October 3, 2025
After three sprint finishes, the fast men will be nowhere to be seen at the front of the race today. Across the 190KM of racing between Krk and Labin, there is nearly 3,700M of climbing making it by far the hardest stage this week. The riders set out from Krk on the eponymously named island and will find that there is hardly a meter of flat road the entire day. The road rolls across the island of Krk for the first 55KM, bringing the riders to the Krk bridge and back to mainland Croatia where they immediately start a 1.8KM climb at nearly 6%. An intermediate sprint in Viškovo sits atop a 5KM climb at 3.7% which is less than 15KM before the biggest test of the race. The Poklon climb is 11.3KM at 6% but the last 4.5KM are over 7.5% and with it coming 82KM from the finish, it likely won't be decisive but it will soften up the legs. A long descent into Krsan for the intermediate sprint comes before the race reaches the cobbled climb up to the finish in Labin for the first of two passages. The GC riders will need to gather themselves because the 3.4KM climb to Skitačaat averages over 11% and will certainly force open gaps. From the top, the road continues to undulate back around for the last climb up to Labin and the finish line.
The weather was cool and clear at the start and not nearly as much wind as we saw in previous days. The early break went with Swann Gloux of Arkéa-B&B Hotels, Javier Ibáñez of Caja Rural-Seguros RGA, Axel van der Tuuk of Metec-SOLARWATT, and Zsombor Palumby of United Shipping but they would not last long because on the Poklon climb, they were caught by the peloton led by Bahrain Victorious who carried on the high pace down the decent. With 70KM to go, a group had formed off the front comprised of around 10 riders with another 30 riders chasing at 5 seconds. Behind, groups of five to ten riders were scattered across the road trying to get back into contention. The front two groups came together and UAE-XRG took control to calm the race down before the finale kicked off with the last few climbs.
Bahrain Victorious led out Edoardo Zambanini for the intermediate sprint in Krsan but it was Brandon McNulty of UAE-XRG that took the bonus seconds ahead of Zambanini and Danny van Poppel of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe. UAE-XRG lost control of the race as attacks started flying on the false flat drag through Krsan. A group of eight riders formed which consisted of Jakob Omrzel of Bahrain Victorious, Diego Uriarte of Equipo Kern Pharma, Ben Turner of Ineos, Floris Van Tricht of Israel-Premier Tech, Joan Bou of Caja Rural-Seguros RGA, Alessandro Tonelli of Polti-VisitMalta, Pepijn Reinderink of Soudal Quickstep, and Tim Wellens of UAE-XRG who was just patrolling and skipping turns.
With Wellens sitting on, the cohesion in the group was not great. They managed to build a 35 seconds lead with 40KM to go as UAE-XRG lined out the bunch to bring the front group back. Reinderink and Van Tricht got away from the other six who were reabsorbed into the peloton with 38KM to go. Van Tricht led through the finish line in Labin a few kilometers later but the peloton were closing in just 5 seconds behind. The catch was made and Ineos took over the pace setting in the main group all the way to the bottom of the steep Skitača climb at 24.5KM to go. UAE-XRG went to the front with Wellens and it wasn't long before the bunch was shredded. McNulty attacked and with him was Omrzel as well as Michał Kwiatkowski of Ineos and Filippo Zana of Jayco AlUla. McNulty set the pace up the narrow road with the brilliant blue water of the Adriatic in distance. He rode his pace which was higher than the others could handle and was alone with 2KM still to climb.
McNulty crested Skitača at 21KM to go with a gap of around 35 seconds to Zana and Omrzel and another 10 seconds to a slightly larger group. Near the bottom of the descent, Omrzel and Zana were caught by the chase group to make nine riders at 50 seconds behind McNulty. More riders joined the first chase group but it didn't gain any more momentum but the gap only went out. With 5KM to go, the chase fractured with Kwiatkowski, Zambanini, and Joel Nicolau of Caja Rural-Seguros RGA going clear of the rest to close down the 1 minute 20 seconds deficit to McNulty. It wasn't to be for the chase however because McNulty soloed home to the victory and added 20 seconds in the process. Zambanini beat Kwiatkowski in the sprint for second with Nicolau coming in a few seconds later for fourth.
McNulty now has a commanding lead in the GC of 1 minute 39 seconds on Zambanini and 1 minute 49 seconds on Kwiatkowski. Given his climbing dominance today, McNulty should be able to manage whatever is thrown at him tomorrow with such a large buffer to play with.