro, it looks most likely this year will again add to the heartbreak he has experienced in bids to win the Giro.

He led for 13 days in 2018 but cracked in the final week when Chris Froome launched an astonishing comeback to win the race.

After an underwhelming eighth-placed finish in 2019, Yates had to withdraw from the 2020 edition with Covid-19 and then had to recover from a difficult first two weeks to claim third in 2021.

Yates’ twin brother Adam sat up and dropped out of the top 10 overall in order to save himself to help team-mate Del Toro on Saturday.

Ecuador’s Carapaz, the 2019 Giro champion, tried to drop Del Toro on the final climb, but could not shake the 21-year-old, who is bidding to become the youngest winner of the Giro since 1940.

UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider Del Toro, who won stage 17, showed impressive nous to grab the six bonus seconds for second place, with EF Education-EasyPost’s Carapaz, 32, having to settle for four bonus seconds in third.

Olav Kooij won a close-fought sprint on stage 12 of the Giro d’Italia as Isaac del Toro retained the pink jersey in Viadana.

Dutchman Kooij benefited from Visma-Lease A Bike team-mate Wout van Aert’s superb lead-out in the final kilometre.

Casper van Uden finished second with Britain’s Ben Turner of Ineos Grenadiers third.

“Only he [Wout] can do it, so to have him as support here is extraordinary,” said Kooij.

“I really need to thank him and also the rest of the team, they did a fantastic job.

“You don’t want to be too far [back] in that last corner, that’s maybe why we had to go a bit earlier than we wanted but I could jump on the wheel of Casper and pass him.”

Del Toro of UAE Team Emirates-XRG stayed out of the hectic fight for position in the closing stages to finish safely in the bunch and maintain his hold on the pink jersey.

A sprint for two bonus seconds at the Red Bull kilometre in Brescello means the 21-year-old heads into stage 13 with a 33-second lead over team-mate Juan Ayuso in the race overall.

Kooij’s British team-mate Simon Yates is in fourth, one minute and 11 seconds off the overall lead.

Juan Ayuso won the seventh stage of the Giro d’Italia on Friday as Primoz Roglic moved top of the overall standings.

UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider Ayuso powered away from the group of general classification contenders over the top of the final climb to win his first Grand Tour stage by four seconds.

The 22-year-old Spaniard’s team-mate Isaac del Toro of Mexico was four seconds behind him in second, with Colombian Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) denying Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe’s Roglic the final place on the podium.

However, 2023 Giro champion Roglic took over the overall leader’s pink jersey from Mads Pedersen, with the Danish classics rider losing touch as expected on the final climb.

Great Britain’s Max Poole of Picnic PostNL was ninth on Friday, with the 22-year-old moving up to fifth overall.

The 168km stage from Castel di Sangro to Tagliacozzo was the first mountain stage of the 2025 edition and saw the contenders for the general classification come to the fore.