Juan Ayuso (UAE Group Emirates-XRG) struck the primary main GC blow of the 2025 Giro d’Italia, sealing victory on the race’s first summit end on stage 7 in Tagliacozzo with a late burst 550 metres from the end line.
The Spaniard led house his teammate Isaac Del Toro for a UAE one-two to shut out the 168km stage by means of the Apennines of Abruzzo, whereas Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) impressed to complete in third, having struck out with an assault of his personal inside the ultimate kilometre.
The ultimate climb to the road had been a gradual burn, with the gentler slopes of the opening 9km giving approach to double-digit gradients within the last 3km. Following work by Ineos Grenadiers and Bahrain Victorious on the best way up, assaults by Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) kicked off the GC motion.
Bernal, trying stronger than he has since earlier than his horrific coaching crash in early 2022, was subsequent to hit the entrance alongside together with his teammate Thymen Arensman, earlier than he too made a transfer 800 metres from the highest.
It was a robust transfer, however not the profitable one. As a substitute, that fell to Ayuso, who revved up from seventh wheel as Bernal, Del Toro, and Ciccone led on the entrance. The 22-year-old muscled his approach to the entrance and sped away throughout the closing 400 metres, placing 4 seconds – plus a 10-second time bonus – between himself and the remaining as he sped to his sixth win of the season.
“It is my fourth Grand Tour, and particularly within the two Vuelta a Españas I raced I used to be typically very shut, however I by no means managed to tug it off, so to lastly do it right now in my first Giro d’Italia is one thing tremendous particular and I’ll at all times keep in mind,” Ayuso stated after the stage.
“I knew that I solely needed to do one assault, I could not fiddle and do two or three. In these finals, that are tremendous explosive, you solely have one bullet to make use of. So I let others begin attacking earlier than, after which after I noticed my distance, I went full gasoline into the end.”
Behind Bernal and Del Toro, it was Primož Roglič (Purple Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) who recovered to take fourth place. The Slovenian had been on the defensive relatively than on the entrance foot because the GC males did battle on the steep higher inclines of the climb.
Nonetheless, the 2023 champion is again within the maglia rosa of race chief in a single day, with race chief Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) having dropped again from the peloton early on the slopes of the 12km ending ascent.
He returns within the race lead and will stay in pink for a while with a strade bianche stage and a time trial the most important GC challenges earlier than the following summit end on stage 16. He leads Ayuso by 4 seconds, whereas Del Toro lies in third place at 9 seconds down.
The way it unfolded
Stage 7 of the Giro d’Italia posed the riders their hardest problem of the race thus far with 3,390 metres of ascent mendacity on the 168km course within the type of 4 labeled climbs.
The peloton headed north-west throughout Abruzzo from Castel di Sangro to Tagliacozzo with the third-category climb of Roccaraso (7.8km at 5.8%) to begin the day. Monte Urano (5.7km at 8%) adopted at 70km earlier than the 21.6km, 3.6% second-category climb of the Vado della Forcella at 104.9km. The day’s last climb, the race’s first summit end on the first-category climb of Tagliacozzo, measured in at 11.9km and a median of 5.5%.
With 9 mountain classification factors accessible 7km into the stage atop Roccaraso, it was no shock that the battle for the breakaway started as quickly because the flag dropped. The blue jersey of classification chief Lorenzo Fortunato (XDS-Astana) was outstanding on the entrance and the Italian duly led the best way excessive.
9 factors there took his mountain classification complete to 58, 36 away from Sylvain Moniquet (Cofidis), who took third on the climb.
Fortunato didn’t push on over the plateau following the height, nevertheless. As a substitute, his Astana teammate Cristian Scaroni ventured out into the break. He was joined by the intermediate dash and fuga prize chief Alessandro Tonelli (Polti-VisitMalta) on his third day within the break, plus Gianmarco Garofoli (Soudal-QuickStep), and Nicolas Prodhomme (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale).
