Domestique Debrief: 12 conclusions from the 2025 Giro d'Italia

After every Grand Tour, it's time to take notes. Everyone can look at what consequences this Giro d’Italia may have for the future and what conclusions can be drawn from the first Grand Tour of the year. We have had three very exciting weeks, which were challenging not only for the riders but also for the organisers – at the same time, thanks to a lot of factors, we had one of the easiest Giros in recent years in terms of weather, which gave both the riders and the fans a sense of calmness. As a result, we had a fantastic race, from which we can try and draw 12 conclusions in this article. 

There are many places to start when discussing this Giro d'Italia, but it is worth beginning with the man who, in the future, may end Italy's decade-long drought of Grand Tour victories – this statistical data has now reached unprecedented proportions. When Giulio Pellizzari was signed last August, everyone knew two things: he was amazing at climbing mountains, and his weak point was time trialling. Both were visible at VF Group - Bardiani, so the question was simply: how much could his new team improve Pellizzari at their headquarters in Austria? 

This Giro’s two time trials provided us with the first real results of the background work, and the answer was encouraging. He reduced his average deficit of 10 seconds/km in last year's Giro to 3.5 seconds/km this year, which is one of the greatest improvements in recent years during a single off-season. His climbing skills seen in Bardiani, remained intact, and in fact, he climbed like a true GC favourite in Brentonico in the last week of the race and entered the top 10 in the overall standings after Primož Roglič’s abandonment, and thanks to the final two mountain stages, finishing in 6th place overall. 

Red Bull – Bora - hansgrohe is in a very difficult yet pleasant situation, as Florian Lipowitz, Aleksandr Vlasov, and Jai Hindley are all ready to take an important role at any three-week race, either as captains or domestiques, but Pellizzari's progress in the last four months suggests that he will indeed be the captain of the future. La Vuelta may show more of this potential.

Derek Gee has reached the top of the general classification ladder, which few people thought he could achieve in a Grand Tour. In his third season, Gee reached fourth place overall in this year's Giro with a very systematic and direct build-up, and with his performance, he delivered Canada's best result at the race since Ryder Hesjedal in 2012, who won the pink jersey. In 2023, he stood out with his breakaways (it was impressive that he chose the right day for attacks six times out of seven attempts). In 2024, he started his GC campaign completely unexpectedly at the Critérium du Dauphiné, then slipped into the top 10 in the Tour de France. 

This year, besides the Giro, his record in stage races is 1-4-3-4. Simply amazing. Israel-Premier Tech made the right decision to extend his contract until 2028 after his first breakthrough back in 2023, and it's great to see Canada as a nation fighting for victories in the men's peloton again – the women's youth core is already looking very good with Ava and Isabella Holmgren, Alexandra Volstad and Sidney Swierenga - Gee's successes in the men's field could soon have a similar impact.

When it comes to multi-talented riders, experts often believe that although a given rider is skilled at almost everything, there is still a limit, whether physical or mental, beyond which they cannot perform; where their development stops, to a certain extent. For Tom Pidcock, during his time at Ineos, this limit was the general classification in three-week races. On certain days, he seemed to be able to compete with the best in the world (see: Alpe d'Huez, Puy de Dôme), but he was not able to deliver a top-10 performance over three weeks. He was able to put together consistent results over a week, raising the question of in which direction his skills would shift at Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team.

Based on four months of results, it is now safe to say that Pidcock's move to Q36.5 has paid off overall. At least, on an individual level. Three top-six general classification finishes (including victory in the AlUla Tour) and three top ten finishes in the Ardennes already showed that he was in good form, and in the Giro d’Italia, this translated into a good first two weeks in the general classification. 

To many commentators, Pidcock's performance may seem disappointing, as he did not win the gravel stage in Siena and did not attempt to go directly for any stages that would have suited him perfectly; instead, he tried everything he could to see if he could achieve a top 10 final position on GC, and for this reason alone, this race should not necessarily be considered a disappointment for him. He didn't make it into the top 10, but he competed at a very high level for 18 days, coming very close to this milestone, which surpassed his previous Grand Tour attempts, and even though the last two mountain top finishes didn’t go as planned, this confirmation was needed to show that both moving to a new environment and having grand goals were not wrong decisions.

This point departs slightly from the events of the race itself, as it examines Tirana and the Albanian Grande Partenza specifically. Although there were many (and in some cases, serious) concerns about Albania's role in organising a Grand Tour start (not without reason, as the country has never hosted an event higher than a UCI.2 race), they did everything they could to be perfect hosts. They paved a lot of roads, completed 98% of the road safety measures (the only problem was at the bend where Mikel Landa fell and had to give up the race early). Even the promotion was successful, as the Giro d'Italia attracted quite a lot of spectators at the start and finish areas. Despite multiple challenges, Albania rose to the occasion, and this could bring serious opportunities for cycling in the country for the foreseeable future.

