Giro d’Italia 2025 winners (and losers)

The first Grand Tour of the season is over, and the time for reflection is upon us. While you’ll find plenty of analysis of the race on the site that focuses on the headlines from the race, there is so much to talk about, beyond the maglia rosa, UAE’s questionable tactics, and Primož Roglič’s continued woes. In this broad race review, we take a look at some of the other winners from the race – the individuals, teams, nations and even animal species (!) who came out on top after three glorious weeks in Italy.

Of course, we live in a world of opposition – where there is triumph, there must also exist defeat. Having said that, I'm all about the positivity, and find the word ‘loser’ to be a bit distasteful if I’m honest, especially when it comes to a group of individuals who’ve put in three weeks of herculean effort, all in the name of winning one shiny, swirly golden trophy and a pink top. I’ll found a way around it, though, don’t worry.

There are a myriad of directions this could go in, from the attacking verve of Ineos Grenadiers and EF Education-EasyPost (win) to the baffling tactics of UAE Team Emirates-XRG (not so much), and from the well-behaved fans (win) to the curb that brought Mikel Landa's race to a premature end (very much a down point). These are just my thoughts; feel free to share yours in the comments below.

(sure you can call them ‘winners’ if you like, but aren’t we all winners in this game of life?)

Special jerseys
All too often at a Grand Tour – with the possible exception of the points jersey – special jerseys are won almost by accident. The young rider’s jersey is merely achieved by dint of your birthday happening to fall beyond an arbitrary date set by the UCI, while more significantly, the so-called King of the Mountains jersey is regularly scooped up as a by-product of a fiercely waged GC battle – even more so in recent years, since the trend of racing from the front, rather than hiding in the bunch and biding time.

This year, it’s fair to say that each jersey was won emphatically. Outside of Simon Yates, who did go about winning the maglia rosa by stealth (until his final bombastic charge up the Finestre), every other jersey winner was not only fully deserving of the accolade, but was one of the race’s key players. Mads Pedersen was everything, everywhere, all at once; bullish on the flat stages and in the mountains, riding for himself, his team, and a legion of Danish fans at home – he had energy to spare, the grit to hang on where other sprinters couldn’t stay the course, and speed when it mattered most. His ‘purple reign’ in ciclamino was the first of the jerseys that seemed set in stone as he scored big in Albania – and carried on in the same manner in Italy.

Isaac Del Toro spent most of his race in pink, yet seeing him in white is perhaps the most fitting of endings to his debut corsa rosa. He not only led the race for 11 stages, but he animated it, often taking matters into his own hands when his team managers were hesitating on whether to support him or not. He showed the true exuberance of youth; a level of confidence and bravado befitting of the wildly talented young rider he is, and for that, the white jersey belonged to him, symbolically as well as in actuality. To him it perhaps felt like a consolation, in some respects. It was undoubtedly, however, a worthy celebration of his significance to this year’s race. 

And finally, the joyful, brilliant, dogged pursuit of the maglia azzurra by XDS-Astana’s Lorenzo Fortunato. It became clear from stage 1 that it might be a goal of the Italian, but by the time he donned the jersey on stage 3, any doubts were laid to rest. After that it was simple. Be in every breakaway, make some friends, and take as many points as you can. He won the competition with an astounding margin of 154 points over the next-best rider – his teammate, Christian Scaroni. It was a fitting prize for a rider who’d shown his promise by winning a stage stop one of Italy’s mythical peaks, Monte Zoncolan, four years earlier, and who wore his heart on his – very blue – sleeve, for almost the entire race.

Wout van Aert
It would be very easy to say ‘Visma | Lease a Bike’ and downright obvious to say ‘Simon Yates’ when compiling a list like this, but in the true spirit of celebrating wins that go beyond the mere raising of arms over a finish line, it was Wout van Aert who really won this Giro d’Italia. 

A literal win, on the dust-encrusted strade bianche of stage 9; two perfect lead-outs to bring about two more for Olav Kooij, and a truly monstrous climbing performance on the Finestre to seamlessly deliver Yates to the biggest win of his career – once again, Van Aert shows his mettle, his spirit, and his versatility. His efforts on stage 20 brought to mind his superhuman efforts on behalf of Jonas Vingegaard on Hautacam in 2022, and banished the Belgian’s troubled Classics campaign, in which he struggled to find his best form and faced stern criticism from some quarters of the press. A difficult spring has given way to a summer replete with the promise that he can once again support his team both in the flatlands and high mountains of France. It’s an apt reward for one of the most humble, honest and hard-working riders in the peloton.

Australia 
Though it was Denmark who came out top in the national standings at this year’s Giro in terms of number of stage victories, let the record state that with four of these wins belonging to the machine that is Mads Pedersen (riding for an American team), we need to look further afield to find a nation whose achievements were as broad as they were impressive.

