Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) took victory on the opening stage of the 2025 Tour of the Alps after a mountainous day starting and finishing in San Lorenzo Dorsino.
The Italian rider won a reduced sprint after following several attacks in the closing stages. After both made attacks in the finale, the Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale duo of Felix Gall and Paul Seixas finished second and third, respectively.
Although on paper this was the toughest stage of the week, the climbs were not challenging enough to cause a significant selection, with just seconds splitting the top twenty riders. The likes of Alexander Cepeda (EF Education-EasyPost) and Eddie Dunbar (Jayco-AlUla) attempted to break clear on the final classified climb of the day, the Passo Durone, but Lidl-Trek were determined to chase down every move.
It was a first win for the Italian since stage 8 of the Critérium du Dauphiné in 2023 and the three-time Giro d’Italia stage winner was pleased to put his arms in the air ahead of the Italian Grand Tour next month.
“It was a long time without victory for me. I really needed it today. I think also it’s even more special in Italy. After a long time in altitude, it's always good to restart the racing with a victory,” Ciccone said afterwards.
“Honestly, it was really, really hard. We went super fast from the start. I'm really, really happy.”
Ciccone’s Lidl-Trek team had been on the front for most of the day, with Tao Geoghegan Hart doing much of the work on the final climb to pull back a plucky Mattia Bais (Polti-Visit Malta).
“I think we did a great job today. Yeah, I really need to say thanks to all my teammates. We had a plan and I think we did it in the perfect way.”
How it unfolded
The Tour of the Alps is a race often used as a final tune-up for the first Grand Tour of the year, the Giro d’Italia. Stage 1, which started and finished in San Lorenzo Dorsino, is perhaps the hardest stage of the entire week on paper.
Three riders made it into the early breakaway of the day. Finlay Pickering (Bahrain Victorious), AJ August (Ineos Grenadiers) and Davide Bais (Polti-Visit Malta) survived until the foot of the final classified climb of the day with 25km to go.
Pickering made one final attempt to stay clear before being joined by Eddie Dunbar (Jayco-AlUla), who had broken clear of the peloton controlled by Lidl-Trek on the Passo Durone’s steep early slopes. The pair never built much of an advantage and were brought back halfway up the climb.
Several attackers attempted to break clear as the peloton whittled down. EF Education-EasyPost’s Alexander Cepeda made it stick, building a gap of around 15 seconds over the peloton at the top with Paul Double (Jayco-AlUla) and Seixas in between.
Cepeda lost his lead on the 12km descent before the final 8km rise to the line and was caught by a chasing group of 20 before the foot of the climb.
Bais attacked as the final ascent back into San Lorenzo Dorsino began, immediately building a lead of 15 seconds which he held for much of the finale. As the final three kilometres pitched upwards, Bais’ gap began to come down and with two kilometres left, the local rider was caught by the peloton led by Geoghegan Hart.
The group still numbered around twenty as they passed through the final kilometre. Gall and Cepeda traded accelerations, with the likes of Ciccone and Romain Bardet (Picnic-PostNL) chasing on.
It was Max Poole (Picnic-PostNL) who led out the sprint round the final sweeping corner before Ciccone came over the top to secure his first win of the season ahead of the Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale pairing of Gall and Seixas.
Going into the next stage, Ciccone has a four second lead over the Austrian Gall, with Seixas a further two seconds behind. The race is wide open with the top 25 riders separated by less than a minute.
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