Purple Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe managed the scenario on the entrance of the peloton, although Paul Double (Jayco-AlUla), Gijs Leemreize (Picnic-PostNL), and Purple Bull Kilometre classification chief Manuele Tarozzi (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè) additionally made it throughout to the break in time for the lengthy descent following the plateau.
Tonelli duly led the seven-man break over the day’s first intermediate dash, 50km into the stage at Sulmona, whereas the transfer hit a bonus of two:30 on the street to the second climb of the stage, Monte Urano.
On the high of the climb, Double sprinted throughout the road first to assert 18 factors. Tonelli adopted for eight with Scaroni taking six factors for third place.
The uphill run to Vado della Forcella was subsequent on the menu, with the break extending their result in 4 minutes on the lengthy drag. On the high, Double as soon as once more struck out to steer the race over one other climb, choosing up one other 18 factors within the course of.
Behind him, Tarozzi and Leemreize adopted, with the seven-man group regrouping earlier than the second intermediate dash at Ovindoli and the following descent. Tonelli, clearly concentrating on the intermediate dash prize, led the best way by means of Ovindoli and into the ultimate 50km as 3:15 separated the break and peloton.
The hole would solely lower because the riders flew down the interrupted descent in the direction of the valley in Avezzano. Lidl-Trek and race chief Mads Pedersen joined the chase, with Purple Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe additionally on the entrance as that they had been all day.
As soon as the race hit the valley, with 30km left to run, the hole to the leaders had fallen to 1:30, whereas on the rear of the peloton Romain Bardet (Picnic-PostNL) was receiving remedy on the medical, having fallen on the lengthy descent.
One other Frenchman, David Gaudu, noticed his complete Groupama-FDJ squad drop again on the flat as he struggled to get again on following a fall of his personal. They made it again in time for the Purple Bull Kilometre and begin of the climb up Marsia above the city of Tagliacozzo, whereas up entrance Tarozzi led by means of the dash.
The ultimate climb
Ineos Grenadiers hit the entrance to begin the ascent, the peloton now simply 40 seconds behind the break, 12km from the highest. Scaroni, Double, and Leemreize had been the primary riders to drop again to the peloton, whereas maglia rosa Pedersen was fast to slide again from the rear of the group.
Bahrain Victorious had been subsequent to take over the pacemaking, resulting in the rest of the break being caught 5km from the road. The peloton remained massive on the gentler slopes main into the more durable closing 3km, nevertheless.
The double-digit gradients bit on the high of the climb, that means the highest favourites and greatest climbers of the Giro led the best way on the entrance for the primary time on this yr’s race.
Rafał Majka took it over for UAE Group Emirates-XRG at 2.5km to go, the Pole working for Juan Ayuso and Adam Yates because the likes of Egan Bernal, Primož Roglic, Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious), and Giulio Ciccone adopted shut behind.
At 1.5km to go, the lead group had slimmed right down to round 20 males, whereas Ciccone struck out quickly after to kick off the GC assaults. Bernal was the quickest to react, dragging the Italian again earlier than his Ineos teammate Thymen Arensman took over to steer the group into the ultimate kilometre.
The Dutchman pulled till the 800-metre marker, at which level Bernal launched his transfer. Behind the Colombian champion, Del Toro, Ciccone, and Tiberi lined up in pursuit, whereas Roglič was hardly ever in shot and definitely not taking the initiative on the entrance.
As a substitute, it was Ayuso who landed the most important blow. The 22-year-old Spaniard accelerated from seventh wheel, manoeuvring previous Max Poole (Picnic-PostNL) and the Bahrain pairing of Tiberi and Damiano Caruso earlier than passing Ciccone, Bernal and Del Toro.
As soon as Ayuso hit the entrance, there was no coming again for his rivals, together with his flip of tempo unmatchable on the run to the end.
Del Toro got here previous Ciccone and Bernal to seal a one-two for UAE on the line, whereas Bernal held off Roglič on the flatter end to spherical out the stage podium.
Outcomes
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