XDS Astana Team is competing with a completely different mindset and strategy this season compared to the previous two. The reason for this may not become clear until the end of the year, but it could be due to the arrival of XDS bikes, which may have had as much of a positive impact on performance as the switch to Van Rysel at Decathlon AG2R, or it could be because the team's strategists put together an individually tailored programme for each rider where they have the best chance of performing well. In four months, they have made up a 6,000-point deficit on the 17th and 18th teams, which means that after the Giro, they now have a high chance of extending their WorldTour membership.

How did Astana's genius manifest itself in this race? They perfectly recognised that Lorenzo Fortunato's climbing form was very high after the Tour de Romandie, and they exploited this in the area where they had the best chance of excelling – the King of the Mountain classification. Fortunato won this competition with a record score not seen in the Giro for 40 years, and his teammate, stage winner Christian Scaroni, finished second behind him, completing a rarely seen one-two. They seized every opportunity, Diego Ulissi was able to wear maglia rosa in his 16th season, even if only for one day, which was one of the team's goals in the race. As perfect as a Grand Tour can be for a team focused on attacks, this was perfect for Astana. 10/10.

The way Mads Pedersen rode the Giro d’Italia after such a consistent spring will go down in the history books. He was motivated and brilliantly led his team, who stepped in to help him without any question, often in situations where things were not easy for Pedersen. Looking at his victories, there were many occasions when Lidl-Trek had to pace within a very narrow lane to set a benchmark that was the best for Pedersen - the most amazing thing about the whole race was that they won on all these occasions. Previously, such instances had not gone in the right direction in all cases, which is why the 2025 Giro will go down as their best race as a team. 

The way Pedersen raced, and the way he also helped Giulio Ciccone and the climbing department as a whole, based on the historical principle of 'one for all, all for one,' clearly shows that the Dane will be the most important rider for the team in the short/medium term – it is no coincidence that a career-long contract between Pedersen and Lidl-Trek was announced during the race. Two out of three points jerseys from Grand Tours secured, the big one from the Tour de France is the missing piece in his collection.

The 2025 edition of Giro d’Italia will go down in history as one of the fastest thanks to fewer high mountain stages than usual and the fact that this year's race did not go above 2,200 metres, which also allowed the entire race to go ahead as planned, without route changes, for the first time in many years. 

The entire race was split into two parts in terms of breakaway formations. There were days when a breakaway formed after 2 kilometres, which later had almost no chance of winning the day. And there was the battle that we now see more often since the arrival of all-day broadcasts: it takes 70-80 kilometres for a viable breakaway to form, which doesn’t have enough advantage to make it to the end. Those who love heroic breakaway fights and underdog stories are saddened by this, as the accelerating pace means that there are regularly fewer chances for those riders for whom breakaways are a speciality, or indeed their only chance to achieve something on an individual level. However, at the same time, due to the peculiar layout of the third week and its even more interesting racing style, there were still a total of seven breakaway victories. Luke Plapp, Kasper Asgreen, Carlos Verona, Christian Scaroni, Nico Denz, Nicolas Prodhomme, and Chris Harper shared breakaway victories in this year's edition, and we can be very happy for all of them – stories like theirs are what make big races so exciting. 

Although Mads Pedersen won four stages of the 2025 Giro d'Italia, alongside him was a finely balanced sprinter field, with the balance of power shifting from day to day and profile to profile. Olav Kooij, Kaden Groves and Casper van Uden won sprints besides Pedersen, while Wout van Aert, Orluis Aular, Corbin Strong, Maikel Zijlaard, Milan Fretin, Paul Magnier, Ben Turner and Matteo Moschetti all took spots in the top three – this was not as one-sided as many would imagine.

Experts always categorise sprinters according to so-called tiers, and it’s up for debate how many sprinters fall into the highest of these tiers, but the diversity in this field will be seen in the Tour de France, where the best of the best will be present. Considering the first nine days of La Grande Boucle, there will be plenty of opportunities for riders with different profiles to win stages.

Before the season, no one thought that these two teams would be fighting each other directly against relegation, but by early June 2025, due to the rise of XDS Astana, this is the conclusion that must be drawn. The point differences between the two teams at various points in the season are illustrated in the table below:

This table does not include the final week of the Giro, but the points earned by Romain Bardet and Max Poole in the breakaways will bring a lot to the Dutch team, and in the live ranking, the difference between the two teams has been reduced to less than 100 points.

