Tour of the Alps 2025 Stage 1

April 21, 2025 The build for the Giro d'Italia continues with five stages of the Tour of the Alps in the Süd Tyrol between Italy and Austria. There are some big stages this week and it all kicks off with 3,100M of elevation over 148 kilometers, starting and finishing in San Lorenzo Dorsino. The first of two categorized climbs is the Campo Carlo Magno that sits about halfway through the stage and is over 14KM long at around 6%. The second comes 20KM to the finish up the Passo Del Durone, a 6KM climb at almost 8%. The riders will then plunge down to Ponte Arche where they start the upward run to the finish which should see a group of GC favorites come in together. The peloton rolled out under cloudy skies, chilly conditions, and damp roads. A group of three got away including Andrew August of Ineos, Finlay Pickering of Bahrain-Victorious, and Davide Bais of Polti-VisitMalta. They had 3 minutes 40 seconds as they neared the top of Campo Carlo Magno with 61KM to go with Lidl-Trek controlling behind. The descent was nice and dry but it was a pedaling descent. The break was able to extended their gap to around 4 minutes as they got off the descent and to the false flat downhill along side the Sarca River. Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe took on the pace making in the bunch. The time gaps were not reliable, going from 4 minutes to 2 minutes then all the way down to just 55 seconds, which made it difficult to work out where the groups actually were. We finally got clear pictures as August and Bais were being caught with 25.5KM to go at the start of the Passo Del Durone. The first move came from Eddie Dunbar of Jayco AlUla who attacked with 3.5KM to climb. He made it up to Pickering but Sam Oomen of Lidl-Trek had them pegged at just a few seconds. Alessio Martinelli of VF-Group Bardiani CSF-Faizanè bridged up but that was one too many riders and Israel-Premier Tech shut it down. About 35 riders were still in contention with 2KM to climb with the group in a bit of a stand-off. Paul Double of Jayco AlUla broke the calm with his attack and was joined by Alex Cepeda of EF-Education EasyPost. Paul Seixas of Decathlon AG2R came across to Double but Cepeda had gone off solo ahead. Over the top, Cepeda was 10 seconds in front of Seixas and Double with the rest of the favorites at 25 seconds. The race came back together with 10KM to go near the bottom of the wide, sweeping descent into Ponte Arche. Mattia Bais of Polti-VisitMalta went on the attack as the road started to rise 8.5KM from the line. The camera pictures went out after Bais attacked so it was difficult to know what was going on but it was confirmed to be 10 seconds with 3KM to go. Pictures came back with 1500M to go and Bais had been caught. Lidl-Trek were keeping the pace fast but the group was still at least 25 riders strong. Lidl-Trek lost control as Cepeda and Felix Gall of Decathlon AG2R were attacking. Max Poole of Picnic-PostNL picked up the pace and started his sprint around the final corner alongside Gall and Giulio Ciccone of Lidl-Trek. Ciconne's speed was unmatched by the group of climbers and as he crossed the line, he threw his glasses into the crowd in celebration. Gall and Seixas came across together for second third on the stage for Decathlon AG2R. Nine riders finished on the same time but there were over 20 riders within 20 seconds which keeps the race nicely poised for the coming days.