Gran Premio città di Peccioli - Coppa Sabatini 2025

September 11, 2025 The structure of the Gran Premio città di Peccioli - Coppa Sabatini is similar to the other Italian races we have seen in recent days with hilly circuits but today is less about sustained effort and more about repeated supra threshold efforts. The 198KM race starts from the scenic Tuscan hilltop town of Piccioli in the Province of Pisa and is mainly comprised of a 25KM lap taken on five times. On each lap are three climbs, the Terricciola, Muro di Peccioli, and Montefoscoli. The Terricciola is 3.7KM at 3.1%, the Muro di Peccioli is 900M at 10.5%, and Montefoscoli is 800M at 11.5%. The last time up Montefoscoli comes 56KM from the finish but the climbing isn't done yet. On the sixth time around, the riders will have the Terricciola and Muro di Peccioli again but then take a diversion up 1.4KM at 6% on the Viale Risorgimento through Peccioli to get two laps to go. The final two laps are 12KM long and only contain the rise on the Viale Risorgimento but there should be enough fatigue built up that only a solo rider or small group will come to the base of the Viale Risorgimento on the final lap. Live coverage began on the final descent of the Terricciola when we got to see that eight riders were in the break including Alexandre Balmer of Solution Tech-Vini Fantini, Samuele Zoccarato of Polti-VisitMalta, Valentin Retailleau of TotalEnergies, Simon Dalby of Uno-X Mobility, Edgar David Cadena of Petrolike, and Edoardo Cipollini, Luca Cretti, and Ben Granger of MBH Bank Ballan. They still had 2 minutes 10 seconds with 40KM to go with the last ascent of the Muro di Peccioli approaching. UAE-XRG led into the Muro di Peccioli like a sprint lead out but it was EF-Education EasyPost that pushed the pace on the climb. A group of nine big names split from the peloton and it was a mad scramble behind on the descent to get back to the favorites group which contained Marc Hirschi of Tudor Pro Cycling, Isaac del Toro and Jan Christen of UAE-XRG, Natnael Tesfatsion of Movistar, Richard Carapaz of EF-Education EasyPost, Christian Scaroni of XDS-Astana, Benjamin Thomas of Cofidis, Pau Miquel of Equipo Kern Pharma, and Alexandre Delettre of TotalEnergies. The gap between the favorites group and the break tumbled to 35 seconds with 28KM to go. Up the Viale Risorgimento and through the finish line for the first time, the favorites group was within 10 seconds of the original break with the chasing peloton at nearly half a minute behind. The favorites group hung around 15 seconds behind the break and didn't show much cohesion or interest to ride together which allowed Davide Piganzoli of Polti-VisitMalta and Francesco Busatto of Intermarché-Wanty to bridge up from the peloton with one other rider in tow. Up front, Balmer and Cadena broke clear from the tiring break with 19KM to go to try and make it over the penultimate ascent of the Viale Risorgimento before the favorites reached them. Balmer and Cadena were swept up with 13KM to go in the first 100M of the climb. Zoccarato rode nearly the entire way up on the front but through the finish line, Christen attacked. The move stretched the group but Christen was caught and the favorites were all together on the flat road after the descent. As expected, there was significant discord among the favorites and with 7KM to go, Thomas attacked with del Toro and Granger who was still hanging around after being in the early break. Hirschi, Capapaz, and Scaroni were the main riders trying to pull the leaders back but with 1KM before the turn onto the final climb, the gap was 20 seconds and they would not be contending for the win. Granger led into the climb but del Toro took over with 600M to go. Interestingly, Thomas went to the front which might have been his undoing because he then had to look over shoulder to see where del Toro was. At 400M, Thomas looked back to the left and del Toro hit him with an attack on the right. By the time Thomas could react, he was two bike lengths behind and he would not catch the Mexican. Del Toro crossed the line to win his third race in a row with Thomas in second and Granger taking third after being in the break all day.