It is very difficult to say who has the advantage. Bardet's retirement in two weeks could put Picnic PostNL at a disadvantage in this situation, but they stand out in terms of their ability to plan a programme for their riders. On the other hand, Cofidis’ recruits who were intended to strengthen the team for 2025 have so far been unable to get the most out of themselves on many occasions. It will be an exciting battle, which will likely run to October and could also influence the 2026 WorldTour wildcards.

Since Richard Carapaz joined Education First - Easypost, Grand Tours haven't worked out for him. He was unable to fight for the general classification in his first two Grand Tours with the team, and although he finished 4th in the 2024 La Vuelta, it was a particularly atypical race in the sense that breakaways were much more effective there than in any other Grand Tour for the past five years. Carapaz timed his form very specifically for the Giro d’Italia this year, a major difference from the past two years in terms of preparation. It paid off, even though he had to start this Grand Tour mission from a long way back due to the time he lost in the two time trials. 

San Pellegrino had already shown that his strength was there, and then, thanks to a phenomenal attack on the climb en route to Brentonico, he drew within sight of the pink jersey. Carapaz rode smartly, and his team also rose to the challenge in the final days, seemingly making sound tactical decisions – until day 20. The all-out attack at the beginning of Colle delle Finestre was spectacular and showed EF’s climbing firepower, but it wasn't effective enough to break Isaac del Toro, and then in the chaos and man-to-man situation that ensued, his alternative tactics were ineffective. Regardless, Carapaz is back on a Grand Tour podium after three years, with 4-1-2-3 finishes in four Giro d'Italia starts, making him a true specialist in the race, while it also gives him confidence that this wasn’t the last GC campaign of his career.

It's worth starting at the very beginning: Isaac del Toro has had a brilliant Giro d'Italia, introducing himself to the world as another young UAE Emirates-XRG rider who could win a Grand Tour very soon. Finishing second in what is arguably the most difficult stage race at the age of 21, without being a favourite, is an impressive achievement, especially considering that he wore the maglia rosa for almost two weeks. For such a young talent facing such a series of challenges for the first time, having only one bad day in terms of strength and a tactically difficult day is completely acceptable. Every young rider dreams of such a debut as a team captain. Mexico's current best cyclist has proven in every way that he is ready for the role of being the number one rider in any race and would be a good leader for UAE behind Tadej Pogačar.

At the same time, the Mexican's performance at this level raises the question of who will be awarded leadership at the races that don’t have Pogačar on the start list, as there are now three serious candidates for this role. Juan Ayuso is one. He came to this Giro as captain and showed in the first third of the race that he is ready for this role; he was competitive in the GC and looked confident on the bike, before a crash, subsequent knee problems, and then a bee sting prevented him from fulfilling his quest at the race. The third candidate is João Almeida, who has ridden a stacked programme so far this year, with a 2-2-6-1-1 result sheet. He knows the secret to performing well throughout a week and has finished four of his six completed Grand Tours in the top 4. It seems that in 2025, he has taken the next step to turn consistency into victories. Whatever the decision will be within the team, it will be very interesting to see how the careers of all three unfold.

One of the most interesting transfers of the 2024 offseason was Simon Yates' move from Jayco AlUla to Visma | Lease a Bike. Although Yates showed extremely good general classification performances in the early and middle stages of his career, he stalled between 2022 and 2024, precisely in the years when, in theory, he had the best chance of reaching his peak performance. His focus also shifted slightly towards one-day races, where he had potential but ultimately couldn’t achieve victories at the WorldTour level. Under these circumstances, he signed for Richard Plugge's team, where his role was unclear to many. There were several ideas about his usage, first and foremost, as Jonas Vingegaard's domestique at the Tour de France; this seemed the most likely. There was also a possibility of him being a secondary Grand Tour leader, or a leader in general, who could alleviate the team's problems in hilly, one-day races. There were many possibilities, but few expected such a rapid metamorphosis.

Everything can be simplified for one day, and that was the 20th day of the race. What Visma | Lease a Bike did as a team was an incredibly simple but highly effective tactic: they sent Wout van Aert ahead, who delivered one of the best climbs of his career, along with Simon Yates, who had a truly historic day on this cloudy, foggy Saturday in Piedmont. As said in the title, life writes the best stories. Seven years after the infamous Colle delle Finestre climb, where he lost the Giro d’Italia, fate allowed Simon Yates to settle the score. We'll leave it to the reader's imagination to guess, against whom. This was his only direct chance, and he took it. He leaves Italy as a legend, a two-time Grand Tour winner, effectively sending his team into a positive flow for the second half of the season. 

That was the 2025 Giro d’Italia – many conclusions could be drawn, but questions still remained (this is the trademark of a brilliant race): luckily, we will get answers to our remaining thoughts very soon on the roads around the world.