Cycling
These are the 3 key things we learned from the Giro d’Italia 2025
A race for the ages, this year’s Italian Grand Tour threw up surprises on every stage – from a pink jersey battle that went to the wire, to the emergence of a new generation of GC contenders.
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After 21 stages, three countries and almost 3,500km of racing, the Giro d’Italia’s 108th edition concluded in Rome with its ceremonial circuit on Sunday, June 1. The main prize – the pink jersey awarded for winning the general classification – went to Simon Yates after a close-fought battle with Isaac Del Toro and Richard Carapaz that wasn’t concluded until the steep slopes of Colle Delle Finestre at the end of the penultimate day’s racing, when the then third-placed Brit attacked and the Latin American duo were more interested in marking each other than working together to chase him down.
The sight of Del Toro in the pink jersey that deep into the race would itself have raised eyebrows at the start of proceedings – the Mexican entering his second Grand Tour as a domestique for UAE Team Emirates - XRG’s main hope Juan Ayuso. But the 21-year-old’s rise to general classification contender wasn’t the only surprise in a three-week race that kept everyone on their seats.
From the emergence of Italy’s next serious GC hope to Wout van Aert’s individual and selfless brilliance, here are three takeaways from the first Grand Tour of the season.
01
The rise of Giulio Pellizzari
Giulio Pellizzari stepped up and took his opportunity with both hands
© Charly López/Red Bull Content Pool
While the focus will be on Del Toro’s emergence and his team’s failure to shut down Simon Yates’s Giro-winning attack on stage 20, the Mexican wasn’t the only 21-year-old to rise to the occasion in Italy.
Giulio Pellizzari had shown what he could do in the mountainous of his home country during the 2024 edition when riding for his previous team VF Group - Bardiani CSF - Faizanè – finishing second behind Tadej Pogačar on stage 16 and coming second to the Slovenian in the KOM jersey competition. But competing in the mountains and stringing together a GC bid are two different things.
The 21-year-old signed for Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe in the off-season and was scheduled to ride La Vuelta, where he could learn the ropes of a GC bid in his second Grand Tour, away from the eyes of an excitable Italian media. A training ride injury to compatriot Matteo Sobrero saw his education fast-tracked, and he was parachuted in as a last-minute inclusion in the Giro d’Italia squad.
Pellizzari went on to finish sixth overall in the general classification
© Charly López/Red Bull Content Pool
Thrown in at the deep end to learn from Roglič, he would support the Slovenian as he contested for his sixth Grand Tour title. It was a role Pellizzari took to like a natural, assisting his team leader and sacrificing his own ambitions as he navigated the chaotic early stages of the race, helping him minimise time losses during a crash and mechanical on the gravel stage to Siena, and on a difficult day to Asiago on stage 15.
When Roglič pulled out after another crash on stage 16, Pellizzari became Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe’s plan B and was given free rein to prove himself – an opportunity he seized with both hands by pulling away from the peloton of favourites to finish third on the stage and propelling himself into the top 10 in the overall. He went on to solidify his position in the final week of racing, finishing sixth in the general classification ahead of established names like Tour de France winner Egan Bernal and two-time Grand Tour winner Nairo Quintana.
02
Wout van Aert back to his best
Wout van Aert answered his critics at the Giro
© Charly López/Red Bull Content Pool
Most professional riders can go their whole careers without tasting individual success, but Wout van Aert isn’t like most riders – the 30-year-old Belgian is one of the best of his generation, having racked up victories in some of road cycling’s biggest races including Milan-Sanremo and the Tour de France green jersey.
But question marks had been raised about his form this year since he suffered a serious knee injury in a crash at last year’s Vuelta. He went a whole Spring Classics campaign without a win, and his last first-place finish came on stage 10 of the Spanish Grand Tour.
A second place on the opening stage behind Mads Pedersen only amplified his critics, but van Aert did what he does best, and answered them in style. As predicted, stage nine’s Strade Bianche-inspired route caused chaos, with riders succumbing to mechanicals and crashes on the five sectors of the Tuscan white road. But not for van Aert, who used his bike handling skills honed in cyclo-cross to glide across the rough terrain.
Van Aert's Strade Bianchi experience helped him to a first Giro stage win
© RCS Sports & Events/Red Bull Content Pool
Entering the narrow streets of Siena, only the Belgian and Del Toro remained in the lead group, and few would bet against the 2020 Strade Bianche winner on a carbon copy of the one-day race’s finish. After letting the Mexican lead up the final climb of Via Santa Caterina, van Aert surged into the lead with 400m to go to claim his first Giro d’Italia stage win, and complete the Grand Tour set.
Individual honours secured, he would also play a pivotal role in the pink jersey battle on stage 20. Part of the day’s breakaway, he was still a satellite rider for Simon Yates when the British rider attacked Del Toro and Caparaz on the Colle delle Finestre. As the team-mates caught up with each other on the descent to Pourrieres, van Aert laid down the power to help increase Yates’s lead on the road, which eventually became insurmountable. The Belgian gave it everything he had, peeling off the front with 5km to go having buried himself to help secure Yates the maglia rosa.
03
A race for the breakaways
Nico Denz's breakaway win was arguably 2025's most impressive
© RCS Sports & Events/Red Bull Content Pool
Grand Tours can often become quite predictable – flat stages contested by the sprint teams, time trials by the specialists, and mountainous days by the general classification contenders. Each day will feature a breakaway group of riders, but they will rarely stay away until the finish.
This year’s Giro was one for the specialists though, with more than a quarter of road racing stages won by those who'd made an audacious bid for the line many kilometres from home.
Luke Plapp was the first to do the unthinkable – the Jayco AlUla rider surging away on stage 8 to best the nine-strong breakaway group. But come the final week, those in the breakaway were able to take advantage of a tight general classification battle to win more often than not.
Of the four final-week breakaway wins, Nico Denz’s was arguably the most impressive – the German rider soloing from 17.6km on a flat terrain to win by more than a minute to secure his third Giro d’Italia stage win and his team’s 300th win in their history.
"I had planned to go for it once the occasion would arise and the right man was on my back wheel," Denz said in an interview with Red Bull. "I went all in. I knew if the guy behind me is not closing the gap, I'll catch them off-guard."
This time, it worked for him, though, as he admits, his main objective had been to serve as "Primož Roglič's bodyguard." As he put it, "I'm a very loyal rider." He added modestly: "Also happy to clock the 300th win in the team's history."
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