Australia has a steady record at Grand Tours. The Vuelta a España is the nation’s favourite with 16 stage wins in the past decade (though over half of these can be attributed to either Caleb Ewan, or Kaden Groves, the Aussie fast men profiting off the general distaste of the sprinting field for the unforgiving strictures of the Spanish Grand Tour).

While their record at the Giro is solid, it’s been 11 years since there were more than two Australian wins in Italy, and this year, they took three, from three different riders, on three very different types of stage. Moreover, two of them were riders from the only Australian WorldTour team, Team Jayco-AlUla – Lucas Plapp, who took the first breakaway victory of the race on stage 8, and Chris Harper, who only went and won the bloody queen stage, mate. Ripper. The antipodean riders of the Giro did more than just take three stages wins, too - Michael Storer was active on GC for Tudor Pro Cycling, Jenson Plowright was feisty at intermediate sprints, and Jay Vine finished third on the first time trial in Tirana - Australia have produced a generation who can compete on every terrain.

Harper’s victory on the Colle delle Finestre could perhaps have only been topped if the other main winner of the day, Simon Yates, had still been within the GreenEdge organisation. The rider from Bury was with the team for the entirety of his professional career before moving to Visma at the end of 2024 – ironically, he began his time with them – then Orica-GreenEdge – back in 2014: the last time Australia won big at the Giro. They are surely incredibly proud of their British protégé however, and even if the icing on the cake would have been Yates winning in purple, they can still claim him as one of their own.

Gianmarco Garofoli 
One of the few rays of light for Soudal-QuickStep in a race that seemed to bear them ill will, following the loss of his GC leader Mikel Landa on stage 1, 22-year-old climber Garofoli was free to try his luck in the mountain stages. He drew widespread sympathy when he was pictured bereft, crying on the ground following a gutsy effort on stage 15, which saw him almost able to stay with eventual winner Carlos Verona, but just losing touch on the final climb. 

It turned out that he was riding injured, with three broken ribs no less, but this didn’t deter the young Italian, who is riding his first season with the Belgian team. No, far from being put off, he went immediately on the attack after the rest day on stage 16, only to crash heavily shortly afterwards, losing his back wheel and careening across the slick tarmac. Of course, he immediately remounted his bike and threw himself back into the melee.

He's young, gifted, and somewhat unhinged – he has a great future in pro cycling, and that big win is surely right around the corner based on this evidence. His team clearly agreed, extending his contract mid-race, and I can’t wait to see what the feisty Italian climber will do next.

Enzo Paleni and Dries de Bondt
There’s always a rider who is up there and giving it his all on multiple breakaway stages, especially ones they have little to no chance of winning. Because this is cycling, and sometimes, you win despite the odds being stacked against you. This year’s resilience award is jointly presented to Groupama-FDJ’s Enzo Paleni, an Italian racing for a French team who desperately needed some luck, and Dries de Bondt – a belligerent Belgian baroudeur who came, went up the road, won some money, made an enemy of Mads Pedersen, and made us all laugh with the gesture that said it all, as he mimed putting a gun to his head whilst joking with countryman Wout van Aert, up the road in a breakaway on a grand mountain stage that neither of them had a hope of winning. Chapeau to two of the most relentless of escapees on a job well done. You may not have won a stage but you won our respect, and a place in this list. Not too shabby.

XDS-Astana
It’s impossible to say what kind of voodoo Astana have on their side this season, but their transformation from a team barely clinging to survival in the WorldTour to the number one team when it comes to momentum has been breathtaking. They are winning at every level, and more importantly with a wide variety of riders – there’s no reliance on one star turn at the Kazakh team. They are also taking big points at major races, rather than following the tried-and-tested methods of the likes of Lotto and Arkea of peppering lower profile races with their presence. With a stage win and a classification to take home from the Giro d’Italia, a race where they made their own luck, the team rake in a truckload of points and suddenly look as though they may have done enough to retain their status as a WorldTour team come 2026. 

Gravel
The endless back and forth about which surfaces do or do not belong in a Grand Tour will go on, but it’s fair to say that Stage 9 delivered entertainment of epic proportions. Yes, there were crashes, and yes, some of them significantly affected the way the race played out. These also occurred throughout the race on plenty of other surfaces (I’d argue the sterrato caused less riders to hit the deck than the slick, wet tarmac that plagued the peloton on stages 6 and 16. A Grand Tour is a bringing together of the best of a nation – from the jaw-dropping peaks of the Dolomites to the urban backdrops of Napoli and Milano; from the quirky trulli houses of Alberobello to the coastal beauty of Puglia. The strade bianche are part of Italy’s road network – they look great, they make for fantastically exciting racing, and they allow riders with a different skillset to come to the fore. What’s not to love?

Foxes
I’m a dog girl, don’t get me wrong. But stray canines have caused more than enough drama at Giri gone by (Remco in 2022, anybody?) and when it comes to animal-based action, we’d rather see the riders cuddling with their pets post-stage than having to dodge them on course. Though there was a close shave with a dog in Albania, this year’s primary disruptor was a goat, which tried to charge Intermarché's Dion Smith off his bike early on in the race – luckily the wily Kiwi has been there and done that and managed to avoid chaos with a deft manoeuvre. 

