Place Name: Via Aremogna
Address: Via Aremogna 48, 67037 Roccaraso L'Aquila, Italy
Details: April 17, 2025
Winter was not ready to let go and pushed in a cold and wet system to ruin the great weather we have had for the first two days. A tough day made even tougher by the parcours. There is over 2,800M of elevation on the 160KM between San Demetrio ne' Vestini and Roccaraso. The stage profile is a series of steps that only go higher with fewer descending kilometers than climbing. There are four main climbs on the route, three of which are categorized. The first categorized climb is Forca Caruso, 13.6KM at 4.5%, the next is Gioia Vecchio, 14KM at nearly 5%, and the final one is Roccaraso, a whopping 16KM at 5.3% with the last 2.5KM at over 7% to the finish line. The GC should certainly see a shake up by the end of the day.
A group of five riders consisting of Moritz Kretschy of Israel-Premier Tech, Ben Granger of Mg.K Vis Costruzioni e Ambiente, Federico Guzzo of S.C. Padovani Polo Cherry Bank, Rune Herregodts of UAE-XRG, and Martin Marcellusi of VF-Group Bardiani CSF-Faizanè made the break after around 20KM of racing. The start was dry but by the time the break was on the Gioia Vecchio, rain was pouring down. Guzzo took the Mountains Points along the route which was enough to take over the virtual lead from Samuele Zoccarato. Tudor Pro Cycling and Q36.5 were riding behind at 2 minutes with 57KM to go. The gap started to increase slightly out to 2 minutes 40 seconds as the riders rode passed the stunning Lago Di Barrea at the base of the uncategorized climb of Colle Della Crocce.
Granger, Marcellusi, and Herregodts were the last three riders from the break. They started the ascent of Roccaraso after the town of Castel di Sangro with 16KM to go and a 2 minute lead. Israel-Premier Tech set a tough pace from the bottom which cut the group to around 25 riders with 13.5KM still to climb. Only the leaders were left in the peloton by 11KM to go leaving no one to set a pace. Edison Alejandro Callejas of Petrolike went on the attack and was quickly out of sight. David de la Cruz of Q36.5, Pablo Torres of UAE-XRG, and Mathys Rondel of Tudor Pro Cycling got away in a counter attack as Callejas bridged to the break and went right passed with 8.7KM to go. He was 30 seconds ahead of the de la Cruz group and nearly one minute ahead of the rest of the GC riders.
Georg Zimmermann of Intermarché-Wanty attacked the GC group with 7.5KM to go but he was marked and caught by the GC group. He attacked again just outside of 6KM to go and broke the elastic with the rest of the GC riders and made contact with the de la Cruz group at 5KM to go, still 40 seconds down on Callejas. Once Zimmermann got up to the group, they stopped riding as well together and with 2KM to go, the writing on the was clear that Callejas was not going to be caught. He winched himself up the final steep 500M for the win, the first of his career and really the only result he has had to date and a truly great day for the Petrolike squad. De la Cruz, Torres, Zimmermann, and Rondel only separated in the last 200M when Zimmermann attacked. No one could follow the German and he came across the line in second, 40 seconds after Callejas. De la Cruz was third, six seconds down on Zimmermann, with Torres and Rondel following soon after.
With the time gaps and bonus seconds added up, Zimmermann moves into the GC lead 11 seconds ahead of de la Cruz and 18 seconds on Torres with one stage remaining.
Tags: Il Giro d'Abruzzo, 2025, April, Stage 3, Il Giro d'Abruzzo 2025, San Demetrio ne' Vestini, Roccaraso, Moritz Kretschy, Ben Granger, Federico Guzzo, Rune Herregodts, Martin Marcellusi, Edison Alejandro Callejas, David de la Cruz, Pablo Torres, Mathys Rondel, Georg Zimmermann