Don't go break(away)ing my heart
The Giro Chronicles: stages 11-15
All image credits: crappy screenshots of my laptop screen, by me
Grand Tours are glorious, baffling, depressing, and all-consuming. Ever-changing, not just from day to day but oftentimes from one moment to the next, with monotony giving way to explosivity in the blink of an eye. Days that look straightforward on paper can prove to be some of the most scintillating, while others predicted to be thrilling can sometimes fall short of expectation. Riders who you invest your heart and soul into supporting are flying one moment, and laying broken on the tarmac the next. This is sport, and pro cycling, with its numerous competing narratives, is one of the most beautifully complex and cruelly dispassionate of them all, when it comes to its twists of fate.
After a first ten days at the Giro that fell a little short in terms of unpredictability and excitement, the second week of the race has ignited on several fronts, with the GC shifting and changing daily; unexpected stage winners; and the kind of mouth-watering fights for the breakaway that show us why we tune into Grand Tour stages from flag drop.
I’m dialled in and completely on top of things (well, I’ve been less busy and have actually watched the stages properly rather than squinting at a tiny screen from a riverbank) so let’s launch into a recap of the past five stages – following the grand overall reshuffle that occurred following the individual time trial on stage 10.
It was all to play for after the reordering in the GC left a host of riders way off the pace, opening up the possibility of more riders going for stage wins, on the first of the tough climbing stages. Stage 11 featured the San Pellegrino climb for the first time in a long while, a climb which some commentators named the hardest on the entire 2025 Giro route.
There were rolling attacks as the expected huge battle for the break ensued, and it would be easier to list who DIDN’T try and get in the break, than who did. It was busy, relentless and too difficult to keep tabs on – the only one I’ll note for the record is that Mads and Wout tried a move together – game recognises game. The power duo didn’t stick sadly, while in the lead a pair of riders – Mattia Cattaneo and Yannis Voisard laboured with never more than 20 seconds’ grace, as the action continued to pulsate behind them.
There was the first sighting – for me at least – of the Giro train, which is a delightfully quirky and specific feature of the Giro d’Italia, touring the beautiful golden Amore Infinito trophy around the country adjacent to the race itself, sometimes distant, other times at close quarters, and I’m weirdly delighted by it when I see it.
Xavier Azparren and Steven Kruijswijk were the next pair to try and escape, and with 60 kilometres elapsed on the stage and the pace still high, the bunch split on a short uncategorised climb, and the pink jersey Isaac Del Toro was immediately alert to it, making sure he was in the front group, and setting up a holding pattern that would persist throughout week 2, in which he would always be where he needed to be, in the right place at the right time, while Ayuso and the rest of the UAE team found themselves left behind, or off the pace, consolidating and playing the long game while the buoyant young Mexican freelanced at the front of the race, making moves and demanding we all sit up and pay attention.
Wout Poels and Wilco Kelderman were the next pair of hopefuls to get away, and with a few climbers lurking ahead of the major climbing challenge ahead they amassed the best gap so far – though it was still just 23 seconds. With the peloton split, a massive front group headed onto the San Pellegrino, catching the two Dutchmen.
It turned out to be a 35-rider group, and over the course of the climb it proved to be too unwieldly a group, and began to split. Fortunato headed off solo with two more groups behind, as back in the bunch UAE set a hard tempo.
Up front, Luke Plapp kicked on – the Aussie putting together an exceptionally strong Giro, and with him, Nairo Quintana, Pello Bilbao and once again, Wout Poels, a rider seeking to complete his Grand Tour trilogy with a win at the Giro.
It was only that morning that footage came to light of Egan Bernal sliding down and crashing in the time trial on the previous stage, but it didn’t seem to deter him, as he launched his own attack, though it wasn’t enough to distance the UAE pair of Ayuso and Del Toro. The GC gaps were closed though by the top of the climb, as the group of favourites ground their way up the brutal final stages of the climb around 1:30 behind Fortunato who put in a valiant ride to take full points in the KOM.
