Giro d’Italia Stage 1 Race Report: The Giro d’Italia started with a stage win for Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek). The Dane beat Wout van Aert (Visma | Lease a Bike) in the sprint from a thinned out lead group. Mikel Landa, one of the GC favourites, crashed hard in the finale. Pedersen took the first leader’s pink jersey.
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The final kilometre
The 2025 Giro d’Italia starts on May the 9th in Albania with a tough stage from Durrës to Tirana. The 164 kilometre stage starts in the historic port city of Durrës, founded in the 7th century BC by the ancient Greeks, and features three categorised climbs in the final 80 kilometres, including the Gracen (13.5km at 5.2%) and two of the Surrel (4.1km at 5.4%), which has a very hard first kilometre of 8.1%.
After an easy approach and a circuit of 22.2km around Tirana, a 11.3km finale comes after the last passage of Surrel. Attackers like Wout van Aert is one of the favourites for the stage, it should be a non-pure sprinter who will claim the first pink jersey.
The Albanian fans were happy to see the Giro
In the first kilometres from Durrës, Taco van der Hoorn was very active. His first attack didn’t succeed, but not much later the Intermarché-Wanty rider was more successful. Van der Hoorn was joined by three Italians: Alessandro Verre (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), Manuele Tarozzi (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè) and Alessandro Tonelli (Polti VisitMalta). The Belgian Sylvain Moniquet (Cofidis) was also there.
The ‘break of the day’
The five soon had 5 minutes, but they were not given any more time. Due to the work of Lidl-Trek and Visma | Lease a Bike, the difference was soon down to less than 1 minute. In the run-up to the climb of Gracen, Juan Ayuso and Max Poole were involved in a crash but both were able to continue. They managed to get back to the peloton on the Gracen, where the leading group had extended its lead, but not by much. Two point five kilometres from the summit, attacks started in the leading group. Tonelli put in a jump. Van der Hoorn didn’t want to get involved and dropped back to the peloton, but Tarozzi, Verre and Moniquet started to fight it out. They were going for the first mountain jersey. After several attacks, there was a sprint for the KOM points. Moniquet was the fastest, which gave him the blue jersey.
Top favourite for the final overall win – Primoz Roglič
On the descent, Verre got away from the others. The Italian Arkéa-B&B Hotels held off the other three others for a while, but once at the bottom, he was caught. The four then stayed together until they were caught, 40 kilometres from the finish, at the foot of the first Surrel. Lidl-Trek put the pressure on with Daan Hoole. This led to several sprinters being dropped: Olav Kooij, Sam Bennett, Milan Fretin and Paul Magnier.
The peloton didn’t give them much of a lead
Kooij was dropped, but Visma | Lease a Bike took the lead on the descent. First time over the finish-line, with 17 kilometres to go, Lidl-Trek led the peloton. The peloton was still quite large, but the second climb of the Surrel was still to come. In the first kilometres of the climb there were no attacks, due to the high pace of Lidl-Trek. Kaden Groves, Max Kanter and some other fast-finishers had to let go.
They were caught well before the finish
Carlos Verona was on the front of the peloton for Mads Pedersen, then Giulio Ciccone took over. The Italian climber kept the speed high. Now it was now going too fast for Joshua Tarling, who saw his chances of winning the pink jersey in Saturday’s time trial disappear. Wout van Aert was also in a little trouble. He dropped back a bit just before the last kilometre of the climb, but managed to hang on. GC hope, Thymen Arensman was in real trouble and lost contact with the still quite large peloton. He would lose valuable time.
Road-side vegetable shop
Lidl-Trek continued to lead the peloton on the descent and the race went at high speed into the finish. On a bend with around 5 kilometres to go, there was a crash with a handful of riders. The main victim was Mikel Landa. The Soudal Quick-Step leader fell down a drop on the side of the road on hard concrete. He looked in a lot of pain and was taken to the hospital.
Wout van Aert was staying close to the front on the final climb
Stage winner and Maglia Rosa, Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek): “To win stage 1 and go in the Maglia Rosa is absolutely amazing. It’s incredible that the team worked that hard. I’m happy to pay them back with the win. Our exact plan was to push very hard on the climb and make it a smaller group for a sprint. You always have to be afraid of Wout van Aert, he’s a really good bike rider. It’s not given to win when he’s in the group. We had to handle that with respect and a bit of fear as well. Today I had the legs to finish it off for the team. It’s the first leader’s jersey I get in a Grand Tour, it’s something nice.”
Giro stage 1 to Mads Pedersen
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Giro d’Italia Stage 1 Result:
1. Mads Pedersen (Den) Lidl-Trek in 3:36:24
2. Wout van Aert (Bel) Visma | Lease a Bike
3. Orluis Alberto Aular Sanabria (Ven) Movistar
4. Francesco Busatto (Ita) Intermarché-Wanty
5. Tom Pidcock (GB) Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team
6. Diego Ulissi (Ita) XDS Astana.
7. Richard Carapaz (Ecu) EF Education-EasyPost
8. Max Poole (GB) Team Picnic PostNL
9. Nicola Conci (Ita) XDS Astana
10. Davide Piganzoli (Ita) Polti VisitMalta.
Giro d’Italia Overall After Stage 1:
1. Mads Pedersen (Den) Lidl-Trek
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