Foxes on the other hand, or at least one in particular, has been a the model visitor to the Giro for some years now – possibly because said fox is of the taxidermy variety and therefore harmless to riders – but being a polite fox paid dividends this year as Derek Gee rewarded him with a little head scratch – thus proving that well-behaved pets are more than welcome at the roadside, and may even draw the attention of a GC hopeful if they're lucky.

Egan Bernal
He's back. He's really back. 

I could write reams about how completely wonderful it is to see the 2019 Tour de France winner attacking in that eye-catching national champion's jersey after everything he's been through since his horrific crash in January 2022, when the cycling world united in their relief that he was still alive, and didn't for a second consider that he might ever race again. It's all been written already, though, and here I'm simply reiterating: it's inspiring, moving, and above all, absolutely brilliant.

The Pope 
What a moment. Surreal, like so much else in cycling, but on another level. The whole peloton arrayed around the pontiff on the Piazza San Pietro, as he held up a gifted maglia rosa. It's the kind of spectacle you rarely see in other sports, and it capped a dramatic and captivating race in a very special way. And for the Pope, well - he got to meet THE Nairo Quintana!

Espresso macchiato
And finally, you heard it here first: cappuccinos are out and espresso macchiato are in, in Italy, thanks to Estonia’s ridiculously catchy Eurovision entry, aided and abetted by select riders of the 2025 Giro d’Italia. In the words of Italian music aficionado Jacopo Guarnieri: ‘just a really weird song.’ ICYMI:

(see, I told you I wouldn’t use the L word).

Race favourites
No, it wasn’t a Giro to remember for the GC favourites. Roglič and Ayuso speak for themselves. Ranked by almost all commentators as joint favourites (some gave Roglič the edge), both started out well, but fell on hard times (literally and metaphorically) as the race unfolded, before stepping off on stages 16 and 18 respectively, neither having made an impact in GC terms since the sterrato stage the week before that spelled the beginning of the end for both. In fact, if you squint a little at some of the race previews, you could make a case that not just the two but the top three pre-race favourites all left the race prior to its apotheosis. Mikel Landa – who was a solid bet to round out the podium – crashed out at the earliest possible opportunity, on stage 1, much to the chagrin of his legion of fans. Beyond that, there was to be no fairytale ending for Giulio Ciccone; for many an underdog for the podium. The moral of the story? Fly under the radar, or fate will come looking for you.

The French
Though they began the race with just one fewer rider on the start line than the Australians (13 versus 14), it was a torrid three weeks for French teams and riders, outside of Nicolas Prodhomme’s stunning victory on stage 19. Romain Bardet was unable to score the stage win we all so desperately hoped he could achieve on the occasion of his final Grand Tour, David Gaudu crashed and injured his hand, and Cofidis could have been mistaken for not being at the race at all, aside from the odd foray up the road by Sylvain Moniquet. 

Though their home Grand Tour stands higher in the regard of the French teams and riders than the Giro, as a collective there’s no doubt they would have wanted to achieve more from the race, especially given the stature of the riders they will have to go up against in order to pull off something big come La Grand Boucle in July. It pains me to say it, as a card-carrying Francophile, but this was one to forget, for France.

Pure sprinters
On the whole, it was a Giro to forget for the fast men. There were only six sprint stages on paper to start with – this isn’t as bad as the notoriously sprinter-hostile Vuelta which this year boasts just four flat stages, but not as hopeful as the Tour de France, the marquee Grand Tour for a sprint battle, featuring at least seven opportunities this year, perhaps more depending on how various days play out.

Of the six that were advertised prior to the race, just four came to fruition in the end, leaving slim pickings for the pure sprinters, as Mads Pedersen went about hoovering up points at all the intermediate sprints alongside his superior efforts in the punchy stages, where the likes of Kaden Groves, Olav Kooij and Sam Bennett were unable to hang on – largely due to the infernal tempo being set by Lidl-Trek for – who else but Mads.

Chaos
With not a single stage cancellation or route alteration and just one neutralisation, this Giro scores badly in Chaos Bingo. Usually the Grand Tour that can be relied upon for such shenanigans, confusion and disarray were at rock bottom in 2025, and though the rain was problematic, we didn’t see the wash-out of previous years, and as for snow? Well, let’s not go there – we could talk about climate change, or simply just observe that despite a monstrous final week, the overall altitude was kept to a minimum, resulting in a race that not only went ahead exactly as planned (hitherto unthinkable), but that we were also able to see in its entirety, with barely a blip in the broadcast. Long gone were the days of staring at fixed shot of a finish line while the commentary team awkwardly chatted about what they were having for lunch. Instead, the full race, from flag drop to final celebrations, in glorious techicolour. Long may it continue.