Juan Ayuso (Emirates-XRG Water Team) struck the first major GC of the Giro of Italia 2025, sealing the first finish of the top of the race on stage 7 in Tagliacozzo with a late bucket 550 meters from the finish line.
The Spaniard led to the house his teammate Isaac del Toro for a Two of the Water to close the scene of 168 km through the Apennines of the Abruzzo, while Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) impressed to finish in third, after having struck an attack on his own final kilometer.
The final climb to the line had been a slow burn, the softer slopes of the 9 km of opening leaving room for two -digit gradients in the 3 km final. After the work of Ineos Grenadiers and Bahrain victorious on the way, the attacks by Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) launched the action of the GC.
Bernal, seeming stronger than he did before his horrible training accident in early 2022, was next to hitting the front with his teammate Thymen Arensman, before he also made a movement 800 meters from the summit.
It was a powerful decision, but not the winner. Instead, it fell to Ayuso, who accelerated from the seventh wheel while Bernal, Del Toro and Ciccone led forward. The 22 -year -old has made his way forward and moved away during the 400 meters of fence, putting four seconds – plus a bonus of 10 seconds – between him and the rest when he had accelerated to his sixth victory of the season.
“It is my fourth big tour, and especially in the two Vuelta a Españas that I ran, I was sometimes very close, but I never managed to remove it, so to finally do it today in my first Giro of Italia is something super special and I will always remember,” said Ayuso after the scene.
“I knew that I only had to make a single attack, I could not play and make two or three. In these finals, which are super explosive, you only have one ball to use. So I let the others start attacking before, then when I saw my distance, I went full of gas in arrival.”
Behind Bernal and Del Toro, it was Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) who recovered to take fourth place. The Slovenian was on the defensive rather than on the front foot while the GC men fought on the top slopes steep from the climb.
Nevertheless, the 2023 champion is back in the Maglia Rosa of the leader of the race overnight, with the leader of the race Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) after having decreased from the peloton early on the slopes of the 12 km finish ascent.
He returns to the head of the race and can stay in pink for a while with a Bianche Strade scene and a time trial the biggest GC challenges before the next summit on stage 16. He leads Ayuso by four seconds, while Del Toro is in third place nine seconds.
How it went
Step 7 of the Giro d’Italia has so far made the riders their most difficult challenge of the race with 3,390 meters of ascent being on the 168 km course in the form of four classified climbs.
The peloton went northwest through the Abruzzo of Castel Di Sangro in Tagliacozzo with the rise of the third category of Roccaraso (7.8 km at 5.8%) to start the day. Monte Urano (5.7 km at 8%) followed 70 km before the rise of 21.6 km, 3.6% of the second category of the Vado Della Forcella at 104.9 km. The final climb of the day, the first summit of the race for the rise of the first category of Tagliacozzo, measured at 11.9 km and on average 5.5%.
With nine Mountain classification points available at 7 km in the scene at the top of Roccaraso, it is not surprising that the battle for the escape began as soon as the flag has dropped. The blue jersey of the Lorenzo Fortunato classification leader (XDS-Astana) was in sight at the front and the Italian duly opened the way.
Nine points, he carried his total classification of the mountains to 58, 36 sheltered from Sylvain Moniquet (Cofidis), which took third on the climb.
Fortunato, however, did not push the tray after the peak. Instead, his teammate from Astana, Cristian Scaroni, ventured into the break. He was joined by the Sprint Intermediate Sprint and the leader of the Fuga Prize, Alessandro Tonelli (Polti-Visitmalta) during his third day at the break, plus Gianmarco Garofoli (Sudal-Quickstep), and Nicolas Prodhomme (Decathlon Ag2r La Mondiale).
Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe controlled the situation at the front of the peloton, although Paul Double (Jayco-Alula), Gijs Leemreize (Picnic-Postnl) and the leader of the Red Bull, Manuele Tarozzi (VF Group-Faizanè).
Tonelli duly led the rupture of seven men during the first intermediate sprint of the day, 50 km in the scene in Sulmona, while the move struck a 2h30 advantage on the road to the second climb of the stage, Monte Urano.
At the top of the climb, the double swam on the line first to claim 18 points. Tonelli followed eight with Scaroni taking six points for third place.
The race up to Vado Della Forcella was the next on the menu, the break extending their lead four minutes on the long trail. At the top, Double again struck to lead the race on another ascent, collecting 18 additional points in the process.
Behind him, Tarozzi and Leemreize followed, the group of seven men gathers before the second intermediate sprint in Ovindoli and the subsequent descent. Tonelli, clearly targeting the intermediate sprint price, opened the way through Ovinindoli and in the 50 km final while 3:15 separated the break and the peloton.
The gap would only decrease when the runners stole the interrupted descent towards the Aitzano valley. Lidl-Trek and the chief of the Mads Pedersen race joined the pursuit, with Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe also on the front as they had been all day.
Once the race struck the valley, with 30 km to run, the gap of the leaders had fallen at 1:30 am, while at the rear of the Roman Bardet peloton (Picnic-Postnl) received a treatment in the Medical, having fallen on the long descent.
Another Frenchman, David Gaudu, saw his whole group Groupama-FDJ falling back on the apartment when he was fighting to resume his own fall. They went back in time for the Red Bull kilometer and the start of the Marsia climb above the city of Tagliacozzo, while Tarozzi at the front led through the sprint.
The final rise
Ineos Grenadiers struck the front to start the ascent, the peloton now only 40 seconds behind the break, 12 km from the summit. Scaroni, Double and Leemreize were the first runners to return to the peloton, while Maglia Rosa Pedersen was quick to retreat from the rear of the group.
Bahrain Victorious was then to take the pacemator, leading to the rest of the pause captured 5 km from the line. The peloton remained large on the softer slopes leading to the most difficult closure of 3 km.
The two -digit gradients have bitten at the top of the climb, which means that the best favorites and the best Giro climbers paved the way for the first time in this year’s race.
Rafał Majka took over for the Emirates-XRG water team at 2.5 km, the pole working for Juan Ayuso and Adam Yates like Egan Bernal, Primož Roglic, Antonio Tiberi (Victorious Bahrain) and Giulio Ciccone followed near.
1.5 km to travel, the leading group had slipped to around 20 men, while Ciccone hit shortly after to launch GC’s attacks. Bernal was the fastest to react, bringing the Italian return before his teammate of ineos Thymen Arensman took over to lead the group in the last kilometer.
The Dutchman pulled to the 800 -meter marker, how much Bernal launched his move. Behind the Colombian champion, Del Toro, Ciccone and Tiberi aligned themselves in pursuit, while Roglič was rarely in shooting and certainly not taking the initiative at the front.
Instead, Ayuso won the greatest blow. The 22-year-old Spanish accelerated from the seventh wheel, maneuvering in front of Max Poole (Picnic-Postnl) and the twinning of Bahrain of Tiberi and Damiano Caruso before passing Ciccone, Bernal and Del Toro.
Once Ayuso struck the front, there was no return for his rivals, with his incomparable rhythm on the race until the arrival.
Del Toro passed in front of Ciccone and Bernal to seal a two for the water at the line, while Bernal retained Roglič on the more flat finish to complete the stage podium.
Results
Results fed by First cycle
