Giro d'Italia 2025 Stage 15

May 25, 2025 The second week of the Giro draws to a close with another difficult stage. The first 100KM of the 219KM route between Fiume Veneto and Asiago are flat as almost all of the 3,800M of elevation is gained in the second half of the stage. Both Intermediate Sprints take place in this section of the race in San Martino Colle Umberto and Possagno. The real action will kick off through Romano d'Ezzelino where the famous Monte Grappa starts. It's a fierce climb of 25KM at almost 6%. A long descent into Calpo starts a 20KM breather before the Passo Dori which is 16.5KM at over 5%. The Redbull Golden Kilometer comes 6KM from the top which is 27KM before the finish in Asiago bit there is no descent off of the Passo Dori, it's a rolling plateau which could make the GC race tactical if things have split up at this point. The race was fast and aggressive when the flag dropped with the first 30 minutes averaging 54KM/HR. It was still together when Mads Pedersen of Lidl-Trek took the first Intermediate Sprint in San Martino Colle Umberto. The race entered the Prosecco DOC with four riders out front. Patrick Konrad of Lidl-Trek, Mattia Bais of Polti-VisitMalta, Lorenzo Milesi of Movistar, and Michael Hepburn of Jayco AlUla broke clear after the Intermediate Sprint but there were teams behind that were not happy with the group. The category 4 climb of Muro Di Ca' Del Poggio started with 175KM to go. Crowds were thick on the steep slopes through the vineyards. Large groups split with the four leaders being caught and the attacking continued to force a break. Antonio Tiberi of Bahrain Victorious was stuck in a group 50 seconds off of the back of the race and would have been hoping a break went sooner rather than later. An enormous group went with 150KM to go. The group was around 40 riders and included Einer Rubio of Movistar who started the day 14th overall 4 minutes 26 seconds down. The break quickly built a 1 minute 40 second lead. The group of favorites took a moment sat up giving the Tiberi group a chance to get back on. UAE-XRG set a pace in the bunch which allowed the break to get 3 minutes 30 seconds up the road at the start of Monte Grappa with 115KM to go. Nicola Conci of XDS-Astana, Davide De Pretto of Jayco AlUla, and Mathias Vacek of Lid-Trek got away right before the climb started and had a 35 second head start on the rest of the breakaway. Movistar rode on the front from the bottom of the climb for Rubio's GC and caught the three leaders still with 17KM to climb. 10KM later, the gap had come down to 2 minutes 50 seconds. Georg Steinhauser of EF-Education EasyPost broke the entente cordiale by being the first attacker on the climb. Mountains Classification leader Lorenzo Fortunato of XDS-Astana went in pursuit and joined the German. Most of the break caught back on but the action was happening behind in the peloton. Ineos put the hammer down when Juan Ayuso of UAE-XRG was coming back after a mechanical issue. Ayuso was back in contact but Ineos kept pushing. With 1.8KM to climb, Egan Bernal of Ineos went on the attack and was immediately followed by race leader Isaac del Toro of UAE-XRG. Richard Carapaz of EF-Education EasyPost jumped across and soon Thymen Arensman of Ineos came over with Derek Gee of Israel-Premier Tech. Oddly, UAE-XRG continued to ride in the peloton as del Toro was pulled away up the road. In the break, Fortunato picked up 40 points at the top and solidified his ownership of that classification but the Bernal/del Toro group was coming at just 1 minute behind with the rest of the favorites at 20 seconds further back. All but Bassano del Grappa native Marco Frigo of Israel-Premier Tech were caught from the break by the Bernal/del Toro group halfway down the descent. The rest of the GC favorites also got back on at 72KM to go with plenty of descending still to come. Frigo hit the bottom of the descent with 65KM to go, 30 seconds ahead of the peloton with 20KM of flat before the Passo Dori. UAE-XRG set a pace on the valley road but a series of attacks came from riders in the original break and a new group formed consisting of Pello Bilbao of Bahrain Victorious, Nicolas Prodhomme of Decathlon AG2R, Carlos Verona of Lidl-Trek, Gianmarco Garofoli of Soudal Quickstep, Filippo Zana of Jayco AlUla, Filippo Fiorelli of VF-Group Bardiani CSF-Faizanè, and Christian Scaroni of XDS-Astana. Bart Lemmen of Visma-Lease a Bike, Florian Stork of Tudor Pro Cycling, and Romain Bardet of Picnic-PostNL Joined a few kilometers later and with 57KM to go, Frigo was caught and the group of 11 were working to establish a gap before the Passo Dori. The break started Passo Dori with a healthy 3 minute 30 second advantage. After just 1KM of climbing, Verona attacked with no immediate reaction from the others. Garofoli bridged up but could only hold Verona's wheel for a moment before Verona was off again. With 10KM to climb, Verona had pulled out 50 seconds on the main chase group but was paired back to 35 seconds through the Redbull Golden Kilometer as Garofoli and Zana joined forces in the chase. At the top, Verona led over with Garofoli and Zana just 10 seconds behind. 10 seconds is all the closer they would get however because Verona put it in another gear over the top and powered to victory for just the second time in his 14 year career. It give Lidl-Trek yet another stage win, now 6 in this Giro. Stork snagged second place with Scaroni sprinting behind for third. In the peloton, Ineos came to the front of the bunch but relinquished control to UAE-XRG after the Redbull Golden Kilometer. EF-Education EasyPost took their turn and with 2.5KM to climb, Carapaz attacked. Twelve riders were able to latch on but Primož Roglič of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe was missing. None of the favorites had teammates with the exception of UAE-XRG. Carapaz, Gee, and Simon Yates of Visma-Lease a Bike all tried attacking but the favorites were knotted together by the top with 27KM still to race with the exception of Roglič who was straining at 1 minute back. The GC group rode hard but together into the finish and by the end of the day, they had put 1 minute 30 seconds into Roglič which pushed him down to 10th overall at 3 minutes 53 seconds.