Place Name: Via Piana
Address: Via Piana 201, 66014 Crecchio Chieti, Italy
Details: April 15, 2025
The four day stage race of Il Giro d'Abruzzo gets underway for the 36th edition after having been rekindled last season from a 15 year absence. It's a good opportunity for teams like Q36.5, Tudor Pro Cycling, Polti-VisitMalta, and VF-Group Bardiani CSF-Faizanè to get some racing in Italy before the Giro d'Italia comes in just 3 weeks time. Stage 1 leaves Scerni and heads for the coast to Casalbordino Lido before going back inland to take on the 12KM climb of Bocca Di Valle halfway through the stage. The difficulties continue with six uncategorized climbs before the final 1.3KM up to the hilltop town of Crecchio.
Diego Bracalente of MBH Bank Ballan CSB, Cristian Remelli of General Store-Essegibi-F.Lli Curia and Matteo Zurlo of S.C. Padovani Polo Cherry Bank made the break after about 25KM, Zurol won the only KOM atop Bocca Di Valle and with 79KM to go, they had 3 minutes on the a peloton led by Intermarché-Wanty and Israel-Premier Tech. With 65KM to go, Remelli took a sharp inside line on a left turn and crashed quite heavily. He was able to get back up but could not rejoin the break. That left just two riders in the front which gave the peloton one bonus second available for the taking at the upcoming Intermediate Sprint at 48.5KM to go.
Zurlo won the sprint at the top of an uncategorized climb in Ripa Teatina at 48KM to go with Bracalente in second. Attacks from VF-Group Bardiani CSF-Faizanè and Polti-VisitMalta went but it was David de la Cruz of Q36.5 that held off George Bennett of Israel-Premier Tech to take the final bonus second. The acceleration closed down the gap to 1 minute 40 seconds at the top. Ben Granger of Mg.K Vis Costruzioni e Ambiente slipped away on the descent and with 41KM to go, he had 25 seconds on the bunch and 1 minute to close to get to the two leaders. The gap continued to come down though as the riders turned left and right on the twisting roads through beautiful forests and vineyards.
The gap disappeared when UAE-XRG started pulling in the peloton on the 2.4KM climb to Ari. The average grade was nearly 8% and the back door was wide open in the bunch as many riders called it a day. Granger was caught, then the two leaders and everything was back together with 32.5KM to race. By the top, the group was down to around 40 riders but UAE-XRG let up the pace which set off attacks. A group of eight riders got away with Israel-Premier Tech and Tudor Pro Cycling being the main teams missing out. The group contained Louis Meintjes of Intermarché-Wanty, Luca Cretti of MBH Bank Ballan CSB, Damien Howson and Harm Vanhoucke of Q36.5, Alessandro Tonelli and Ludovico Crescioli of Polti-VisitMalta, Ivo Oliveira of UAE-XRG. and Martin Marcellusi of VF-Group Bardiani CSF-Faizanè. Moritz Kretschy of Israel-Premier Tech did a mountain of work but he did not have help from any other team which allowed the gap to slowly grow to over 30 seconds with 20KM to go.
JCL Team UKYO put a man on the front a few kilometers later but it Oliveira not taking consistent pulls in the break which caused disharmony and the group to disintegrate. Polti-VisitMalta tried to take him off the back and the gap started to come down. UAE-XRG changed tactic and started riding in the bunch but they seemed to lose control on the Tollo climb 10KM from the finish. Oliveira was dropped from the break and a group of five chasers broke clear of the peloton with no UAE-XRG riders in it. The counter attack stalled though and the bunch was just 10 seconds behind the front group with 7KM to go.
Rune Herregodts of UAE-XRG closed the final meters to bring the race back together. Polti-VisitMalta had numbers and started to ride in the peloton to bring the race to the bottom of the final hill for one last explosive effort to finish. UAE-XRG led through 700M and Alessandro Covi went with 275M to go. Filippo Fiorelli of VF-Group Bardiani CSF-Faizanè turned himself inside out to close the gap but Covi never waned. He took the win ahead of Fiorelli with Alessandro Fancellu of JCl Team UKYO in third. 10 riders finished on the same time and 17 were within 7 seconds which keeps the GC quite open with three difficult stages to come.
Tags: Il Giro d'Abruzzo, 2025, April, Stage 1, Il Giro d'Abruzzo 2025, Scerni, Crecchio, Diego Bracalente, Cristian Remelli, Matteo Zurlo, David de la Cruz, Ben Granger, Louis Meintjes, Luca Cretti, Damien Howson, Harm Vanhoucke, Alessandro Tonelli, Ludovico Crescioli, Ivo Oliveira, Martin Marcellusi, Moritz Kretschy, Rune Herregodts, Alessandro Covi, Filippo Fiorelli, Alessandro Fancellu