Giro d'Italia 2025 Stage 13

May 23, 2025 We are entirely within the Veneto today for 180KM of racing between Rovigo and Vicenza. The first two-thirds of the stage is almost entirely flat with the exception of the category 4 climb of the Passo Roverello after around 30KM of racing. Two Intermediate Sprints, one in Noventa Vicentina and San Bonifacio, come before the finale kicks off with an uncategorized climb followed directly by the category 4 climb to San Giovanni in Monte which is 5KM at 6.5%. The riders then enter Vicenza and pass over the finishing climb of Mount Berico before doing a 20KM lap to the South of Vicenza. The Redbull Golden Kilometer sits atop Arcugnano with 10KM to go with a fast run back into Vicenza for the second time up the 800M, 7.5% climb to Mount Berico. Philippe Gilbert won on this finish ahead of GC riders ten years ago so it is likely that we will get something similar today. The start was very active with many teams trying to make the break. A group of nine riders got away after 12KM of racing including Luca Mozzato of Arkéa-B&B Hotels, Fran Miholjević of Bahrain Victorious, Dries De Bondt of Decathlon AG2R, Sven Erik Bystrøm and Lorenzo Germani of Groupama-FDJ, Lorenzo Milesi of Movistar, Chris Hamilton of Picnic-PostNL, Mattia Bais of Polti-VisitMalta, Filippo Magli of VF-Group Bardiani CSF-Faizanè. Soudal Quickstep wanted to be in the move but the group worked extremely well and the gap went out too quickly for anyone else to latch on. Edoardo Affini of Visma-Lease a Bike, Emils Liepins of Q36.5, and Jacopo Mosca of Lidl-Trek all went to work on the front once the gap got to 1 minute 45 seconds. The gap eeked out to 2 minutes 20 seconds through the beautiful cobbled streets of Noventa Vicentina where Bais took the Intermediate Sprint. The gap was down to 1 minute 40 seconds as the race wound it's way through the Soave wine region with vineyards taking up every square inch of available space. The peloton were moving at a fast clip to keep the gap constant but the mood really changed on the approach to the uncategorized climb before San Giovanni in Monte. GC teams were all pushing forward which caused the gap to drop to just 1 minute with 57KM to go. Ineos ripped it up over the top and down the descent and, with 50KM to go at the start of San Giovanni in Monte, the break was caught with the exception of Germani. The was so high and with tight, winding roads, there were major splits in the peloton. The gas came off with 46KM to go, 1KM before the top of San Giovanni in Monte, as the gradient eased a little. The group regained riders from only about 30 to over 50 by the top. Christian Scaroni of XDS-Astana jumped across to Germani and the pair had 10 seconds as they started the steep and technical descent. At the bottom, the race had settled and the peloton was more or less back together. The gap to Scaroni and Germani grew to 55 seconds as they entered the circuit with 25.5KM to go. Scaroni led the break up Mount Berico for the first time and through the bell with Germani dropping off by a few bike lengths. The peloton backed off on the way up but the gap was coming down to around 30 seconds. Germani got back to Scaroni and it was UAE-XRG who took control of the bunch on the way to the Redbull Golden Kilometer. The leaders started the 1800M climb up to Arcugnano and, after a hard day in the early break, Germani was dropped with 1KM to go to the top. The action kicked off in the peloton when Isaac del Toro of UAE-XRG made his move to take the bonus seconds. His teammate Juan Ayuso went with him and they got a gap on the other GC riders. Scaroni took the 6 seconds. Del Toro sat up to allow Ayuso to take 4 second with del Toro sweeping up the final 2 seconds. Scaroni was caught and passed right after the summit of Arcugnano and the bunch started the descent for the final 10KM of racing. Romain Bardet of Picnic-PostNL and Mathias Vacek of Lidl-Trek broke away off the descent as others were looking around and quickly got a 10 second lead. Alpecin-Deceuninck and Visma-Lease a Bike got organized and started riding but Vacek and Bardet had 15 seconds under 3KM to go. Alpecin-Deceuninck had numbers and brought the leaders back with 600M to go on the steep pitches of Mount Berico as the stage contenders were waiting, biding their time. Quinten Hermans of Alpecin-Deceuninck took up the charge with 500M to go and was still on the front at 250M from the line. Mads Pedersen of Lidl-Trek was the first to make a move, jumping from fourth wheel on a steep section and came around Hermans. Wout van Aert of Visma-Lease a Bike and del Toro were the only other riders able to follow. Pedersen powered to the front and chewed up meter after meter out of the saddle. Van Aert tried his hardest to come over the top but Pedersen was too strong and took his fourth stage win and the fifth for Lidl-Trek in this Giro. Van Aert came across in second with del Toro grabbed third place and taking four more bonus seconds as well as a 3 second gap back to the group with the rest of the GC riders.