“A day for the sprinters”, code for saying tune in for the finale.
That Was Albania: it wasn’t Yorkshire or Slovenia. Just taking a race to a new country isn’t sufficient to attract media attention and the public alike, you need local stories and personalities so that the arrival of a grand tour becomes the culmination of something or at least a step along the way rather than the arrival or the first step.
There were wins for Mads Pedersen, Primož Roglič and Edi Rama. The Dane taking two stages and the maglia rosa with help from his team; the Slovenian winning the GC contest in the the time trial; and the Albanian prime minister took a fourth term in office.
The Route: 189km inland to Lecce and 800m of vertical gain along the way in Apulia, the heel of the boot of Italy.
The intermediate sprint in Ostuni is uphill for the 6-4-2 seconds but Mads Pedersen has five minutes on the next sprinter on GC.
The Finish: a small finishing circuit in town to a chance to get the feel of it. There’s one sharp corner to the right before the flamme rouge and then the road gradually bends around to the left with the finish out of sight until the final 300 metres.
The Contenders: who is the fastest sprinter? Normally Olav Kooij (Visma-LAB) would be the easy pick but he was the first to be dropped on Friday’s opening stage which isn’t a great sign of fitness, normally he’s athletic enough to cope with some climbing, but he should get valuable help from Wout Van Aert. Sam Bennett (Decathlon-Ag2r) punctured at the same time as Kooij was ejected but isn’t a regular World Tour level winner. Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) now gets terrain to suit.
Is Paul Magnier (Soudal-Quickstep) a sprinter? Because like Arnaud De Lie he’s better at hard attritional races with a drag to the line but is probably here for the sprints anyway, has a huge amount of watts under the hood, and has got a new contract with the team which mean’s he’s probably the priority over Luke Lamperti. Milan Fretin (Cofidis) is a similar rider, fast but less power for a pure dragstrip sprint.
Gerben Thijssen (Intermarché) has a handful of major wins in recent years at World Tour level but like his team he’s been below par so far this season. Matteo Moschetti (Q36.5) has yet to win at World Tour level, he seems in form this season but getting past all the names mentioned so far is tough.
To take on the pure sprinters Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) either needs an Alp mid-stage or an uphill finish like tomorrow, and more of a lead-out train too.
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Kooij |
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Groves, Magnier |
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Bennett, Thijssen, Pedersen, Fretin |
Weather: 24°C with a mix of sunshine and clouds. An onshore sea breeze from the north of 15km/h.
TV: KM0 is at 13.05 and the finish is forecast for 17.15 CEST.
Postcard from Bari
The Giro convoy has travelled by ferry from Albania to Bari. It was here in the Giro arrived in 2014 after the start in Northern Ireland too. Back then Nacer Bouhanni won the stage in Bari, the first of three stage wins on the way to victory in the points competition.
He hit the jackpot as Formula 1 driver Fernando Alonso was in the market to create a cycling team and Bouhanni ended up signing with Cofidis just when prices for a sprinter were high, days before Alonso’s ephemeral project vanished. Now retired, Bouhanni recently ran the Frankfurt marathon in 2hr34ms despite chronic issues bothering him from his crash in the 2022 Tour of Turkey.
Bouhanni can swap the red jersey of Cofidis for the red carpet in Cannes this week. Because his partner is Hafsia Herzi who, as an actor and film director, is probably more famous than him.
Herzi has been up for best actress awards at the Césars, French cinema’s Oscar equivalents and more. Now a feature film which she’s written and directed is part of the “official selection” that will contest the Palme d’Or award at the Cannes film festival which opens today.
Slightly niche question: when GTs involve travel days that require a ferry, are teams limited by the organisers to the number of vehicles they can have? A bit like organizers stating a set number of hotel places they will provide and anything the team want to bring above that is on them?
I guess bigger teams could well have additional vehicles/resources etc waiting in Italy.
Teams do have varying numbers of vehicles, the bigger budget ones have dining trucks and generally more staff but don’t know for the ferry limits; normally the limit is on the number of hotel beds the organisers supply the teams, eg 25 beds per team.
I take it you didn’t like the Albanian stages
I think it was more a comment that the Albanians didn’t seem to like the Albanian stages. At least if you judge it by roadside ‘fan’ numbers.
But of course cycling is a sport just waiting to become enormously popular all over the world, if only someone would organise races somewhere new…
The stages were good although Lidl-Trek but a lid on the sport but that’s because Pedersen is unstoppable on a range of terrain. It was just notable how little coverage the race got in Albania, the Giro didn’t leave much of a trace.
For someone not happy with the visit, try Mauro Vegni instead who was grumpy that Sunday’s stage didn’t have more attacks.
2:34 for a marathon. Thats impressive. But you dont run times like that in a marathon without having put in the miles in training, regardless of how talented one is. Having googled , read that Adam Hansen apparently ran a 2:30 marathon somewhere. No idea where.
Former Cofidis pro Daniel Atienza – once described as the worst descender in the world – has done 2.29; and there are MTB riders who have been quicker still. For Bouhanni it’s notable as he was a sprinter.
Just goes to show that WT and (especially) GT sprinters still have to have phenomenal, near world-beating, aerobic endurance capacity just to be in the bunch sprint.
Before both specialised Bouhanni’s biggest rival every weekend in Eastern France was Thibaut Pinot.
Stage 3 would surely have been a stage for van Aert, previously, and yet he was dropped on the climb.
I’m beginning to wonder if his lack of form is temporary or permanent – did the knee injury cause lasting damage?
I’m also wondering if his team will have him finish this race. Would they prefer to save him for the TdF? Or is the idea that he rides himself into form?
