Tour of the Alps 2025 Stage 2

April 22, 2025 Stage 2 from Mezzolombardo to Sterzing is not a summit finish but it might just be the hardest stage of the race. It is a 178KM route that has three categorized climbs and six major climbs in total that add up to over 4,300M of elevation gain, the second most in this race in 15 years. The first and longest climb is the Monte San Pietro at 19KM in length at 6% average. After the climb and descent of the Castelrotto at around 80KM from the finish, the riders start a long false flat valley road for nearly 40KM before starting the first of two ascents of the Telva Di Sopra which is 4.2KM at 7%. The second time up it comes just 10KM from the finish in Sterzing. The riders left the vineyards of Mezzolombardo under perfectly clear skies for a daunting mountain journey. Finlay Pickering of Bahrain Victorious, Koen Bouwman of Jayco AlUla, and Lukas Meiler of Vorarlberg made up the break of the day. With 75KM to go, Meiler had been dropped and the break was 4 minutes up the road ahead of the peloton. The long valley road constantly dragged upwards and with the intent of Picnic-PostNL, the gap was tumbling. In a well-lit tunnel with 63KM to go, a touch of wheels in the bunch brought down a few riders. Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe and Ineos seemed to be most affected and unfortunately, Salvatore Puccio of Ineos was forced to abandon with a broken wrist which could put his Giro d'Italia in jeopardy. The gap continued to come down and was only 60 seconds through the Intermediate Sprint in Fortezza. Picnic-PostNL took their foot off the pedal for a moment and counter attacks tried to go up the road. Manuele Tarozzi of VF-Group Bardiani CSF-Faizanè was the first to go with a group of eight coming across with Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe tracking it down from the peloton. Tarozzi and the chase group joined the original break with 50.5KM to go to make 11 at the front. The bunch was ragged but the race came back together 1500M later. Decathlon AG2R started the day with just five riders but they managed to ride a pace high enough to slow down the attacking and restore some calm into race. The race for positioning began with 37KM to go with riders spread wide across the road. Ineos led into Sterzing and through the finish line to start Telva Di Sopra for the first time. Polti-VisitMalta were keen to push the pace but halfway up, the majority of the peloton were still in contact. Geoffrey Bouchard of Decathlon AG2R took a long pull on the front and when he swung off 700M from the top, only about 12 riders were in the front split. The group swelled to around 20 by the top to take on the technical descent back to the finish line. The group doubled in size by the bottom and it was a large group that started the Telva Di Sopra for the second time with 15KM to go. Israel-Premier Tech rode from the bottom but it was Bouchard again that started to ride at almost the same point as lap last. Pre-race favorites Thymen Arensman of Ineos and Derek Gee of Israel-Premier Tech, and plenty of others, were jettisoned from the group. Bouchard pulled off and Decathlon AG2R didn't seem to know if Paul Seixas or Felix Gall should be the one to attack. Seixas finally started pulling but Michael Storer of Tudor Pro Cycling put in an attack that only Seixas, Gall, and race leader Giulio Ciccone of Lidl-Trek could follow. Storer put in another attack with 600M to climb and no one could follow this time. Romain Bardet of Picnic-PostNL, Jai Hindley of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe, and Alex Cepeda of EF-Education EasyPost joined Gall, Seixas, and Ciccone for the descent. Storer had 12 seconds but the gap grew as the group hesitated with the chase. On the flat road to the finish line, Max Poole of Picnic-PostNL, Davide Piganzoli of Polti-VisitMalta, and Damiano Caruso of Bahrain Victorious joined the chase group to make nine but Storer had extended his gap to 20 seconds with 2KM to go. Storer entered Sterzing and put his hands up for the second time this season. The clock kept ticking and when Seixas led the chase group in with Bardet in third, the gap was 41 seconds to Storer. The Australian now leads the GC by 41 seconds to Seixas with Ciccone in third on the same time.