40km of descent followed the gargantuan climbing effort, and the lead group came together, five riders whose advantage increased as the peloton backed off slightly – the balance swung in favour of break again. That is, until Mads Pedersen upped the ante on the flat section that followed, causing the gap to drop rapidly, and squashing the breakaway’s hopes of victory. Mads turned in for the day having brought the gap to under a minute ahead of the final climb of day, where the group were able to finally finish the job. But as the climb began, Richard Carapaz launched a blistering attack, and the breakaway were caught, first by a flying Ecuadorian, then by the rest of the GC group. Isaac Del Toro struck out in pursuit, and a small but dogged group tried to keep pace behind, but Carapaz was able to hold them at bay, finishing ten seconds clear of Ayuso, with Giulio Ciccone showing well in third.
Stage 12 is the only one of this second week block that was straightforward. A true sprint stage, with the requisite three-man all-Italian breakaway, there’s nothing much to comment on, other than to applaud Visma-Lease a Bike finally nailing their lead-out, with Wout van Aert winning the battle into the final left-hand corner to set Olav Kooij up for the stage victory we all expected him to have taken much sooner. He finished it off in style, with Casper van Uden second and a surprise sprint by INEOS’ Ben Turner completing the podium. Outside of that, it was notable that Isaac Del Toro was able to snatch some bonus seconds at the Red Bull kilometre, bolstering his lead.
Without further ado, let’s move on to stage 13. The rolling stage to Vicenza was one of those days, where on paper, you’d look at the result and assume it was pretty straightforward. Spoiler alert: it was set for an uphill sprint to the finish, and Mads Pedersen won, beating Wout van Aert to the line after the two powerhouses traded metaphorical punches all the way up the steep finishing straight. Not so shocking, really. But it was a stage packed with intrigue, with a number of short climbs on the way to Vicenza which invited attacks and promised the possibility of a breakaway win.
As such, the day started with another huge melee, riders all over the road, some even being dropped as the push and pull of escape hopefuls versus sprint teams ensued. A group of nine got away in the end, and slowly built their lead as the road was blocked behind.
There was a flurry of action on the longest climb of the day, the San Giovanni in Monte, with the GC group attacking, first through INEOS and later Derek Gee, who tried to attack with Tom Pidcock on his wheel. At the front of the race, Lorenzo Germani and Christian Scaroni had gone clear and though Germani drew out a lead on the descent, they came back together before the first lap of the finishing circuit in Vicenza.
Into the final 20km, Scaroni was left as a solo leader, but the GC group closed him down, and there was a sharing out of the bonus seconds at the Red Bull sprint by Ayuso and Del Toro, with Ayuso beating his teammate on that occasion – or being allowed to win, depending on your point of view.
After that there was a late breakaway attempt by Romain Bardet, who sneaked out on the descent in final 10km – he was followed by Mathias Vacek and the two came agonisingly close to victory, finally swamped by the blistering pace set by the chase group.
And you know the rest. Pedersen took win number four, and in a final twist, Del Toro cruised to third place, ridiculous in his ease, ahead of the rest of the chasing group, to take back the seconds he lost to Ayuso at the Red Bull sprint, and further extend his lead in the overall classification.
The morning of stage 14 began with news of the departure of INEOS Grenadiers’ Brandon Rivera due to illness. The Colombian had been in great form, a lively and reliable support unit for Egan Bernal, and he would be a big miss for the team.
On the road in Treviso, on a day that would cross the border into Slovenia, and there was clearly hope that a break might make it, despite a relatively flat profile. A huge group got away early but with too many conflicts of interest it was brought back, and eventually a group of five established themselves at the head of the race. Once the flurry of activity had settled, the peloton were in no mood to entertain thoughts of a breakaway win, giving the group a measly gap, which was never allowed to grow beyond 1:30. A determined bunch is not the only factor controlling the fate of a race however, and just as it had the previous week, the skies portended an ominous afternoon ahead. The wind picked up and layers were deployed once again as the rain began to fall. The break reduced to three riders, and they didn’t look to have a hope.
It was on the first ascent of the Saver climb that everything changed. Some races are carved slowly, their story chiselled into granite minute by minute to build a narrative that only makes sense if you know it from start to finish. Stage 14 of the Giro was more of a sledgehammer applied to a switch. From one race, the ending of which we could all quite accurately predict – peloton reels in breakaway for sprint finish – to a completely different one, in which a lead group who had been kept in a stranglehold by the peloton all day long were suddenly staring down the barrel of possible victory.
