The Giro d’Italia experiences its most exciting edition in years, thanks to the lack of Pogacar

A favorite that steps off reports. Another favorite that is driven for minutes and can forget the overall victory. A majestic attack on the pink sweater. The wearer who hits the sweater. And after the finish: a general classification in which the top three is within half a minute apart.

It was hard to keep track of what happened on Tuesday on the flanks of the Santa Barbara and the San Valentino, two cols in the southern Dolomites near Lake Garda. There was racing with Gusto And without restraint, through all teams – a party to watch. And with that stage was number sixteen, a very heavy mountain rit over four climbs, exemplary for the De Giro d’Italia of 2025: the most exciting and most unpredictable edition in years.

That this Tour of Italy is such a spectacle is due to two things. First: the course. That is less spicy than usual at the Giro, with actually only heavy mountain stages in the third week. Badman Mauro Vegni received the necessary criticism in advance: would it not be a saltless display, a meat-noch-fish-giro? The opposite appears to be true. Because the trail has many ‘intermediate stages’, the battle could stay open for a long time.

Cause number two for the spectacle: a dominant candidate for the overall victory is missing. Last year was the Giro A prey for Tadej Pogacarthe best cyclist in the world. He drove in the pink sweater from day three and did not give it away. In the final classification he had a front jump of 9:56 minutes on the number two – the biggest difference in the Giro since 1965.

Mexican talent

This year Pogacar left the Corsa Rosa pass by. And so there was a wide range of title candidates at the start in Albania, two weeks ago – including five former winners. In the first two weeks they made a spectacle of it: in the mountains of Abruzzo, during a stage about the Tuscan Strade Bianche And on the monstrous Monte Grappa in the Veneto region, last Sunday. With five days to go until the final ride in Rome, the battle for the general classification is still completely open – so cycling is so nice as if ruler Pogacar missing.

The fact that it came to that has to do with the racing tactics of Pogacar’s team UAE, the richest and strongest team in cycling. One of their riders, Isaac del Toro, has been driving in the pink sweater for twelve days. The Mexican talent, 21 years old and only working on his second season as a cycling pro, made his move with a brutal attack on the Strade Bianche At Siena. Since then he has retained the lead, apparently effortless and with Gogme.

Just: All the while UAE’s leadership was not confident in his own rosette support. A week was gambled on both Del Toro and the Spaniard Juan Ayuso (22), who was pushed forward as a leader. That sometimes led to bizarre situations in the course. Like last Sunday at the Monte Grappa, when Del Toro became Vooruit and his own team started the pursuit. Ideal for the other classification riders, who did not have to make any extra efforts themselves.

Last Monday, on the day of rest, Uae finally announced his choice. « Isaac is our leader, » said team leader Fabio Baldato during an online press conference, a smiling del Toro by his side. Ayuso, who had sat next to Del Toro a week earlier on the day of rest, was missing.

Mighty demarrage

It seemed that the Solomon judgment of the Ayuso team leadership had sat in its legs on Tuesday. Forty kilometers before the finish, on the third climb of the day, he broke – and eventually lost almost fifteen minutes. Earlier in the stage, another favorite, former winner Primoz Roglic (Slovenia), was already abandoned after a fall in the pouring rain. His chances of the overall victory have been gone since the weekend.

For Uae it was a disastrous day: on the final climb, the eighteen -kilometer San Valentino, Del Toro also got into trouble. He could not follow when the Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz, Giro winner in 2019, placed a powerful demarrage. Del Toro eventually retained the pink, but with just 31 seconds ahead of Carapaz, who is now third. Del Toro’s margin with the number two, the Brit Simon Yates, is 26 seconds.

For example, the Giro, with three mountain stages to go, is still completely open. No team succeeds in checking the race – even not. At least five riders still have a chance to win the overall victory: in addition to the top three also the Canadian Derek Gee, the Italian Damiano Caruso and perhaps even Egan Bernal from Colombia, another former winner, who has a remarkable revival this season.

For host country Italy brought the sixteenth stage salvation. It is bad with the Italian cycling: the Giro has not had a home -grown winner for nine years – not before. On Sunday, another Clean record was broken: seventeen consecutive days without Italian stage victory-even without a precedent in the 116-year history of the Giro. That series was broken on Tuesday by stage winner Christian Scaroni from Brescia. And, by way of well -maker: the numbers two and three of the day were Italians.

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