He also doesn’t seem confident in bunches/on descents.
I hope he can get back to his old self.
Van Aert’s plan is to stay in the race and hopefully come good for a stage win.
Thanks. I wonder if that’s wise. Having said that, his altitude camp didn’t help him much in the classics, so maybe he’s better off racing.
I think altitude camp did him good, but his injuries before the classics cast a long spell. He could not run/lift weights or do sprint training for months over winter and so he came into the classics as a “diesel”, able to place in a lot of races but lacking the explosivity to follow moves or sprint for wins.
Interesting, thanks.
He was sick, from what I understand, just before the Giro. Having said that, there seems to always be a reason for each of his underperformances in races this season. And he has been disappointing. Hence I agree, there are valid questions about whether he will return to his old self. I personally would wait until the next classics season before saying he is past his best. For his sake, I hope he can win some major races again.
The scenery on stage 3 impressed it felt like what I imagined “Balkan” mountains might be. Despite Vlores not being far away there was a real wilderness feel to the pass.
Today is one of those sleepy Giro stages when not much is supposed to happen but then something does, pothole in some little town, goats in the road (had that!) etc
I’m a huge Giro fan but always go light on the first week coverage as seems usually pretty inevitable that the race takes a while to heat up, but just wanted to chime in and say how much I respect Pedersen as a rider with what he achieved in the Albania stint.
It must be brutal to be that good and have to accept you’re in a generation of greats but the way he’s continually improved, hit goals as well as help push an entire team on to more ambitious achievements is truly impressive. It’s riders like him who keep me watching this sport year on year. I wonder whether he’ll make a great DS/Manager one day? He actually makes me think a little of Bardet, another excellent rider who’s peak was just a tad below the best but still maxed out his talent and team – surely also has a lot to offer younger riders in the coming years.
To be in the professional peloton for anyone should be an incredible achievement, let alone riding the Giro or Tour or even winning races – but to be among the best but still have to work so hard to claw and scrap for the big results is a level of psychological toil that I find remarkable.
Very interested in Storer in these coming weeks, that TT stuck out and I wonder if he will continue to be a dark horse in the vein of Carapaz who might profit from other’s marking each other late in the race. Or he’ll just fade and nab a few stages!
I think that they are a likeable bunch these days and Petersen is another top rider who is just … likeable!
As far as the course goes I thought it was an interesting mix for the first three days. Not convinced that it was all that scenic though
oh I like more than just Pedersen! and agree they’re likeable.
I think what sets Pedersen apart though is that unique space of an excellent rider who struggles to win his biggest ambitions and how they carry themselves – Pedersen’s effect on Trek is very noticeable, as was Bardet’s on AG2R around 2017, it’s a rare quality to be able to galvanise a team with the prospect of *maybe* reaching a podium in the big races…
You’re almost asking everyone to buy into the delusion of you actually winning, as they must – but it’s easier said than done. I admire that quality.
@oldDAVE I really hope Bardet lands a Giro stage win.
Storer isn’t going to challenge for pink, though (unless things happen very much out of the ordinary). He may have a high-ish finish though.
ps love the Nacer Bouhanni note – I didn’t know that.
Yep, adding a good deal to the old “boxeur” line…
^___^
As for your comment above, the first two stages were actually really, really good (if you like ITTs of course), while the third one disappointed a bit against high expectations but was still an excellent piece of work by Trek and Mads. And I personally loved the scenery. But from now on – barring huge surprises – I think that you can skip forward to Friday with no major loss. On the contrary, that triptych (a pinch or pintxo of Vuelta in Tagliacozzo, a wave of Tirreno-Adriatico walls and some Strade Bianche magical powder) is definitely worth watching, even if, of course, it’s perfectly possible that nothing big happens – as always in GTs.
I actually know Albania having visited – I love the country even if i knew going in the scenery would be different to picture postcard, which is actually my taste. Enjoyed stages also, even if I didn’t watch in full as I normally would.
Watching in full is hardcore fandom, no doubt
^___^
I myself only watched in full a selection of stages and in very sparse editions, the last being 2022 when MvdP ignited a streak of breakaway rampage of sort and the stages often started with a 60 to 90 minutes crazy battle (they tended to become duller midway through anyway…).
What happened to Josh Tarling’s win in the Time Trial? I can find out that the result has been changed?
Huh? His result hasn’t changed
https://www.giroditalia.it/en/tappe/stage-2-of-the-giro-ditalia-2025-tirana-tirane-tirana-tirane-tudor-itt/
https://www.procyclingstats.com/race/giro-d-italia/2025/stage-2
“There were wins for Mads Pedersen, Primož Roglič and Edi Rama.”
Mads won the first stage, Primoz won the Maglia Rosa, and Rama won the election! A nice turn, as usual from our host….. but I had to think about it too!
After listening to some of the English language podcasts, it seems that the Albanian roads were somewhat responsible for less-than-amazing racing in Stage 3. While I generally like foreign starts to GTs, it’s been kind of a mixed bag, with some exciting stuff and some stages like the infamous “bridge” stage in the 2022 Tour. Albania was interesting and pretty at times, but didn’t add a lot to the racing and the race was apparently not a big hit for the locals.
Raison d’État (rolling eyes)
Have the UCI scrapped all the rules against clothing that give aerodynamic advantages? I seem to recall that there was a fuss about Sky having clothing with from a ‘golfball finish’ as it contravened these rules. Now things that were used solely for time trials seem to be accepted on normal stages, skinsuits and now TT helmets.
It’s within the rules as there’s no definition of a road or a TT helmet in the UCI rules.