It was a narrow, cobbled street, curling and rising through the town just over the Slovenian border, where Bahrain-Victorious’ Antonio Tiberi (or his teammate – it was one of the two and I’m still not clear which) somehow lost control of his bike and came down, causing a ripple effect back through the peloton that would inflict an indelible impact on the race. The worst affected were Ben Turner and Giulio Ciccone; the Italian remounted his bike, hung his head over the handlebars and eventually continued on, knowing his GC bid was ended. He later withdrew from the race with an injured quadricep, leaving his team and fans heartbroken. He really was in the form of his life, and still hadn’t reached the high mountains where he thrives. This sport is a cruel and fickle arbiter.
As for the rest of the race, it was in disarray, with splits throughout the bunch. Visma-Lease a Bike were drilling it on the front, trying to close down the breakaway to enact a stage-winning opportunity for Olav Kooij (with the upshot of improving on Simon Yates’ GC position with his rivals caught out behind). Of course, the wily Del Toro tagged along for the ride, somehow once again managing to avoid catastrophe, while Ayuso and Roglič were in a group behind. Even further behind that, the domino that fell first – Antonio Tiberi – was watching his GC campaign ride away up the road, left languishing around two minutes behind the lead group.
And who was left at the front of the race? With a few kilometres left to race, the breakaway trio were under pressure from the marauding yellow army, so Kasper Asgreen took it upon himself to launch clear and ride solo. He’s a man with proven pedigree at picking the right stages, and winning against the odds – his Tour de France stage win in 2023 happened on a nailed-on sprint stage, with the might of Alpecin-Deceuninck chasing behind for Jasper Philipsen. His grit was something to behold – hanging on to a slender 15-second advantage, Asgreen was able to eke out a few extra seconds at one point, but he never allowed his gap to drop and the reduced group behind just didn’t have the firepower to catch him, as Visma domestiques peeled off one after the other, leaving Simon Yates himself trying to drive a very reduced group.
Asgreen won the day – the first of two spectacular back-to-back breakaway wins on a weekend that reshaped the GC battle in the process. Beautiful. But it was just the first act…
Act two would take the riders over the longest climb in the race, Monte Grappa. At 25km, the climb’s length is somewhat mitigated by its relatively consistent gradient, which never goes much beyond its average 6%, aside from a slightly trickier steep pitch of maximum 11% very early on. It wouldn’t be the decisive factor in the day’s action, though it might well see to it that the sprinters clocked off early.
Stage 15 was also a very long stage at 216km, and this is a very long summary of it, at 1,347 words. Probably too long. I should have known better, given my alarm upon discovering that the stage was already underway on Sunday morning, having planned to tune in after lunch. No, it was destined to be a full day in front of the laptop screen, akin to a Monument, but it was worth watching from flag drop as the first hour of racing was electric. Ridden at an average speed of over 50km/h, the breakaway shenanigans were relentless, with multiple iterations as groups tried their luck but were repeatedly brought back – everyone wanted a piece of that action.
We lingered over the beautiful backdrop of the Muro di ca’ del Poggio – a steep climb winding through Prosecco country flanked to either side with jubilant crowds – enough of an obstacle that the version of the break that was trying their luck at that point were brought back.
Meanwhile at the other end of the race Antonio Tiberi’s woes continue – he was dropped, with his team trying to bring him back.
70km it took for the break to finally be established, with a huge group getting away, and it wasn’t long before it proved to be too unwieldy and began to fracture into smaller groups. With the situation settling behind, the Tiberi group, that was two minutes down at one point, was able to join the maglia rosa group, and UAE set to work pace-setting.
Up front, a group of four kicked on, including Movistar’s Davide Formolo with a split open jersey, before a second group of around 12 riders driven by Jayco-AlUla tried to bridge across. In the end a big group reformed, and Movistar were the team with the most to gain, with Einer Rubio and two support riders, Rubio just over four minutes down on GC, and the gap to the peloton over three minutes already.
A new lead trio – of Vacek, De Pretto and Conci carved out a lead of around 45 seconds as they began the Monte Grappa climb, while David Gaudu dropped from the back of the lead group, his hopes of being among the action suffering a blow, his fans hopes for him to feature in the race at all withering on the vine.
With 7km to go, Georg Steinhauser attacked, with Lorenzo Fortunato in pursuit, and later Filippo Zana, Marco Frigo and Dani Martinez bridged across to form a new lead group.
