Tuesday’s Giro dell’Appennino was a minor occasion on the June racing calendar, a 1.1-ranked race stretching 199km from Novi Ligure to Genoa on Italy’s Ligurian coast. A handful of WorldTour groups mingled amongst Italian ProTeams and a slew of Continental groups, together with eight home-based squads.
With no worldwide tv protection and none of biking’s star names on the startlist, it is comprehensible if the 86th version of the race handed followers by. Nonetheless, the 2025 Giro dell’Appennino hosted a historic win as Diego Ulissi soloed house.
The XDS-Astana rider scored a priceless 120 factors for his Kazakhstani group of their battle in opposition to WorldTour relegation. Nonetheless, Ulissi’s achievement on the day has put his title within the document books, with the win persevering with a streak of victories that now dates again 16 years.
Ulissi has now gained a race in each season since he turned skilled with Lampre-Farnese Vini again in 2010, his streak holding sturdy at the same time as a nine-month ban for the bronchial asthma drug salbutamol dominated him out for parts of the 2014 and 2015 seasons.
Ulissi, who again in Could wore the maglia rosa on the Giro d’Italia for the primary time in his profession, now holds the longest year-on-year win streak within the present peloton, with Norwegian veteran Alexander Kristoff (Uno-X Mobility) having gained for the fifteenth yr in a row on the Vuelta a AndalucÃa again in February.
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Traditionally, Ulissi has now moved one yr away from Francesco Moser, who held a 15-year streak from 1973 to 1987. He is equal with Sean Kelly (1977-1992), Erik Zabel (1993-2008), and Tom Boonen (2002-2017), and lies one yr in need of three extra riders – Rik Van Looy, Jacques Anquetil (each 1953-1969), and Mario Cipollini (1989-2005).
Different riders who accomplished notable streaks in current historical past embrace Elia Viviani and Annemiek van Vleuten (each 2010-2023) on 14 years, and Peter Sagan (2010-2022) and Mark Cavendish (2006-2018), who gained races for 13 years in a row.
Ulissi is presently within the first yr of a two-year deal at XDS-Astana following a transfer from UAE Group Emirates over the winter, that means he’ll have the 2026 season to try to equal Van Looy, Anquetil, and Cipollini.
His newest victory, 9 seconds forward of Ukrainian racer Andrii Ponomar as Astana teammate Simone Velasco took third, noticed him go solo 50km from the end, passing the break whereas cresting the penultimate climb of the race, earlier than using alone for over 30km to the end.
“We had a reasonably younger group at this time, with guys from XDS-Astana Devo Group, a few of them had simply come again from the Giro Subsequent Gen,” Ulissi stated after the end. “Everybody did an incredible job, and we managed the early breakaway.
“Then, on the toughest climb, with round 50km to the end, I attacked. It was fairly powerful with the headwind, however I managed to achieve some benefit and take this win. Up subsequent, we’ve the Italian Nationwide Championships, and I feel we’ve a powerful group there, so we’ll attempt to give it a correct battle.”