At the back of the bunch, Ayuso required a bike change. Moments later, INEOS attacked, forcing a split in the GC group, with Ayuso just making it back on. The aggressive tactics were perfectly executed by INEOS; Ben Turner swung off, almost coming to a standstill, just as Josh Tarling was recollected dropping back from the break and he did a turn, as Del Toro surfed INEOS wheels – with four teammates behind him, still begging the question – why aren’t his team protecting him?
The expected launch of Bernal came shortly after, and Del Toro moved with him – they were followed shortly after by Richard Carapaz goes across to them. UAE either have the perfect tactics, or are a shambles, depending on how you squint your eyes… Del Toro claimed he was not allowed to ride, as his teammate Ayuso chased with the rest behind. Once again, UAE’s embarrassment of riches meant that whichever way the day turned out, they’d probably end up on top.
The mists gathered and Derek Gee petted a taxidermy fox because, y’know, cycling.
Fortunato struck out for big points in the KOM, but it was local boy Marco Frigo who pushed on, on the long descent that followed.
It all came back together after that as Frigo was closed down by a new chasing group including Bardet, Scaroni, and Bilbao, and the Breakaway Mark 2 opened a gap of a minute as once again UAE established a steady tempo in the bunch. With the gap stretching out to 3 minutes, INEOS took over control, and it was becoming clear the battle would be fought on two fronts: first, for the stage win, and second, for the GC.
Lidl-Trek’s Carlos Verona is a rider who doesn’t often get the freedom to ride – but a day after his leader Ciccone left the race, he launched a move on the final climb of the day, and though Soudal-QuickStep’s young Italian climbing talent Gianmarco Garofoli temporarily made it across, he couldn’t hold on as Verona drove on, turning a big gear and doggedly opening up the gap to the chasers. The climbing metres ticked away and it became clear this was a solo ride for victory.
Verona rode to his first Grand Tour stage victory at the age of 32, and after riding 16 Grand Tours. His family were at the finish, and it was a truly beautiful moment to see them celebrate together, after 14 years of racing, and in the wake of the loss of his leader from the race. Even his post-race interview was that of a loyal teammate rather than a Grand Tour stage winner, as he dedicated his win to Ciccone and his team, and Lidl-Trek’s rollercoaster Giro continued.
MEANWHILE IN THE GC GROUP… Lucas Hamilton set a ferocious tempo for INEOS, and Bernal confusingly went for seconds at the Red Bull kilometre, despite there being a fair few guys up the road. Oops.
After that it was game on, in an electric, pulsating GC battle, and it is becoming increasingly clear who the major players are going to be as we head into the final week of this race. Richard Carapaz is on fire – he was the next to instigate an attack, and UAE have two cards still to play – Del Toro AND Ayuso were able to go with the Ecuadorian. They will gamble on Ayuso being able to claw back time, in case Del Toro can’t stay the course of three full weeks with all the biggest challenges still ahead of him. Either way, they are the team to beat. Bernal is back to his best, though his time losses will be difficult to come back from, but to see the four of them going toe-to-toe was scintillating.
The rider to miss out while all this was kicking off? Primoz Roglič. There would be one less horse in the race come the end of the day, as he dropped back, while other lower-placed GC riders made gains, including Tiberi and his teammate Damiano Caruso, Derek Gee, Michael Storer, Max Poole and, arguably the rider most likely to be able to overcome the challenge of UAE as things stand: Simon Yates.
Back with Roglič, there was a moment reminiscent of 2021, when Dani Martinez shook his fist at Egan Bernal to drive him on, when they were INEOS teammates. On this day, it was his new team leader at his team Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe that Martinez was trying to encourage, as Roglič rode as fast as he could to try and keep himself in the race, but after a couple of crashes, it’s clear that the Slovenian is sadly not in the form he would have hoped, heading into the crucial decisive week.
The aggressive racing continued all the way to the line, where the group finished half a minute down on the winner Verona, and set in place an expectation for a truly gripping final week of racing.
As for me, I’m clinging on by my fingernails trying to keep up – it’s reached that stage of a Grand Tour where the numbers 12, 13, 14 and 15 become meaningless, when a series of category 4 climbs blend from one day into the next, and when average gradients and Italian place names and continental breakaway riders all melt into one great, Giro-shaped puddle in my brain. I bloody love it though. And have you looked at the profile for the next stage? (I dunno, probably stage eleventy-six). It is going to COOK.
See you for the next round up in a few days’ time!